'Suits LA' Doesn't Have Any Of The Magic Of 'Suits'

The premise of the USA Network series was fresh, but its new NBC spin-off falls flat.

“Suits LA” may take place in polished glass-paned offices with lawyers wearing suits (or form-fitting pencil skirts, à la Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane), but that’s about its only similarity to “Suits,” USA Network’s show that premiered more than a decade ago.

When all nine seasons of the original dropped on Netflix, “Suits” became the most-streamed show of 2023, expanding its fan base and eventually renewing enough interest to spawn NBC’s new Sunday night spin-off starring Stephen Amell as Ted Black. However, while referring to “Suits LA” as a spin-off of “Suits” may be categorically true, it feels like a generous mischaracterization.

The show is a mess. It’s taken the worst part of “Suits” — the inter-office battles for control of “the firm,” the too-serious, brow-furrowed conversations about said firm, and the overwrought competition between that same firm’s employees — and utterly failed to capture any of the original and quirky elements that made “Suits” so fun to watch.

“Suits” was one of USA Network’s last successful scripted shows. Like its predecessors, “Monk,” “Psych” and “Burn Notice,” it was a procedural with a twist. The setting was a law office, but it wasn’t “The Good Wife”— the other major legal procedural of that era that was a pure drama. Instead, “Suits” straddled the border between drama and comedy because of its premise and lower-stake legal cases.

The show centers on Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), an arrogant lawyer in New York. The pilot begins when he accidentally meets Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams), a college dropout with a photographic memory, as his newest associate at the firm even though Mike doesn’t have a law degree (but he has taken the LSAT and bar exam countless times for other people to make extra money).