Feb 10, 2017

[TV] Suits: Season 3

So I'm playing catch-up with reviews again and this time it's for the legal drama Suits. Looking back, I last reviewed Season 2 back in 2014 and since then the show has completed its fifth season and has a sixth on air at the time of this posting. So yeah it has been a while.

I never really expected to get into Suits since I don't proactively go out of my way to watch legal dramas for one reason or another. But this show did come with a rather interesting premise that sets it apart to some degree.

At the same time, a lot of shows focus on the weakness and inconsistency of characters. In this case the characters may have their flaws,but in the courtroom they're almost consistently kickass. It just goes to show that there will always be those scarily driven people who are capable of completely separating their personal lives from their professional ones to near lethal efficiency.

And that's probably why I keep up with this show. Plus Gina Torres. How can you not love her?

Synopsis: Suits is an American legal drama series created by Aaron Korsh for the USA network. The show has received multiple awards nominations over the years, primarily for acting.

The third season begins with the completion of the merger with Darby International. And as a first case, Darby endorses Dr. Ava Hessington (Michelle Fairley) to Harvey (Gabriel Macht). But it's not immediately clear if Dr. Hessington is truly guilty of the crime she has been accused of nor has Darby revealed why this case is so important beyond her being a friend. And this case goes on to define the direction of the first half of this season.

At the same time we have Lewis (Rick Hoffman) trying to work more closely with Mike (Patrick J. Adams) and things seeming to be going in that direction, at least initially. With things not being perfectly okay between Harvey and Mike, Lewis is certainly doing the best that he can to take advantage and draw Mike to his side.

What I Liked: Gina Torres is rather brilliant in this season as she does her best to get used to the new relationship with Darby. And the coincidence wasn't lost on me that we had Game of Thrones alumni Conleth Hill playing Edward Darby together with Fairley as Dr. Hessington. It added a different layer of enjoyment for me personally beyond the fact that of course they are all skilled actors in their own right.

This is also the season that we have Mike testing his relationship with Harvey and perhaps also establishing that he's not entirely dependent on him to be successful. Then you have Mike also juggling his relationship with Rachel (Meghan Markle), which has become the sort of new secret that they're trying to keep from Jessica and the other partners. And with Darby breathing down her neck for seemingly more and more control, it's clear that Jessica doesn't want to risk anything to chance including more people knowing of Mike's secret.

What Could Have Been Better: Mike's efforts to be his own man end up including his efforts to explore a life beyond his false practice of law. I'm not sure if Mike the investment banker was any better than Mike pretending to be a lawyer, but I'll state that a lot of the drama on that side of the fence felt a little unnecessary. And what is it with this show trying to establish that secretaries are universally successful and brilliant or something? It's like secretaries can do no wrong or something.

The Mike-Rachel romance is also not one of plot lines that I liked all that much. I apprecaited it as a means for political bargaining later on, but the relationship in itself just didn't strike me. And I feel worse for Rachel since it never seems like a good idea to get involved with Mike. And yet there she goes and it's like she's irrationally committed to him - or I just don't see the appeal give all the lies that get bandied about in the show.

TL;DR: The third season of Suits brings an interesting new dynamic with Darby International in the mix and maybe a bit of flair with all the new actors in the show. The series ends on an odd reversal of roles and does make for a good setup of what will come next. Thus the season gets 4 moments of Jessica being absolutely fierce out of a possible 5.



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