Suits, review: so why did the BBC buy this show? Meghan’s eye-popping performance is one clue... (2024)
Of all the things the BBC could be doing with your money, it is spending it on the decade-old US legal drama Suits. The cast features Gabriel Macht, Gina Torres, Patrick J Adams… oh, and an actress called Meghan Markle. You may have heard of her.
Suits is already available in the UK on Netflix, where it was the most streamed show of 2023, and yet here it is this week on iPlayer and BBC One and BBC Three. This is public service television, servicing the public with 24-hour access to the duch*ess of Sussex’s acting career.
I have watched the first two series of Suits, by which I mean I watched the first two episodes and then fast-forwarded through the next 26 to get to the Meghan bits. These take up about 10 minutes of each episode, and involve her wearing outfits so figure-hugging that I found myself wondering where I could purchase such seamless underwear. Luckily, the issue is addressed in episode nine when she explains: “I’m not wearing any underwear.” I’m sure this line is included only as helpful sartorial advice for female viewers.
Suits is set in New York law firm Pearson Hardman – New York being played here by Toronto – and Meghan is Rachel Zane, a whip-smart paralegal who could be one of the best lawyers in town if she could only stop flunking exams. She is the one likeable character in the show. The two leads are Harvey Specter (Macht), a smug senior partner wearing Michael Douglas’s hairdo from Wall Street, and Mike Ross (Adams), a baby-faced college dropout with a photographic memory. To use the parlance of this show, they’re both douchebags, although I think we’re supposed to find them charming.
The double-length pilot is breezily entertaining, with Mike accidentally gatecrashing a Pearson Hardman recruitment day while trying to evade the police during a botched drug deal. It’s implausible but fun. Within seconds Mike has confessed to being a) not a qualified lawyer, b) in possession of a briefcase full of marijuana, and these strike Harvey as the perfect credentials to become his new associate. It helps that Mike can recite every line from a legal textbook in a smart alec sort of way.
I wish it carried on in this vein but, like all procedurals, Suits must fill its episodes with cases, and these are dull. No matter: skip to the Meghan bits! Most of them seem to be based around the fact that she’s beautiful. Here is Rachel introducing herself to Mike. Rachel: “Hi, I’m Rachel Zane. I’ll be giving you your orientation.” Mike: “Wow, you’re pretty.” Rachel tells him off for ogling her, then sashays out of the office in a pencil skirt that Jessica Rabbit would have rejected for being too sexy. The casting notes for Rachel’s character presumably consisted of two words: “smart” and “hot”.
Really, Rachel deserves better than Mike, who looks about 14 years old, but the script dooms her to fall in love with him. Their relationship lasts for seven series, at which point Meghan found her prince and quit the show. In his memoir, Harry joked that he required electric shock therapy after googling his bride-to-be and finding a scene in which she and a castmate were “mauling each other in some sort of office or conference room. I didn’t need to see such things”. In which case I hope he has never seen the end of series two, which culminates in a positively acrobatic sex scene in a filing cupboard.
It’s not just them – almost every conversation in Suits is flirtatious and freighted with sex. Everyone is attractive. Even when Mike goes to the tailor, there’s a frisson with the woman taking his inside leg measurement. There’s something very dated about it. But perhaps that’s one of the reasons for the show’s popularity. Suits is easy-going, middle-of-the-road television that feels like it’s from a less complicated era. It has never troubled the Emmys or the Golden Globes, but neither have most of the programmes that people actually watch.
All nine series of Suits are available as a boxset on BBC iPlayer
The BBC has bought Meghan Markle's legal drama Suits for iPlayer after it became the most watched show on Netflix last year. The duch*ess of Sussex appears as paralegal Rachel Zane in the original show, which premiered in 2011 and came to an end in 2019, but she left in 2017 after her romance with Prince Harry took off.
The show, which aired on USA Network from 2011 to 2019, finished the year as the most streamed show of 2023, according to Nielsen data. The show spent a month in Netflix's top 10, but newfound fans hoping to binge the full show were met with an obstacle: Netflix does not have Season Nine available to stream.
She was drawn to Suits because of its sharp dialogue and the mixture of comedy, romance and dramatic plot twists. She also liked its array of female characters, including Jessica Pearson – the firm's no-nonsense managing partner, played by Gina Torres. "For the time, it was quite a diverse cast," she says.
The title "Suits" has three meanings: the clothing the characters wear, the lawsuits they handle, and the people who work in the business world. The women in the show also wear suits, expanding the meaning of the title to include them.
“During the course of season seven, as they were negotiating the cast's contracts for two years, an unforeseen thing happened,” Korsh said. “You can never know that one of your stars is going to marry the Prince of England, and Patrick decided not to return, so we had a choice whether to keep going after season seven.
Now, the “suit” has become casual-looking and has taken a back seat to more causal clothing styles like t-shirts and jeans. With globalization, American clothing standards have caused many other countries to emulate the same causal dressing styles, causing a decline in the “traditional” suit's use in daily life.
'Pearson' is a spin-off of 'Suits' that follows Jessica Pearson's life after leaving her New York law firm. Disbarred and seeking a new challenge, Jessica becomes a fixer for Chicago's mayor, navigating the city's complex political landscape. 'Pearson' was created by Aaron Korsh, the same mind behind 'Suits.
Mike's departure from Suits was a creative decision made by actor Patrick J.Adams because he believed his character's narrative arc was complete. Meghan Markle's departure from the show also influenced Mike's exit, as her impending duties as a member of the British Royal Family played a role in her decision to leave.
From attending weddings and birthday parties to press appearances and casual hangouts, the employees at Pearson Hardman - or Pearson Specter Litt, depending on where you are in your rewatch - are just as much of a family in real life.
Harvey's relationship with everyone on the show is different; almost everyone who meets him wants to get his respect and camaraderie. Harvey's influence in the law and on lawyers is immense, all the while having a great fan following, making him the most likable character on the show.
The TV series Suits teaches us some serious business lessons, focusing on how to succeed in entrepreneurial life. One of the main characters, corporate lawyer Harvey Specter, speaks of how most people settle for living just an average life. However, he aims higher.
While there's no real Harvey Specter in the real world, the skills and behaviours that make Harvey who is is ARE real and it's definitely possible to learn them. His skills are exaggerated for dramatic effect, but they are rooted in reality.
The BBC has purchased all nine seasons of hit legal dramaSuits, in a new deal with NBCUniversal. The news follows after the show enjoyed a highly successful year on Netflix, where it became the streaming giant's most-watched acquired show.
The inspiration for today's suits began at Royal Court in Britain, in an era when sumptuary regulations forbade commoners from donning "the royal purple", wearing good furs and flaunting embellishments made from satin and velvet. These types of finery were meant only for courtiers.
The suit's origins trace the simplified, sartorial standard established by the English king Charles II in the 17th century, following the example of his one-time host King Louis XIV's court at Versailles, who decreed that in the English Court men would wear a long coat, a waistcoat (then called a "petticoat"), a cravat ...
Introduction: My name is Velia Krajcik, I am a handsome, clean, lucky, gleaming, magnificent, proud, glorious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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