Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane in Suits. nothing to do with Prince Harry, Oprah Winfrey or her tumultuous relationship with the Windsors. The Duchess of Sussex occupies four of the top ten spots on Netflix USA's «most watched» list thanks to her old legal drama Suits, in which she plays the prickly paralegal Rachel Zane.
It's a pretty cool twist given the recent story of America moving away from the Sussexes. Their Hollywood group of friends is reported to be dwindling; Not so long ago, Meghan and Harry were ridiculed in «South Park» in which they were shown with signs demanding «stop looking at us.» They were also subjected to several cruel jokes in a recent Chris Rock comedy special on Netflix, in which he suggested that Meghan's fight with Harry's family was nothing more than a retelling of the age-old story of trouble with her husband's in-laws.
But no one jokes with the wonderful Suits game. It has shattered records since its introduction on US Netflix on June 23 (in the UK it has come and gone from streamers and has always had a loyal following), and according to Nielsen, it was watched by 3.14 billion minutes in the week of June 26. — 2 July. No matter how much reruns cost Netflix, Suits is undeniably more profitable than the $100 million the streamer reportedly dumped on the Sussexes for a couple of documentaries.
There is even talk that Suits will return after it was canceled in 2019, although the producers acknowledge that Markle is unlikely to be part of any potential reunion.
It's a Friends phenomenon all over again. When the '90s sitcom hit Netflix, it had a ready audience of Gen Z and millennials who swallowed it to death (while taking the time to protest its fat jokes and the recurring joke about Chandler being gay).
The costume differs in that, unlike the incomparable Friends, it is definitely not classic. But that's perhaps part of the charm. The show is slick and goofy and the acting is tougher than the upper lip that Harry made in that interview with Oprah.
The appeal of Suits is partly due to Meghan — an unknown when she was cast in Suits and now one of the most recognizable celebrities in the world. She has a pivotal role as Rachel, a deadpan fighter forging her way in Manhattan's hyper-macho world of law. True, no one could confuse Markle with the second coming of Meryl Streep. But she brings a wild energy to the pretty Rachel. Hardworking and uncompromising, you can see why she was a fan favorite even before the Sussex factor.
However, the real magic of Suits lies in the bromance between its main characters, Mike Ross and Harvey Dent. They're Mick and Keith in goofy New York legal dramas, and their crackling chemistry keeps Suits fans drunk.
Ross (Patrick J. Adams) has a photographic memory but failed the New York bar exam. In a bizarre twist that defines Suits' relationship to realism, he quickly finds a job with slick lawyer Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) while escaping a marijuana bite operation.
Mike lives a lie and breaks the law (it's illegal to pretend to be a lawyer). The most interesting thing about the early seasons is the confrontation between Harvey and Mike's successful double act in the courtroom and their realization that Mike's legal powers are a sham.
Suits creator Aaron Korsh modeled Patrick Ross after himself and his Wall Street days (the original plan was for Suits to be about big finance rather than law). Like Mike, he had a quick mind and a weakness for marijuana.
Scene from the last episode of Suits with Meghan Markle Credit: NIPI
“I had a good memory and became addicted to marijuana,” Korsh said in 2016. “That was the basis for the show in a lot of ways. But I found it very unsatisfactory for my career and ended up leaving.”
He went into television and, after working on the sitcom Everyone Loves Raymond, was able to launch Suits on the US network. The series immediately found its place as a counterpart to the drama «A Serious Man», which defined the so-called «Golden Age» of television.
“It was almost a pleasure in my conscience,” is how Patrick J. Adams summed up the appeal of Suits. Arriving at a time when television had a tendency to take itself morbidly seriously, Suits dares to be silly. This is the anti-Madman, the spiritual negative image of Breaking Bad.
These shows have carefully explored masculinity and what it means to be an American in the 21st century. Costumes are jokes and legal jokes; the real world never invades. The action was set in a fantasy Manhattan devoid of social division, where racial tension was a gripping plot rather than a deep divide, and historical trauma never intruded.
«We've been living in New York for seven years and we've never talked about 9/11,» Adams told Esquire magazine. «He doesn't stop at these things, the show doesn't work in this world.»
Suits always remembered what kind of show it was. Several seasons later, Mike's fake lawyer IDs are exposed and he is sent to jail. Shortly thereafter, the character's grandmother dies.
In most series, these failures are presented as life-changing. But Mike is quickly released from prison, and although he briefly gets upset with his grandmother, he soon returns to doing what he does best: having an affair with Rachel and winning cases with Harvey. This is a fantasy existence where nothing changes and everything goes for the better.
“I thought, ‘Well, this is going to change everything,’ and I came prepared for the fact that this was going to be a gutting, painful, emotional, difficult thing that we would play throughout the season,” Adams recalled. The story of the dead grandmother. “But of course they were like, 'We can't let that happen. You may be upset, but you need to get over it and move on because we have other things to do.”
One person who had other things to do was Meghan Markle, who along with Adams left Suits in the seventh series (after which Grey's Anatomy star Katherine Heigl joined the cast). It's unlikely she'll return for Suits — it's hard to imagine how anyone, even Netflix, could afford her.
But unlike Markle, her character got her fairy tale ending: at the end of the seventh season, Rachel and Ross got married and moved to Seattle to start a new life. Part of the fun with the costumes is pretending life is as simple and upbeat as the show makes it out to be. Don't be surprised if the Duchess of Sussex is among those drunk on his good health.
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