You Made the Right Choice

NBC recently announced the cancellation of a number of its television series. Including Night Court, Found, The Irrational, and Lopez vs. Lopez. As someone who's seen all but one of those shows, I was quite upset by this news (especially by Found - please bring it back, NBC); there was one show that was on the chopping block that I was completely behind. P.S.: I want to apologize now if my opinion doesn’t align with yours, and you’re a fan of this show.

Suits LA

Don’t get me wrong, I really wanted this show to work. I love the original series - I’m currently on season 3, and Donna is my favorite human being ever. But a major difference between the original series and this entertainment law-centered world is the format. In short, Suits has one and Suits LA doesn’t.

Okay, let me clarify! Suits LA may have had a format, but it was lost in the plot . . . well, plots. There is just so much going on: relationships, businesses splitting apart, clients being stolen, the actual cases (which I kept forgetting about), and don’t even get me started on the flashbacks. 

The main law firm, Black Lane Law Firm, is going through a difficult time. Throughout the first episode, it’s revealed that the two main partners, Ted Black and Stuart Lane (best friends, kind of the Harvey/Mike, respectively, of this new series), are dealing with a potential merger. Black was a prosecutor in New York who had many run-ins with the mafia. Lane was a criminal defense attorney before he started up the business with Black. Lane is later revealed to be a traitor, having stolen a good portion of their clients and employees to start his own firm, all of which was done under Black’s nose. So Lane has taken most of their employees, and Black is left to clean up what Lane destroyed. So both firms seemingly take place at two separate buildings/locations, but as the episodes progress and different characters are teamed up together (even ones that don’t work together anymore), the idea that the original firm has split into two gets lost in the messy plots.

Any time a scene would change to Stuart’s new firm and then go back to the original firm, I would get confused. Because both firms look exactly alike. The offices, the lobbies, the reception area - everything looks like the production team didn’t have enough of a budget or a different idea of what this new law firm that Lane created could look like. Also, when characters that have either gone with Lane or stayed with Black team up with their former colleagues to help a client, it gets really confusing. They’re supposed to be competitive law firms. I don’t know much about legal dramas or the law, but I think it's been somewhat well established throughout the years that, for the most part, unless a client has multiple lawyers from different firms, they don’t mix legal counsel. I don’t know, maybe it’s just me.

Fine! I’ll Talk About the Stupid Flashbacks!

I’m generally not a big fan of flashbacks or flashforwards. Used correctly, these plot devices can add a lot to a story. But in the case of Suits LA, it just feels like the flashbacks are used to fill airtime, like the writers had the cases and the character introductions nailed down (or so they thought), but they only had about half an episode of content, so they added in character flashbacks. Like when Ted Black was a prosecutor in New York, and what his life looked like back then. They’ll use it to show past relationships or to remember a fan favorite character from the original series (Harvey was unfortunately not used properly). But the Ted Black flashbacks or any of the other flashbacks with any other character don’t show any character growth or true understanding of the character. Ted was pretty much the same guy in New York as a prosecutor as he is a defense attorney in Los Angeles in the present. Same with Stuart Lane. Ted’s ex-girlfriend. Ted’s friends from New York who followed him to LA. Nobody has changed other than geographically. And Ted and Harvey are written as close friends, maybe even closer than Harvey and Mike are in the original series. But either the actors’ chemistry is off or something, but as an audience member, it felt like they were colleagues who might catch a baseball game together every blue moon. And I have to say the most irritating moment for me before I quit watching (I tried to keep going) was when Harvey reveals he has a son and named him . . . TED! I screamed: “WHY NOT MIKE?!”

Anyway, I’m done! I’m getting off my soapbox and watching the original series because it is amazing. I did have high hopes for you, Suits LA. But I have to say - goodbye.

Usually, I would end with recommending people watch the show or movie, or multiple shows or movies that I’ve watched. But in this case, do what you want. If you want to watch the show, I will leave the trailer and the link to where you can stream it below as usual. But the only thing I can recommend is to watch the original series, it’s so FUN!

Suits LA | Peacock

Suits | Peacock

Are there any shows or movies that you keep thinking about? Please let me know in the comments section and/or share on Tele-Tunnel Vision’s Instagram: @tele_tunnel_vision!

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