I admit it. I’m still a sucker for Suits.
USA’s lawyer drama, which has just returned for the second half of its fifth season (10 p.m. Wednesday ET), has a big reveal coming up this week.
We will learn who ratted out Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams, top with Gabriel Macht), which incidentally has become a hot topic on social media.
But interested as I am in the answer to that question, and impressed as I am that the answer hasn’t already become obvious, that’s not the main reason I’ll be tuning in.
I’m tuning in for Donna.
I always tune in for Donna.
First, actress Sarah Rafferty (below) has made Donna into one of the coolest characters on television. Second, I have to know how she gets back to Harvey (Gabriel Macht).
And while I’m waiting for those answers, I will also wonder how it will work out for Mike and Rachel (Megan Markle), even if he doesn’t get chucked in the slammer. I will wonder if Harvey will find someone, anyone, and if Louis (Rick Hoffman) will ever get out of his own way.
If that all sounds a little soapy, it is. But it’s classy soap, like the individually wrapped little bars in the better hotels.
So for those who aren’t Suits regulars, let me explain.
Harvey Specter is a smart and more than occasionally ruthless corporate lawyer with the firm now sort-of titled Pearson Specter Litt. He’s not married, largely because all the women who would love to snag him have discovered that he’s bad at actual human relationships before it got that far.
Harvey ran into Mike Ross, saw a young Harvey and eventually hired him to work at the firm despite the minor problem that Mike, while he knows more than enough to do the job, never went to law school.
This is the sort of thing that bothers, say, the bar association, and much screen time over the five seasons of Suits has been devoted to the cover-ups Mike and Harvey have had to undertake.
First they had to hide it at the firm. Now they have to hide it from the authorities, who have slapped Mike with criminal fraud charges that could put him away until long after Suits would be off the air.
The big reveal this Wednesday is who dropped the dime that put Mike in this position, though in truth Mike has been threatened with exposure more times than the survivors on The Walking Dead have been threatened by zombies.
Other key players include Louis Litt, who weaseled his way into becoming a name partner. He’s smart and manipulative, which also describes Harvey, but somehow with Harvey it’s charming and with Louis it’s distasteful.
There are others, but to keep it simple, let’s just go to Donna.
Donna became Harvey’s secretary sometime in the 16th century. She knows the law and she knows Harvey way better than he knows himself. She can anticipate how he will react to people and situations, at which point she either helps him out or tells him he’s being a jerk, which not many people get to do.
Donna is not, however, the smart woman who selflessly makes a hapless man look good, first because Harvey’s not hapless and second because she’s in love with him.
To get the obvious question out of the way, they slept together once. Once. It’s complicated.
At the end of Season 3, Harvey confessed he loved her, too. But he didn’t go beyond this verbal declaration, so she left him to work for Louis, which inside the firm is like walking out on the Yankees and suiting up for the Red Sox.
Now, though, with Mike and Harvey in trouble, Donna is feeling torn again. She will handle it well, because she’s Donna, and there is no better redhead on television.
In the larger picture, it’s true that Suits has sent Mike to the brink of the falls many times. It’s also true that Suits has already been renewed for a sixth season, so even if he escapes again, it might not be the last time.
Nor will everyone else stop wrestling for control of the firm, pitting good guys against bad guys.
The only true tragedy, though, would be if Harvey and Donna were to remain just out of reach of each other’s empty arms.
And that’s why I watch Suits.