Suits = Psych meets White Collar.
Mark Twain’ The Prince and the Pauper illustrates the shortcomings of England’s 19th century justice system by presenting two complimentary characters who embody drastically different positions within the hierarchy of that system.
In a lot of ways, Suits is like that.
I had a brief flirtation with my alma mater’s pre-law track as an undergraduate. I liked arguing with people and I liked being right about everything. I knew that I didn’t want to use my shiny new English degree to shove Shakespeare down the throats of reluctant 10th graders, but I also didn’t want to go crawling back to the McJob I’d run away from screaming as soon as I received my acceptance letter.
I spent about ten minutes glancing over an L-SAT study guide before conceding defeat and slouching back to the poetry club with my tail between my legs.
Now, if I had a memory like Mike Ross, I might be admiring the pinstripes on my $2,000 suit right now, rather than clambering for attention on the Internet, but as it stands, even with an impressive eidetic memory and the uncanny ability to talk himself out of prison and into a job with a prestigious Manhattan law firm, Mike’s wardrobe isn’t anything to write home about either.
Patrick J. Adams, known mostly for a dizzying array of guest spots on pretty much every TV show ever, is Mike Ross, a “genius loser” who already scored a 180 on his own L-SAT (because someone dared him to), and now offers his less-than-legal test-taking services to actual law students to pay the rent after his participation in a money-making scheme masterminded by his best friend, non-genius loser Trevor, gets him kicked out of college.
Also? His sagely grandmother is “getting worse” in a private care facility and if Mike can’t find a way to finance her continued care, she will be getting evicted to a state facility that I can only imagine is run by the likes of Nurse Ratched, if Mike’s expression is anything to judge by. I’m pegging Grandma for a goner before the season is over, and you know what? I’m going to be sad when the end comes. Grandma is awesome. She’s that grandma who knows that you’re a screw-up, and she really loves you, she does, but seriously, stop being a screw-up. I’m already mentally preparing for the inevitable torrent of tears into my trusty bag of Doritos.
So, after having a little heart-to-heart with Grandma, Mike comes to the conclusion that he’s “gotta stop getting stoned” and he’s “gotta get [his] act together.” You know, after he sells that briefcase full of bud for loser BFF Trevor. That Hilton of hospices isn’t going to finance itself, you know.
Of course, Mike gets caught. Of course he does. It’s how our pauper meets his prince.
We already met Gabriel Macht’s Harvey Specter twenty minutes earlier in an exchange orchestrated solely to introduce us to the crown prince of Pearson-Hartman. Harvey is suave personified. He dresses “like a pimp” and his hair is perfectly coiffed, slick and thick with nary a strand out of place.
Harvey outsmarts a priggish client, vocalizes, repeatedly, that his firm “doesn’t operate on bad faith,” knocks a smug co-worker down a few pegs, flirts with his bombshell boss (Gina Torres of Firefly fame), wins a game of poker, and bangs a cocktail waitress… all within his first ten minutes of screen time.
Despite the fact that he never actually went to law school, Mike manages to impress Harvey so much during his interview/evasion of police that Harvey decides to hire him anyway and worry about the details later.
Presumably, those details, particularly that whole never-attended-law-school thing, will become a problem later on this season. In the meantime, Suits tackles what I assume will be standard fare from here on out: a case needs to be solved, a sympathetic party has been wronged, and our boys need to set things right. This week, it’s a sexual harassment case in which a pervy corporate boss fires his attractive single mom secretary after she spurns his advances.
Do I really have to tell you who wins?
The Suits pilot, like most pilots, is all about introducing us to the characters that we’re supposed to care about for the length of the season. Mike is a no-brainer, with his tragedy-laden past and sick grandmother; it’s not hard to cheer for him from the opening credits onward. Harvey is certainly more of a challenge to cast in a sympathetic light and, in this episode at least, paying attention to dialogue is essential.
From the beginning, Harvey is adamant that his law firm is a paragon of the justice system. He rationalizes his promotion over a co-worker with more seniority and experience by maintaining that he isn’t a bully like him. When confronted about lying to a client, Harvey argues, “I lied to him to get him to do the right thing!”
At the same time, Harvey is quick to dismiss Mike’s repeated claims that he “cares” about him and their clients. Harvey states that he isn’t about “caring” for clients, but he is for “winning” cases. He dismisses the kind gesture of referring Mike to his “suit guy”, not as an attempt to help Mike fit in with his label-clad peers so much as saving himself the embarrassment of being followed around by an apprentice dressed in bargain-bin threads, “You are a reflection of me and I absolutely care about me.”
Sure, Harvey, and the fact that Zoe Washburn/Jessica Pearson spends an entire monologue enthralling the audience with her knowledge of your past, how she “took an interest” in you and financed your entire trip through Harvard Law School – that’s all irrelevant, right?
Right… and that puts more information about Harvey Specter’s past at the top of my list of wants for the remainder of Suits’ inaugural season. I’m also certain that we haven’t seen the last of loser-friend Trevor, despite Mike’s assertion that they are no longer friends and he doesn’t want him in his life anymore.
There was a lot of touchy-feely action between Mike and Trevor’s-Blonde-Girlfriend, for the two of them to just go away. Besides, we need someone around to tempt Mike back to his old life. If he isn’t tempted, then Mike’s journey is far too easy. This show just started, kids. No one is allowed to emerge victorious yet.
Some stats and info about Suits, “Pilot”
TV SHOW – Suits
SEASON/EPISODE – Season 1, Episode 1
AIRED ON – August 18th, 2011
NETWORK/STREAMING SERVICE – USA/Netflix
GENRE – Drama, Legal Dramas, Office Culture
CREATED BY – Aaron Korsh
CAST – Gabriel Macht, Rick Hoffman, Sarah Rafferty, Patrick J. Adams, Meghan Markle, Gina Torres
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.