Suits Information

Suits is a USA Network television drama series created by Aaron Korsh, starring Patrick J. Adams as Michael "Mike" Ross and Gabriel Macht as Harvey Specter. The series, set at the fictional law firm Pearson/Hardman in New York City, follows Ross after he stumbles into a job interview with Specter, who is searching for an associate. Ross is undoubtedly the best candidate for the position, a position he obtains without having a law degree. The 12-episode first season debuted on June 23, 2011, with a 90-minute premiere. It was renewed for a second season of 16 episodes on August 11, 2011 which premiered on June 14, 2012 with the mid-season finale on August 23, 2012. The remaining 6 episodes of Season 2 began airing January 17, 2013 on USA and January 23 on Bravo Canada. On October 12, 2012, USA Network renewed Suits for a third season, to consist of 16 episodes.

Overview

Season 1 (2011)

Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) is a brilliant college dropout. With his natural intelligence and eidetic memory, he makes a living taking the LSAT and bar exam for others. To make the money he needs to keep his grandmother in a private nursing home, he agrees to deliver a case of marijuana for his best friend Trevor (Tom Lipinski). Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) is one of New York City's top corporate lawyers and is promoted to senior partner at Pearson Hardman - a law firm that hires only Harvard Law School graduates. He is forced by company policy to hire an associate attorney. Mike discovers that the drug delivery is a sting operation and escapes the police by accidentally sitting for an interview with Harvey. Harvey is impressed with Mike's quick wit, encyclopedic knowledge of law, and genuine desire to be an attorney; he hires Mike and pretends that Mike is a Harvard Law graduate. Only Harvey's legal secretary and confidant Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty) knows the secret.

At the firm, junior partner Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman), Harvey's jealous rival and direct supervisor of the associates, is suspicious of Mike's Harvard credentials. Meanwhile, Mike struggles to distance himself from Trevor, who has stopped dealing drugs but cannot escape his past. When Trevor leaves the state, Mike begins dating Trevor's ex-girlfriend Jenny Griffith (Vanessa Ray). Mike befriends paralegal Rachel Zane (Meghan Markle) at the office, and the two soon develop a mutual attraction, complicating his relationship with Jenny. Trevor returns to New York, only to learn that Mike is dating Jenny. In retaliation, he tells the firm's managing partner Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres) about Mike's lack of a degree.

Season 2 (2012"13)

In the season premiere, founder Daniel Hardman (David Costabile) returns to the firm, and Jessica and Harvey fear he wishes to return to his former position as managing partner. Because of this, Jessica allows Mike to continue working, despite discovering his secret. Meanwhile, Jenny confronts Mike about his feelings for Rachel, and when Mike hesitates in his response, Jenny breaks up with him. At the firm, Travis Tanner (Eric Close) accuses Harvey of burying evidence and is determined to have Harvey disbarred. Donna learns that she signed in the document and then lost it; she panics and destroys the document. She is fired by Jessica shortly after. Hardman is able to blackmail Tanner into dropping Harvey's disbarment from the settlement, and Hardman's decision to settle or Jessica's decision to go to trial is put to vote. When the partners are evenly divided on the issue, Harvey, who has the deciding vote, realizes the trial will jeopardize everyone at the firm and votes to settle, unwillingly siding with Hardman over Jessica so the firm can move past the lawsuit. This causes Hardman to call a partner vote and challenge Jessica for the position of managing partner. Soon after, Hardman promotes Louis to senior partner, and both Harvey and Jessica fail to definitively win Louis' support. Hardman becomes managing partner, but it is short lived as Mike and Harvey discover that Hardman forged and planted the document that Harvey and Donna supposedly buried. He is voted out of the firm, and Jessica regains the managing partner position. Immediately after his grandmother's death, Mike tries to start a relationship with Rachel, but she is reluctant. Mike begins a small romantic entanglement with his first love and childhood friend Tess (Elisabeth Hower) who was in town for the funeral, only to be discovered by Rachel, who has just decided that she was willing to have a relationship with him.

A week after the dust settles from Hardman Incident, Mike tries to repair his relationship with Rachel, a new case arises that hits home for Mike. He has to deal with the struggles of being the lawyer that defends a hit and run case, one that is all too similar to his childhood experience of losing his own parents. Louis Litt, relishing his new Senior Partner title, takes it upon himself to hire his own first year associate, who just may poke some holes in Mike's story about his time at Harvard. Harvey realizes that Louis's hire could expose Mike and goes to Jessica. Jessica then stops Louis from hiring the associate, giving the excuse of a "hiring freeze." Hardman then returns to battle with his old firm, working as a contract lawyer for Rachel's father, the famous Robert Zane. He strains Jessica's already low resources even further as she and Harvey are forced to try multiple gender discrimination suits in different locations. Scottie returns after stealing some of the firm's discrimination lawsuits. Eventually Harvey convinces Jessica and Scottie that both Scottie's firm and Pearson firm should jointly fight the the 45 discriminatin cases against Folsom Foods. In the end Jessica starts to accept a possible offer to merge Pearson with Scottie's firm, which is based in the UK. Agreeing to such a merger would allow Jessica to finally end Daniel's attack. This is because the British partner threatened to reveal Daniel's past. It would not be a breach of his contract with Jessica, because by law one must hand over financial documents to possible merger partners. Harvey, wanting to become a named partner, becomes angry at the news, as he wanted to earn the position by merit and not through extenuating circumstances.

