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United States 'Suits LA': What to Expect From the Spinoff (and Remember From ...
Wait, is Suits really back? You bet your goddamn ass it is.
After the USA Network legal drama exploded on Netflix and racked up 57.7 billion minutes watched in 2023, creator Aaron Korsh is expanding the Suits universe with a second spinoff — this time, set on the West Coast. Suits LA, which premieres Sunday on NBC, will feature a new set of lawyers attempting to recapture the hallmarks of the original series: impossibly sharp intellect, edgy and witty dialogue and, yes, impeccably tailored suits and high fashion.
Given that the new spinoff offers very little carry-over in terms of characters, viewers could theoretically tune into the L.A.-based spinoff without having watched any of its predecessors. But they would be seriously depriving themselves of the addictive, cozy comforts of the original series. Whether you watched the mothership during its initial run on cable from 2011 to 2019, or during the “summer of Suits” craze amid the Hollywood strikes a couple years ago (or any other time in between), here’s a pocket-sized primer about what to remember heading into the next chapter of Korsh’s legal drama.
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The original Suits told the story of debonair super lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), who, in his capacity as a senior partner at a top Manhattan corporate law firm, decided to hire Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) as his new associate. The catch? Despite having an insane photographic memory, Mike never graduated from college, let alone from Harvard Law School — which was one of the hiring requirements of the firm co-founded and managed by the indomitable Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres).
As they struggled to keep Mike’s lack of credentials under wraps from their own colleagues and then the rest of the world at large, Harvey and Mike became one of television’s most beloved dynamic duos. With their signature banter (and penchant for quoting old movies to each other), the characters have even compared themselves to the likes of Batman and Robin and Butch and Sundance. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter last year, Adams credited the enduring success of the dynamic between Mike and Harvey to a variety of factors, including his and Macht’s own close friendship and the inherent complications of a mentor-mentee relationship.
While Harvey and Mike were the beating heart (and Jessica, the fearsome lioness) of Suits, the show’s ensemble formed its strong backbone:
- Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman), Harvey’s petulant, heart-on-his-sleeve frenemy, became the kind of character audiences loved to hate, or even grew to love. Sure, Louis may have used Mike’s secret to blackmail his way into becoming a name partner in the middle of season four (among a litany of other offenses), but his eccentricities — namely his love for ballet, theater and mudding — and his struggles to find a lasting romantic relationship were, at the very least, endearing to watch.
- Initially slated to appear in only a few episodes, Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) became an important foil for Harvey — first as his all-knowing secretary and then as a chief executive of the firm. Donna’s will-they-won’t-they relationship with Harvey remained a constant until the end of the eighth season, at which point they both realized that their one true love has been in front of them for over a decade.
- In her final role before marrying into the British Royal Family, Meghan Markle starred as Rachel Zane, a brilliant paralegal-turned-lawyer whose on-again, off-again relationship with Mike formed most of the romantic intrigue of the first four seasons. As the show progressed, the writers seemed intent on making Rachel break down in tears every few episodes — usually about Mike or her own career, which was inevitably affected in some way by Mike’s fraudulent behavior.
- Following the departures of Torres (in season six) and Adams and Markle (in season seven) from the series regular cast, Suits promoted Amanda Schull (Katrina Bennett) and Dulé Hill (Alex Williams) and cast Katherine Heigl in the role of Samantha Wheeler. All three senior partners were promoted to name partners alongside Louis by the end of the series.
Over the course of nine seasons and 134 episodes, the embattled firm at the center of Suits weathered a string of scandals, power plays, coups and promotions. The company underwent two mergers and at least 12 name changes (we all know “Pearson Specter Litt” was the best combination of name partners). Two managing partners — Jessica in season six, Rachel’s father Robert Zane (Wendell Pierce) in season eight — were disbarred in order to protect Mike and Harvey’s own ability to practice law. The firm’s legal minds waged war against shady billionaires (Eric Roberts’ Charles Forstman); federal prosecutors (Leslie Hope’s Anita Gibbs); the SEC (Neal McDonough’s Sean Cahill, Zeljko Ivanek’s Eric Woodall); dangerous criminals (Paul Schulze’s Frank Gallo); and even the District Attorney’s office, Harvey’s former employer.
