Major Spoilers for Suits
By now everybody knows about the USA Network’s relatively hit series at its time of release which became one of the biggest series ever after it came out on Netflix in June 2023. Yes, we are talking about Aaron Korsh‘s legal drama series Suits. Which got over 3.14 billion minutes of watch time surpassing the fantasy drama Manifest. This led to NBC greenlighting a pilot for an L.A.-based spin-off series titled Suits: L.A. with which they are hoping to capture the original series’ audience. But in this article, I am trying to figure out if a spin-off of Suits will even work because one has already failed.
A few months before the final episode of Suits aired we got a brand new spin-off starring Gina Torres. She played the role of Jessica Pearson in the original series from the beginning and she was a pretty established character in the Suits universe but still, people didn’t give her spin-off series titled Pearson much of a chance to grow as it was canceled because of its extremely poor viewership ratings just after a ten-episode first season.
Now, we have an upcoming Suits spin-off that doesn’t even star any of the original cast and isn’t even set in the same city, which was such a big part of the original series. While I remain hopeful that Suits: L.A. could capture the intensity and banter of the original it really will be difficult for them because the original casting of the series was so perfect with Gabriel Macht and Patrick J. Adams in the lead roles.
After J. Adams’ Mike Ross left the series in Season 7 with his on-screen wife Rachel Zane (Meghan, Duchess of Sussex), they left a very big hole in the series which the fans felt until Suits’ last episode. Both J. Adams and Macht were the ones who made the world of Suits go around and then suddenly some big changes that just didn’t work.
While, Suits: L.A. has an incredible leading actor in Stephen Amell as Ted Black, the NBC series just won’t feel like Suits even if it works as a separate legal drama, and if it just wanted to do that they could have just made an original series instead of trying to go the loosely connected route because I think Suits: L.A. probably won’t add anything in the universe of Suits and if that’s the case why not try to bring something original to the table.
We will talk about how Suits: L.A. will probably connect to Suits characters but before doing that you will have to read this official plotline for the upcoming spin-off series announced by a press release by NBC:
“Ted Black, a former federal prosecutor from New York, has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles. His firm is at a crisis point, and to survive he must embrace a role he held in contempt his entire career. Ted is surrounded by a stellar group of characters who test their loyalties to both Ted and each other while they can’t help but mix their personal and professional lives. All of this is going on while events from years ago slowly unravel that led Ted to leave behind everything and everyone he loved.”
This probably means that Harvey will somehow be connected to Amell’s Ted Black through his prosecution days and will probably make an appearance in the series but after that, I can’t think of a reason that this should be a spin-off series. This isn’t even NBC’s only attempt at milking their beloved IP’s goodwill as their streaming service Peacock has greenlit a The Office reboot which will follow the story of the staff of a Midwestern newspaper that are being filmed by the same documentary crew who were filming Dunder Mifflin.
In conclusion, the reason I don’t think Suits: L.A. will work is purely because the original series was like catching lightning in a bottle and this spin-off just seems like a money move that won’t pay off in the end. While remaining hopeful is not a bad thing we still should curb our expectations until Suits: L.A. releases and proves me wrong.