Season 3

On October 13, 2012, USA Network renewed Suits for a third season, to consist of 16 episodes.

Cast

See List of Suits characters for more information

Main cast

• Gabriel Macht portrays Harvey Reginald Specter, a corporate lawyer at Pearson Hardman who graduated 5th in his Harvard Law School class and is now New York City's best closer. He is promoted to senior partner in the pilot episode and serves as Mike's seemingly selfish and uncaring mentor, who is slowly revealed to care deeply for his people. He is formerly an Assistant District Attorney. He remains emotionally distant from clients and is willing to do anything, except alter the truth, to win a case.
• Patrick J. Adams portrays Michael "Mike" Ross, a lawyer who never attended law school but has an encyclopedic knowledge of law aided by his eidetic memory. He impresses Harvey with his drive to become a good lawyer and is hired as an associate attorney in the pilot. His naiveté and sympathy for clients (and sometimes opponents) put him at odds with Harvey.
• Rick Hoffman portrays Louis Marlowe Litt, originally a junior partner who oversees the first year associates and is Harvey's rival and fellow Harvard alum. He is upset by Jessica's apparent favoritism toward Harvey and her disdain for Louis, though Louis works harder and is more reliable than Harvey. After Daniel Hardman returns to the firm, Louis favors Hardman over Jessica. Louis is promoted to senior partner in the season two episode "Asterisk". In "Blood in the Water" Louis nearly resigns from the firm to join Pratt & Hewitt as a junior partner, but Harvey changes his mind.
• Meghan Markle portrays Rachel Zane, a paralegal who befriends Mike and later becomes his romantic interest. She aspires to be an attorney, but her test anxiety prevents her from scoring well enough on the LSAT to attend Harvard Law School. In season two, she is finally able to receive a Harvard-worthy score on the LSAT.
• Sarah Rafferty portrays Donna Paulsen, Harvey's legal secretary and close confidant. She has worked with Harvey since his first year as an Assistant District Attorney.
• Gina Torres portrays Jessica Lourdes Pearson, co-founding and managing partner of Pearson Hardman, who was mentored by Daniel Hardman when she was an associate fresh out of Harvard Law School. She has a close relationship with Harvey, having paid for him to go to law school.

Recurring cast

• Tom Lipinski portrays Trevor Evans, Mike's best friend and a drug dealer. After the pilot episode, Mike and Trevor's friendship deteriorates. Trevor eventually stops dealing drugs in "Bail Out" and wishes to be Mike's friend again. However, he learns that Mike is dating Jenny and, in revenge, tells Jessica about Mike's lack of a law degree in the season one finale.
• Vanessa Ray portrays Jenny Griffith, Trevor's girlfriend. She breaks up with Trevor when he does not stop dealing drugs, and she becomes Mike's girlfriend. However, she breaks up with Mike in "Rules of the Game" when she learns about his feelings for Rachel. In the second season it is revealed that Mike was originally interested in Jenny, but Trevor got her to date him instead.
• Rebecca Schull portrays Edith Ross, Mike's grandmother who raised him after his parents' deaths. She lives in a nursing home and pushes Mike to live up to his potential. She dies in the season two episode "Asterisk".
• Ben Hollingsworth portrays Kyle Durant, one of Louis's protégés who is frequently pitted against Mike during season one
• Max Topplin portrays Harold Jakowski, an associate who is clumsy and socially awkward. He was fired by Louis in the second season.
• Eric Close portrays Travis Tanner, a partner at a law firm with offices in New York and Boston. He develops a grudge against Harvey, when Harvey outmaneuvers him in "Undefeated". In season two, he becomes senior partner at his firm, transfers to his firm's Manhattan office, and accuses Harvey of burying evidence with the hope of getting Harvey disbarred.
• David Costabile portrays Daniel Hardman, founding partner and former managing partner of Pearson Hardman. Five years before the events of the series, he was ousted for embezzling from clients' escrow accounts and using the money to finance his affair. In the season two premiere, he returns to the firm a self-professed changed man, though Harvey and Jessica do not believe him. In the wake of defeating Tanner's fraud lawsuit, he calls a partner vote in "Sucker Punch" and challenges Jessica for the position of managing partner. After he wins, Mike and Harvey soon uncover that Hardman orchestrated the entire Coastal Motors affair with Tanner to regain control, costing the firm $3 million and leading to his termination at the firm for good. Hardman retaliates by becoming opposing counsel to the firm in several lawsuits, until Jessica threatens to reveal his past embezzlement.
• Conleth Hill as Edward Darby, Jessica's new managing partner at the end of season 2.

