Jul 10, 2014

[TV] Suits: Season 2

So I wasn't quite expecting to get into Suits but the show has certainly grown on me in recent weeks. I'm not quite a fan of the Mike as a protagonist, but I'm pretty much in love with a lot of the other characters. They have a good thing going here.

The second season of Suits certainly worked on giving the show a bit more focus instead of the case-of-the-week format we'd expect from any legal drama in its first season. And they've certainly selected a great way to kick of this second season with one heck of a tension builder and a new "adversary" of sorts.

The show is an odd mix of legal jargon, movie quotes and a lot of moments of everyone trying to show off. Then again, this is a show about a law firm after all, so there are some pretty big egos to deal with in that sort of a situation. But it all comes together in a manner that makes sense and makes for pretty decent television.

And at the end of the day, I think I'm rooting for Harvey. Or maybe Jessica.

Synopsis: Suits is a legal drama created by Aaron Korsh for the USA Network. The show is already on its fourth season.

At the end of the first season, Managing Partner Jessica Pearson(Gina Torres) was approached by Trevor Evans (Tom Lipinski), who the best friend of Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams). Feeling slighted over the fact that Mike had gotten together with his ex-girlfriend Jenny (Vanessa Ray), he decided to tell Jessica to truth about Mike's law of actual law credentials. This second season kicks off with Jessica making her on inquiries into Mike's background including the ultimate test - a one-on-one dinner.

At the same time, Daniel Hardman (David Costabile) returns to the firm after the death of his wife. Thus we learn that Jessica and Harvey (Gabriel Macht) had previously gotten him to step away due to the fact that he had been embezzling money from the company and was engaged in an affair as well. But now he's back and Jessica is fully prepared for any efforts he's going to reclaim his former title of Managing Partner. Of course Daniel constantly proclaims he's a changed man, but folks are wary of what he represents. At the same time, Harvey is accused of burying evidence in a past case thus is under direct threat of disbarment.

The added element of Daniel Hardman certainly gives a new focus of the tension within the show. As much as they continue to tackle complex cases week after week, the bigger picture remains that Hardman is working to rebuild his empire and is constantly working to win more support for the inevitable vote to reclaim the role of Managing Partner.

Mike still tries to distract us from the main action of the show with his silly romantic side-stories. He spends a lot of the season still going through the whole "do I love Rachel?" (Meghan Markle) game and of course his usual efforts to hide his lack of credentials. Obviously I've never been all that interested in Mike's love life or perhaps even Mike in general. There are bigger fish to fry.

This season really steps up how much screen time Jessica gets, and thus we are graced with just how classy Gina Torres can be in terms of her portrayal of the feisty Managing Partner. I totally buy into how a character describes her as being "the chess player" given how she clearly understands how people work and leverages folks against one another in order to get what she wants. She's not evil per se, but she knows how to move people around the board as needed.

And this season really tries to dig into the Harvey-Donna (Sarah Rafferty) relationship, which admittedly I enjoyed a lot. Donna is probably one of my favorite characters on the show other than Jessica since she's also demonstrates a keen understanding of how people work and yet she uses this knowledge in very different ways when compared to Jessica. The fact that the show has two powerful female characters and yet is able to contrast how each uses their knowledge and wits is really credit to the writing off the show.

Suits is a smarter show than I originally gave it credit for and I continue to enjoy every minute of it. The first season was enough to get me interested but this second season got me hooked. Thus the season gets a good 4 moves and counter maneuvers between Jessica and Daniel out of a possible 5.



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