Suits – The end is the beginning

As you’ve noticed, I love writing about television — not just giving my opinion like most critics, but dissecting it, talking about themes, motifs, meanings, pacing and all the other things that I think of when I’m on the other side of the line writing my next teleplay. I love that show that makes me as excited as a writer, as it does as a viewer. The highest compliment I can give Suits is that these last four episodes of season one have made me wish I was back in college, so that I could pen another twenty-odd-page thesis about this show.

Not unlike last week’s brilliant episode, “Dogfight” for me begins and ends with Harvey Specter. Is he an egotistical jackass? Yes, he is. Yet is he also a complex, fully fleshed out human being? Yes, he is. And would I trust him to defend me in court? Yes, I would.

If you needed some more convincing, it’s clear from the courtroom scenes here that Harvey really is a damn good lawyer. It was easy for me to recognize the qualities that made him an effective assistant district attorney. It’s not a cakewalk conveying that skill set on television (just ask Dominic Rowan, who’s working on that over on Law & Order: UK), but Gabriel Macht has proven that what we’ve been told about Harvey isn’t hyperbole.

In fact, Macht has proven a lot about his acting chops this season, and he continued to do so in the finale. Here, he pulled off his greatest accomplishment yet — eschewing everything other actors would have relied on in a season-ender, and showing us even more about his character than they would have. “Dogfight” is chock full of scenes that actors would drool over, rife for drama, or emotion, or that one big attention-grabbing moment. Yet it’s almost as if he doesn’t care, because he gives a controlled performance that keeps Harvey perfectly in character the entire hour.

Harvey will admit to Clifford (Neil Brown Jr.) that he’s wrong, but he doesn’t need Clifford’s forgiveness. He’ll confront Donna about going over his head to Jessica, but he doesn’t need to yell about it. And he’ll show uneasiness with Jessica when talking about Donna’s breach of trust, but he won’t emote over it. The Harvey Specter we know and love is not that type of man. It would be out of character for him to have the big moments that are almost expected in a season finale.

Yet in the absence of those scenes, we come away with just as much about Harvey’s character as if they had existed. My personal favorite moment is the one in which Harvey is trying to bait Clifford into hitting him. While it’s obvious that he’s playing things up to push Clifford into acting, it’s simultaneously apparent that there’s self-loathing in his words. The vulnerability we saw last week wasn’t just a one-episode stunt. He admits to Mike (Patrick J. Adams) that he doesn’t know what to do. And his face when he’s apologizing to Donna … okay, it’s wonderfully adorable but it also shows another side of him. Yet he also tells her, “Don’t push it,” reminding us that while he is a human being, that humanity will always be hiding behind certain walls.

The controlled yet still incredibly revealing performance shows again that Macht isn’t just a good actor, but even better, one that’s given considerable thought to his character. With the work he’s done this season, he’s definitely established himself as someone who can lead a project.

“Dogfight” also wraps up the ‘origin story’ of the partnership between Mike and Harvey, by showing us that they have really become partners. It’s very clear how their relationship has changed since the pilot. The Harvey that we met early on probably wouldn’t trust Mike enough to step out of the room when he’s asked to do so. I’m not even sure he’d let Mike borrow his phone. Yet both those things happen in this episode.

And while the banter between them about thinking alike is hilarious (Harvey: “I don’t want you thinking like me.” Mike: “Now you know how the rest of us feel.”), it shows that Mike’s learned from Harvey … to a point. His missing a later one-liner from his boss gives us a hint that while it’s time for this first chapter of the story to end, Mike still has a lot to pick up on, so that relationship will continue to evolve. After all, Harvey still hasn’t let go of Mike’s loss in housing court — which is a nice bit of continuity, besides.

We’re also treated to great scenes between many of our regulars. It’s particularly a great episode for Donna, who holds her own in a pleasantly not-overdramatic confrontation with Harvey, and then later tells a curious Rachel that she’s never been romantically involved with him. Sarah Rafferty deserves kudos for playing Donna as a strong woman who is Harvey’s equal and unafraid to remind him of that — without the cliche sexual tension between them. It’s great to see that platonic relationship between a man and a woman, and it’s enhanced by the fact that the actors have been friends for two decades, which brings a natural chemistry beyond anything that could possibly be on the page.

The one aspect of the finale that I disagree with is its cliffhanger ending. I loathe cliffhangers, because they usually don’t get resolved well, and this one is both problematic and a little eyebrow-raising. Yes, Trevor (Tom Lipinski) has an axe to grind and deservedly so, but despite what Mike says about him earlier in the episode, I’m not convinced that it’s big enough for him to go to Jessica (Gina Torres). Something about that makes me feel like he skipped a few steps on the retribution ladder.

That’s the least of my worries, though. I’m more concerned about the larger picture. If Trevor drops too large a bombshell, what does that mean for the foundation of the show? If he doesn’t drop a big enough bombshell, is that cheating the audience? I don’t think the finale needed a cliffhanger, and I’m not sure this specific one is a good idea, but that’s something that I’ll have to revisit when season two debuts and we see how it plays out.

Other than the cliffhanger, “Dogfight” is an entertaining and, almost more importantly, efficient episode. It pays off not just the story arc that Suits set up in the previous episode, but also wraps up the first season as a whole, sending the message that we’ve told the origin story and now it’s time to move into the next chapters of these characters’ lives.

It’s also a microcosm for what really makes a lasting TV series. The banter is witty and the people are pretty, but that only goes so far. Underneath all that, Suits has given us characters who grew into the kind of people that we want to spend time with — and figure out. It’s impossible not to love a show that’s found a way to stick in my consciousness well after the credits roll.

Until next summer, I’ll be over here trying to decipher Harvey Specter, and enjoying every minute of it.

Clacked by Brittany Frederick
on Sep 10, 2011 @ 08:54 EST5EDT