To watch or not to watch, that is the question.
This entry may be cheating.
Because unlike the other shows on this list, I have consumed an absurd amount of Suits.
I have watched short clips.
I have watched long clips.
I have watched compilations.
I have watched “Harvey Ross destroys arrogant lawyer” clips.
I have watched “Mike Ross has a photographic memory” clips.
I have watched “Donna knows everything before everyone else” clips.
If the official YouTube channel uploads the exact same scene with a different title, there is a very real chance I will watch it again. At this point, I haven’t watched Suits. I’ve watched Suits: Highlights Edition.
Last year, I probably spent more time watching Suits clips than some people spent watching the actual show.
And yet…
Will I sit down and watch nine seasons?
Absolutely not.
The attraction is obvious. Mike Ross is intriguing. A fraud with a genius memory is a fantastic premise. Harvey Specter has enough confidence to power a medium-sized city. Donna appears capable of running the firm, the legal profession, and possibly several governments simultaneously. And every time Harvey walks into a room and starts verbally dismantling someone, I can feel my pulse quicken slightly.
The show understands spectacle.
The problem is that after enough clips, patterns begin to emerge.
For example:
Why are Harvey and Mike always the smartest people in the room?
Every opponent arrives with a terrifying reputation. Every opponent is introduced as a legal shark. Every opponent has decades of experience. Every opponent has defeated countless rivals. And then thirty minutes later they’re being outmanoeuvred by a man who didn’t even go to law school. The show keeps telling me these people are elite lawyers. The show keeps showing me people who seem surprisingly easy to trick.
One clip in particular pushed me over the edge.
Harvey pulls some clever payment-receipt manoeuvre right in front of Jessica and a client. And the scene is supposed to make us feel and react as though we have just witnessed legal sorcery. Meanwhile I’m sitting there wondering why neither Jessica nor the client thought of looking at the same piece of paper.
Which brings me to another recurring mystery.
Every case appears to be solved by a single document. Not a mountain of evidence. Not months of legal preparation. Not painstaking research.
One document.
One page.
One glance.
Suddenly someone’s eyes widen. The music changes. And the entire case flips upside down. Every.Freaking.Time.
It’s almost beautiful. The legal equivalent of finding a glowing treasure map hidden inside a filing cabinet.
And then there is Rachel. I realise she has many fans, I realise many viewers love her relationship with Mike, I realise I am probably about to upset those viewers. But I genuinely do not understand what Mike sees in her. And I was so upset, that I have scoured posts on reddit that confirm my theory: Rachel Zane is an unlikable character.
She cheats, she’s self-absorbed, she creates problems that somehow become everyone else’s responsibility. And yet the show treats this romance as though it were one of television’s great love stories.
Meanwhile I’m watching clips thinking: “Mike, my friend, there are literally thousands of women in New York.”
Perhaps the most remarkable thing about Suits is that despite all these complaints, I still enjoy it.
I enjoy Harvey.
I enjoy Mike.
I enjoy Donna.
I enjoy the confidence.
I enjoy the ridiculousness.
I enjoy watching people slam folders onto tables as though they contain nuclear launch codes.
I just don’t enjoy it enough to commit to nine seasons. So Suits occupies a unique category in my television life. I have watched enough clips to understand every character. I have watched enough clips to recognise every catchphrase. I have watched enough clips to know most of the major storylines. And yet I have somehow never watched the show.
Which may be the most Suits thing I’ve ever done.
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Shabana Mukhtar