Rant on #Suits here. Goes without saying, but spoilers, not that in my opinion anything so noteworthy happens that spoiling it would be bad anyway. And if you feel the same feel free to join. Plus Im not criticising anyone who still enjoys it at all, everyone can enjoy whatever shows they like - in fact Im envious of the people who have been enjoying this season as much as the previous ones. Here goes... Season 3 was already slightly... meh, but Season 4 just took contrived plotting to a whole new level. A good plot should never seem like everything was set up so particularly, *just so* the conflict or story-driving element can happen. But then you have Season 4 - where Mikes first big case just so happens to have competition from someone who just so happens to be Harveys client. Whatever. But then it turns out that client just so happens to have history with his competitions girlfriend, and by the way that girlfriend now happens to be working directly under Harvey. Oh and Jessica also just happens to be seeing a guy from the SEC, who was asked to go after her firm, and who then left to join her firm. Whaaat. And of course all the completely predictable drama and conflict ensues. And it just looks like ALL of that was engineered so that they could undo Season 3s pretty brilliant (in my opinion) way of keeping Mikes secret from dominating the story again and again and again. Which brings me to my next point. Suits doesnt seem able to commit to being either a great case-of-the-week show, or a competent serialised one. Season 1 was a weekly thing, and it was pretty good. Season 2 was sort of in between, and it was pretty damn good too. Season 3 was more heavily serialised, but it felt like that one murder case dragged a bit - but I think the way it played back logically to the whole merger business was still a decent enough resolution (although by now Suits is establishing a bad habit of having their characters resolve things by conveniently making big logical leaps). And the end of Season 3 promised a potentially interesting future for the show. Mike gets to strike out on his own a bit and be independent. Rachel finally gets to go to law school, where hopefully she gets to graduate from insecurity to a bit more badassery and not just be the token love interest subplot whose problems all revolve around Mike. Harvey has to work alone again, and maybe be forced to confront the fact that he isnt as much of a lone wolf as hed like to think. And best of all, the writers wouldnt have to keep making Mikes secret such a big plot point, AND wed still get lots of Harvey-Mike interaction since theyre now lawyer and client. But then along comes Season 4, where it seems like every plot development was constructed to eventually get Mike fired and back at his old job. There had to be some personal drama to it so Mike would lose his shit a bit, hence the whole coincidence with Rachel and Logan. Then obviously Forstman has to be brought in as an excuse to have characters cut more dramatic shady deals, and as a convenient way to bring up connections with other characters (most recently Woodall, as we just found out). And then of course the deal has to fall through AND Mike has to find out about Rachel and Logan, so that hed be desperate enough to go to Forstman for a job, just to Louis would stumble on him and hire him back to save him. Meanwhile the whole SEC plotline was just dragging along, until it became clear that the whole Mike-leaves-then-comes-back subplot was JUST so the SEC would then have a case! And why wouldnt they be suspicious. If in real life you saw that scenario unfold - former employee working one side of a takeover deal while his girlfriend works for the ex-boss and whose ex-lover is on the other side of the deal - youd suspect collusion too. But of course, as of episode 9 all this goes out the window anyway because they made a logical leap and connected Woodall with Forstman - so after getting fired, Woodalll conveniently gets snared by Forstman, whom Mike and later Louis will approach? And all just to get at Harvey? Maybe. But anyway, the upshot is that it looks like the firm will be just fine (again). Some people are theorising that in the midseason finale Mike will let Louis in on his secret, to give him leverage thatll allow him to work at the firm again. If that really does happen, itll mean that this whole season was just a huge long detour to finally allow another character to be in on Mikes secret - in other words, the same as every past season. *Sigh* Its not that they *have* to have the characters become different or do different things, but theyre trying to do season-long story arcs without being willing to actually have those bigger stories mean anything. If thats the case theyd be better off sticking to weekly standalone cases, since Im sure we all enjoy the witty banter much more than the bickering drama, which is pretty much all weve gotten for a while. If they do want to stick to expanding the world of Suits, theres plenty they could do. How about showing us the other partners at the firm? Watching the show youd only think there are three. How about the other associates - are there really no other interesting characters there? Does Mike have no more friends? There used to be Harold, till they ditched him... there was Kyle, an actual rival for Mike, till everyone suddenly forgot about him. Or how about showing us Rachel at law school and making us feel like shes got her own life now? By not even bothering with that, it just feels like they (again) contrived the part-time work + school thing as a convenient way for her to get her degree without actually being absent from the firm. And as for Louis, well, for anyone else whos a fan of him it really just seems like hes been the most shafted character on the show. Yeah, you have the never-changing Harvey and Jessica, who after some brief development have settled on swinging between cocky, emotional and kind. And yeah, you have the on-and-off again Mike-Rachel thing. But Louis actually had the most interesting character arc, and they made an asshole boss stereotype a much more layered human being. Then they made him a cartoon - yes, its interesting how hes plagued by the need for validation, and its cool how he isnt shy about his more unconventional interests. But they took him too far that way - are we really supposed to buy that hed lose his shit because of the whole cat and letters thing? No offence meant to anyone who works on the show, because its still something I enjoy a lot and Ill be tuning in every week for the foreseeable future. The cast remain excellent. But its just a little frustrating because Suits has (to me) managed to avoid the usual pitfalls of contrived melodrama usually reserved for soaps. It just feels like they want to be more ambitious, but insist on playing it safe. Mike leaving the firm was a risk, and it couldve been great. But they decided to backtrack on that one. Well see what happens next week. It may be that Im wrong about them taking risks and theyll just blow everything up next week. It wont quite negate what I feel about this seasons setup being too specifically constructed, but itll be something. Im rooting for the show to properly shake things up and give us the same sort of kickass finales theyve given us before. Thoughts?
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 09:00:37 +0000
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