Reading American critics’ reviews had made me think that ‘Suits’ was going to be a slog, and while you should never think too deeply about what’s going on, a slog it is not. Leads Patrick J. Adams and Gabriel Macht have an easy chemistry and natural charm, although it still baffles me how often in the pilot they aren’t in scenes together, as the show really clicks when they are.
Macht (The Spirit) stars as Harvey Specter, a flashy attorney who is ‘the best closer in town’. This seems to be based more on reputation than actual evidence, as he spends most of his time in the pilot screwing up. Through some contrived plotting he meets Mike Ross, (Adams) a pot-smoking screw-up who also happens to be a genius. He hires Ross to join his legal firm despite the fact he’s never been to law school and they begin to close cases together.
And that’s it, really. There are other people who populate the law firm like Gina Torres (Firefly) as their boss and Rick Hoffman as a lawyer so incredibly prissy and annoying he makes Macht’s character look like a self-deprecating, humble street urchin – and that’s probably the idea – but really this show is about whether you like the two leads and want to see them do the legal equivalent of solve crimes together. The writing is unspectacular, the women are smart, attractive and underwritten, and the cases are nothing to write home about. It’s all down to whether you like the characters.
Personally, I started out not liking either of them but begrudgingly accepted they were a watchable duo in the end – and maybe liking them a little bit. Sure, Gabriel Macht may be playing a played-straight version of Barney Stinson and Adams is like a straighter-laced Aaron Paul from Breaking Bad, but they make decent, inoffensive, frothy viewing.
Just don't think too hard about it.
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