Secretaries / Administrative Assistants, Television

Standard Of Review: Suits Is Back, Sans Secretary

Cultural critic Harry Graff dives headfirst into the new season of Suits -- does he like it any better now?

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When I wrote about the previous season of Suits earlier this year, I explained that even though I was not a regular Suits viewer, I would attempt to give the show a fair shot. Unfortunately, while there were certain elements that I liked, I found Suits on balance to be fairly unrealistic, vapid, and unenjoyable. However, I was not prepared for the passionate response of the show’s fanbase, which has apparently reached a Lost circa 2010-like level of enthusiasm. I probably received more emails regarding that column than all my other articles combined, including one email that was essentially a point-by-point rebuttal of my column, Fire Joe Morgan-style. I had no intention of ever writing about Suits again, but I changed my mind due to the passionate response of the fans. Accordingly, I am going to dive headfirst into the new season, which premiered this past Wednesday (and this column will contain spoilers for that first episode).

The beginning of the fifth season of Suits primarily focuses on the fallout from the end of the fourth season, in which lead character Harvey Specter’s (Gabriel Macht) longtime secretary Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) leaves him to work for fellow partner Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman) due to Harvey and Donna’s personal feelings for one another.

The episode begins in media res, as Harvey describes a disturbing dream regarding Donna to his therapist, making me wonder whether Suits was trying to be more like The Sopranos (which I would totally support). Harvey has been having panic attacks due to Donna’s move to Louis (another Sopranos allusion! If the next episode is all about ducks, David Chase might need to ask Suits for royalties), and the narrative flashes back six weeks to explore Harvey’s journey as he eventually comes to accept the fact that Donna is no longer his secretary. Unfortunately, this framing device was mostly distracting and added nothing to the plot. The episode would have been the exact same if it had been told via a traditional narrative (though this episode has nothing on The Imitation Game – which I finally saw for the first time – in terms of pointless framing devices).

The episode centers almost entirely around secretary-related drama. Harvey and associate Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams, back in his regular day job and not romancing Helena on Orphan Black) are called in to save a trucking company that is about to declare bankruptcy, and part of their plan involves contacting each of the company’s creditors. But due to the fact that Harvey has not hired Donna’s replacement, there is a printing SNAFU that causes Harvey and Mike to miss the second page of the creditor list containing one additional name. This mistake almost causes the entire plan to backfire. I appreciated this twist because, as an associate, I constantly fret about that kind of silly printing mistake that could cost a client millions of dollars. However, everyone (including Harvey himself) inexplicably blames this mistake on Harvey for not hiring a new secretary, despite the fact that any one of the characters could have viewed the list on their computers and realized the mistake (though, to be fair, every lawyer on Suits uses the tiniest computers known to mankind, so perhaps they would not have even seen the last creditor).

Meanwhile, Donna spends most of the episode dealing with Louis’s wild mood swings as he is concerned that Donna will leave him and return to being Harvey’s secretary. I like the cool confidence that Rafferty brings to Donna’s character, and that could make an interesting contrast to the high-strung Louis. But I hope that the show uses this relationship to humanize Louis instead of making fun of him. As I complained about in the spring, I think the show is better when it treats Louis seriously, not as a mechanism for comic relief. This episode – while occasionally playing Louis’s anxiety for laughs – did at least attempt to provide depth to Louis’s character, particularly his abandonment issues.

As for Mike, his big moment at the end of last season is that he proposed to his girlfriend, paralegal and law student Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle). This season premiere does not spend much time on this plotline; Rachel spends most of the episode as Harvey’s surrogate secretary, and even skips one of her law school exams to help him (this was borderline unfathomable; how would she explain to her professor that she voluntarily skipped an exam because her boss stubbornly refuses to hire a new secretary?). I assume that the show will focus on their upcoming nuptials as the season goes on (which I am sure will be a somewhat less-than-enthralling plot).

Due to the aforementioned passion of the show’s fans, and the fact that it is the summer, I plan to review Suits on an episodic or semi-episodic basis (though due to the fact that the show airs on Wednesday and I write on Thursdays, my reviews will be a week behind). But I have had my fill with secretary drama. At one point in the episode, Harvey’s therapist tells him that “these episodes are going to keep happening until you accept the fact that Donna isn’t coming back.” I really hope this was not a meta-critique on the show’s future (though, in that case, maybe it is trying to be more like The Sopranos!).

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Earlier: Standard Of Review: Suits Doesn’t Suit Me

Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

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