More than half a decade ago, one of the finest additions to the legal drama genre, Suits made its way off the screens after having an incredible run for almost a decade. But since then, a whole new spin-off has been teased, made, and is currently on the way to establish itself as yet another stellar addition to the genre, having aired its first episode: Suits LA.
But while this one has brought the franchise back on its toes once again, this new spin-off didn’t start on the same heartwarming note as the first one, which had Harvey Specter and Michael “Mike” Ross have an epic first meet. Rather, this one started on a dark twist with a cataclysmic event, and the director behind the same has a very good reason for it.
Suits LA started on a darker note as compared to the original series
The first episode of Suits LA recently made its way to the screens, and if you haven’t watched it yet but intend to, you better stop right here to avoid spoilers. As opposed to what many fans of the original series may have expected, this one kicked off on a rather dark note with a cataclysmic event that featured lies, deception, betrayals, and some really dark drama.
For one, it had the show’s lead Ted Black (played by Stephen Amell), an ex-federal prosecutor, get blindsided by his own friend, partner, and criminal defense attorney Stuart Lane (played by Josh McDermitt), as he cuts him out of a merger with a firm run by Ted’s ex, taking several of their employees and clients with him while stabbing Ted in the back.
As dramatic of an offshoot as this establishes for the saga in episode 1, it follows with Black Lane Law’s Erica Rollins (played by Lex Scott Davis) getting offered the head of entertainment position by Stuart where she would have to be his inside spy for 6 months before he promotes her at his new firm. However, Erica overhears that he only wants her to give her diverse clients.
On the other hand, there’s Ted, who sincerely believes in her potential, whom she ends up joining, resulting in her not only scoring that position but also becoming a partner while he handles a murder case involving a producer client (played by Kevin Weisman). While this sounds a lot like what happened between Harvey and Mike, it wasn’t all the same.
As fans must recall, in the original series, Gabriel Macht’s Harvey Specter met Patrick J. Adams’ Michael “Mike” Ross and ended up hiring him as an associate lawyer after being impressed by him while he was trying to run from the police, having been falsely trapped by his own friend into delivering drugs to a client which turns out to be a fake call from the police.
What Suits LA boss has to say about this different beginning
Of course, both the shows more or less have similar lights in which they kickstarted, but this new spin-off has a darker tinge to it right from the beginning – and the mastermind show creator Aaron Korsh has a perfectly explainable reason why. In a recent interview with TV Line, he shared the same, saying about both the currently ongoing show and the original one:
I didn’t write this thing to be a Suits universe thing. It was just supposed to be its own thing at the time that I wrote it. So for whatever reason, when I was thinking about Ted’s past and his present, and thinking about the effect his father dying was going to have on his present, it just sort of seemed like the natural thing to have happen.
And then when I looked at it in retrospect, and also after we made it sort of Suits, I realized that we’re just meeting this firm at a different place in its life cycle than when we met, obviously, Pearson Hardman. And I like that it’s different, but I didn’t set out to make it a splitting rather than a coming together. It just sort of worked out that way.
While Suits LA has carved its own unique path, diverging from the tone of its predecessor, this darker tone was a natural progression of the story, rather than a deliberate attempt to differentiate itself from the original series, as Aaron Korsh explained. That said, as the saga continues to unfold, it will be interesting to see how this new direction shapes the narrative and characters, setting it apart from its Suits roots.
Suits can currently be streamed on Netflix while Suits LA is streaming on fuboTV and Peacock Premium.
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