Episodes

See List of Suits episodes for more information

Season	Timeslot (ET)	# Ep.	Premiered		Ended		TV Season	Viewers (in millions)
			Date	Premiere Viewers (in millions)	Date	Finale Viewers (in millions)
1	Thursday 10:00 pm	12	June 23, 2011	4.64	September 8, 2011	3.47	2011	6.31
2		16	June 14, 2012	3.47	February 21, 2013	3.20	2012"2013	TBA

Development and production

Suits first appeared on USA network's development slate under the title A Legal Mind in April 2010. In May, the network placed a cast-contingent pilot order from a pilot script written by Aaron Korsh. Patrick J. Adams was cast in the lead role of Mike Ross in July 2010. In late July, Gabriel Macht joined the cast as Harvey Specter, the attorney who hires Mike. Rick Hoffman came on board in mid-August to portray Harvey's competition at the law firm. Meghan Markle and Gina Torres completed the main cast in late August. Torres was cast as Jessica Pearson, the managing partner at the firm, and Markle portrays Rachel Zane, a paralegal who has an encyclopedic knowledge of the law. The pilot was filmed in New York City in fall 2010.

The network gave a green-light to the series with a 12-episode order on January 19, 2011. The series began filming in Toronto, Ontario on April 25, 2011, and completed August 12, 2011.

"Greenback Boogie" by Ima Robot is the theme song of the show. It was released as a single on September 18, 2010, and is included on the band's third album, Another Man's Treasure.

Reception

Suits received a score of 60 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating mixed or average reviews. Ginia Bellafante, a critic for The New York Times, gave the pilot a positive review: "A new legal series beginning on Thursday on USA, erupts from a Mount Vesuvius of absurdities, and yet like so much else in the USA stable, it comes in relatively good faith"?not merely with a snappy sense of its own fun, but also with a chipper belief in the viability of renewal." However, this was not the general consensus, with one reviewer stating that one "might be willing to overlook the show's structural flaws if the cases themselves were wildly compelling, but unfortunately, they are of a piece with their misguided series." Critic Alan Sepinwall gave season one a critic's rating of C, saying "Rarely, though, have I had as hard a time getting through an inflated USA pilot than I did through all 73 minutes (90 minutes when you factor in commercials) of "Suits"." Despite the mixed critical reviews, Metacritic users gave season one Universal Acclaim with a score of 8.6 and very favorable reviews.

In August 2011, the series was renewed for a second season. Season two was met with better reception, receiving a score of 73 out of 100 on Metacritic, indicating generally favorable reviews. David Hinckley, a critic for New York Daily News gave season two a review of an 80 saying "It's popcorn TV well worth settling in to watch." While Daniel Goldberg of Slant Magazine gave it a 63 saying "Suits seems perfectly tailored to make its characters all look good, which is simultaneously its most attractive asset and its most discomfiting drawback." Giving it a rating of 75 David Wiegand of the San Francisco Chronicle said "Adams and Macht are terrific, with the former loosening up quite considerably this year as Mike....Torres is cool, sexy and commanding as Jessica, and Markle, Hoffman and Rafferty contribute greatly to the energy of the show's core ensemble." Metacritic users gave season two Universal Acclaim with a score of 8.8 and very favorable reviews.

On December 14, 2011, Patrick J. Adams was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Drama Series at the 18th Screen Actors Guild Awards.

International distribution

Country	Channel	Premiere date
United States	USA Network	June 23, 2011
Australia	Seven Network	15 August 2011
Canada	Bravo!	3 October 2011
Russia	Channel One [????"?? ?????]	26 September 2011
Portugal	TV Séries	October 2011
Slovenia	POP TV	6 February 2012
Malaysia	Diva Universal (Asia)	26 March 2012
Trinidad	USA	August 2011
United Kingdom	Dave	17 January 2012
Asia	Diva Universal (Asia)	26 March 2012
Philippines	JackTV	26 February 2012
Spain	13th Street Universal	February 2012
Italy	Mediaset Premium	10 March 2012
Sweden	Sveriges Television	17 March 2012
Poland	[[Canal+ Poland]]	23 February 2012
Norway	TV 2 (Norway)	17 May 2012
Iceland	Stöð 2	11 June 2012
Cyprus	Universal Channel	25 June 2012
Colombia	Space	4 July 2012
Brazil	Space	4 July 2012
Argentina	Space	6 July 2012
Costa Rica	Space	6 July 2012
Bulgaria	Nova Television	22 August 2012
Czech Republic	Prima Cool	31 August 2012
South Africa	M-Net	8 September 2012
Israel	Yes	16 December 2012
Germany	FOX Channel	7 January 2013
Romania	Euforia Lifestyle TV	2 March 2013