MIKE ROSS R EVERYTHING
(OR WHY YOU S WATCHING S
EVERYTHING YOU HAVE EVER COME T DROP IT, BECAUSE USA’S SUITS IS M TELLS US WHY THESE NEW LA
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I hate Mike Ross. Sure, he’s a nice guy. He loves his grandmother dearly, he always looks out for others, and he rides a bike to work. He seems like the kind of boy one would gravitate towards when one is in such a hostile environment such as a law firm. He stands up for you, he sticks by you, and he always tries to consider other people’s feelings before his. And to be honest, it doesn’t hurt to look at his face, too—it doesn’t, it really doesn’t. But in the last three months since law school started, I realized I hate him. Not because he is always in a suit, not because he is living the life we can all only hope for right now, and not because of some choice he made at the expense of a really pretty girl. It’s because Mike Ross has eidetic memory. And I don’t. In the midst of trying to remember Constitutional provisions and memorizing crimes punished by prision correcional, I remember Mike Ross and his crazy memory and I cannot help but think to myself, “That lucky bastard.” He gets to work at one of the most prestigious law firms in New York with no less than the best lawyers (and the prettiest paralegals and secretaries), with nothing, and I mean nothing, other than his skill of remembering everything. No, not even a diploma from Harvard Law from which he claims to have graduated or any other law school or college. I can barely remember facts long enough to say them right for recitation. But my hate for Mike Ross and his photographic memory notwithstanding, Suits is always a welcome distraction. Despite being in itself a show that features such a stressful and high-strung environment, it is the kind of show you would want to watch at night after a hard day’s work, because it trims down the drama and converts it to substance—much like an actual day at work, really, but minus the hysterics. Suits, unlike most other lawyer drama shows, is probably one of the few (if not the only) shows that features a corporate law firm. This means no bodies found in the dead of the night at some dark alley, and no woman crying in halfanguish and half-embarrassment as she decides she will sue her ex-fiance for breach of promise to marry. This also means there are not that many scenes in the court room with lawyers giving big, grand closing arguments to a jury who look like they will believe anyone who musters enough lines with dramatic pauses. No, Suits is not that. Suits is Harvey Specter, possibly the best (and not to mention, most dashing) lawyer in New York City, telling Mike to learn how, instead of going to trial, to settle. Suits is Louis Litt terrorizing young associates into doing their research and their briefs right, all the while figuring out which boss’ ass to kiss. Suits is about losing in housing court the first time you go to trial, ever. Suits is realizing that /August 2012