After flip-flopping between wanting to be a lawyer and not wanting to put the rest of the firm at risk, Mike was formally arrested and charged with fraud in the middle of season five. Following a tumultuous trial, Mike decided to take a plea deal to prevent Gibbs from going after his colleagues, but he learned after the fact that the jury was actually planning to rule in his favor. (Talk about a gut punch.) In season six, Mike served a couple months in a white-collar prison and traded valuable intel on Gallo in exchange for an early release.
While Harvey worked to get Mike out of prison, Rachel and Jessica joined forces to free an innocent man from death row. The case reminded Jessica of the reason she became a lawyer in the first place — to help those who are disadvantaged and marginalized — and she made the difficult decision to leave the firm and New York behind. She decided to move to Chicago, where she got her own one-season spinoff, Pearson, and became a fixer in the dirty world of politics. (Torres recently told THR that Pearson was the show that she set out to make: “I had often said that whereas Suits was about the top 5 percent, I wanted Pearson to be about everybody else.”)
After Jessica returned in the season six finale to take the fall for Mike’s hiring in a character hearing, Mike was officially admitted to the bar. At the end of the following season, Mike and Rachel got married and moved to Seattle to run a firm that only takes class-action lawsuits against Fortune 500 companies. In the series finale, after Harvey makes a deal to resign in exchange for the departure of iron-fisted managing partner Faye Richardson (Denise Crosby), Harvey and Donna — who decided to get married on a whim after Louis’ wedding was interrupted by his wife going into labor — decide to reunite with their best friends on the West Coast. Fittingly, after beginning their partnership working for some of the biggest names on Wall Street, Harvey and Mike have chosen to dedicate themselves to fighting for “the little guys” for a change.
Harvey Hands Over the Baton to Ted
Nearly six years after the end of Suits and Pearson, NBC is not-so-subtly attempting to capitalize on the franchise’s resurgence with a spinoff built around a character from Harvey’s past: Ted Black (Stephen Amell). In the second episode, Ted and his old friend Kevin (Troy Winbush) talk about Harvey, whom Kevin describes as “the only person I know cockier than” Ted. As it turns out, Harvey and Ted worked together at the DA’s office before the former left to work for Jessica.
Here is a list of what else you should and should not expect from the new offshoot:
- Expect some original cast cameos — just not a certain Duchess of Sussex. Any iteration of Suits wouldn’t feel like Suits without an appearance from one of the OGs. THR has confirmed that Macht will appear in three of the 13 episodes of Suits LA, as a kind of ceremonial passing of the baton from Harvey to Ted. Torres recently told THR that she has not had any conversations about reprising Jessica, but has expressed her willingness to do so. Likewise, Adams and Rafferty, who are currently hosting a Suits (re)watch podcast, and Hoffman have all expressed interest in suiting up again, but Hoffman stressed that the LA cast needs time to find its footing first. One person who very likely won’t be returning is Markle, who, in a 2022 interview, stated that she does not intend to go back to acting.
- Don’t expect a repeat of Harvey and Mike. Rather than choosing to make Suits LA another two-hander, Korsh has opted to have a single lead and a rotating cast of series regulars, including Lex Scott Davis and Bryan Greenberg, and recurring players. Even though Ted and his criminal defense partner Stuart Lane (Josh McDermitt) may be best friends, the events of the pilot make it clear that they are in very different places — both personally and professionally speaking.
- Expect to hear “Greenback Boogie.” The iconic earworm by Ima Robot will be reimagined with a new opening credits sequence.
- But don’t expect as many “goddamns” or coarse language. We are on a broadcast network now, after all. There will sadly be no characters yelling out “Bullshit!” in the middle of a contract negotiation or a deposition, but there may be some substitutes for that colorful language.
- Expect another big secret to eat away at the lead, but this time a story that plays out across two timelines. Ted may have reinvented himself as a lawyer for the biggest names in entertainment, but his sordid past as a federal prosecutor — and the reason he moved across the country — will come back to haunt him.
Suits LA premieres Sunday, Feb. 23 at 9 p.m. on NBC, streaming the next day on Peacock.
