In one of the iconic scenes of legal drama “Suits”, Jessica Pearson asks Harvey about his internal sufferings. Quote, “For God’s sake, what the hell happened to you? What kind of damage was done to you?” I wish people engaging in the legal profession had asked the same question to the makers of the series. Other than personal damage, nothing else explains the extremely false picture of the working of the Justice system.
Mike Ross and magic around him
Suits is a wonderful drama. But I would not use the phrase “legal drama”, because there is nothing legal in it. It was clear right from the first episode of the Suits series. Remember the hiring process of Mike Ross? He just stumbles onto Donna and the finest secretaries to the finest lawyer in the city finds a potential criminal apt to work as junior to the maverick Harvey. Even the iconic Harvey Spectre does not find anything wrong in hiring an obvious fraud.
His 2-decades experience tells him to hire Mike for his brilliance and eidetic memory. For Harvey, young Mike was way better than young Harvey. Ironically, Harvey Spectre does not foresee Mike becoming a superstar in upcoming years. He fails to foresee Mike appearing on TV interviews and media asking him about college life. This belies common sense.
It gets even more intriguing when Mike’s fraud is caught. He is offered a reduced sentence and is rehired by another company and subsequently Harvey himself.
Mike’s life as a lawyer is shown to be the epitome of how the legal system works. He is shown reading hundreds of pages in one night, sleeping on office floors and then presenting cases as if a decades old expert would do. But this does not occur in real life. A young lawyer has to fight tooth and nail to present the case before a Judge. Apparently, Harvey’s blessings are shown to be good enough for him.
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Harvey’s superhuman handling of legal system and firm’s politics
Even Harvey is shown as a one-shot closure man. The hearing of his cases does not extend much beyond 5 minutes. There is rarely any credible counter argument to Harvey. Let me tell you, it does happen to lawyers in real life, but not with the top ones like Harvey. A top lawyer like Harvey chooses to argue only when there is an opponent of same or more stature and experience in the legal circle.
Even in Suits series, Harvey rarely argues in Court. Instead, he relies on out of the Court settlement in most of the cases. Harvey’s charisma is at full display in these Alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms. Top brass of the top companies are seen trying to backstab each-other.
The role of lawyers like Harvey and others in his fights are limited to becoming an archer who provides poisonous legal armaments to their clients. Mike takes the role of researcher and Harvey handles negotiating with either the owner or the lawyer of the firm.
Incidentally, most of these deals belonging to “big boys club” only go to Harvey. This infuriates others and there is a lot of backstabbing involved. The amount of enmity among friends is good enough to render the law firm inefficient, irresponsible and fraudulent to their client.
But Harvey’s firm is magical. The infighting and war-like atmosphere does not have any negative impact on juniors, senior lawyers and overall credibility of the firm. Harvey keeps on enjoying parties, attending to the top echelons of the corporate world and sleeps with whichever woman he wants to.
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Objectification of women
This is another big concern with the Suits series. The objectification of women is a thing which they have not even tried to hide. The women in the series are shown subordinate and subject to male chauvinism in a blatant way. Donna surrenders her life to the daily needs of Harvey Spectre. Okay, you may say that Harvey was senior to her and even a male secretary would do that.
Then how would you explain Mike overshadowing Rachel, who is obviously senior to him in the firm? Forget Mike and Rachel, does it not shake your conscience that Jessica Pearson, a woman, is the head of the firm but Harvey Spectre, a man, is face of the firm, both in series as well as for the audience? Moreover, women characters in Suits series are shown as continuously talking about their male counterparts, as if they had no existence of their own.
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The Suits series has too many faults to count at once. It is a hit not because it’s brilliant, but because western culture as a whole is missing the swag represented by Gabriel Matcht.
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