I almost didn’t watch “Suits” on the grounds that Gabriel Macht was so god awful in “The Spirit” (although, to be fair, so was everyone in that film). Glad I did though – it’s one of the few shows I actually tune in to watch each week (even if Channel 7 is doing to “Suits” exactly what happens to every good US show that appears on Australian TV: it starts at 8.30pm, then gets shifted to 9.30pm, then to 10.30pm, then to some time in the AM. Right now “Suits” is starting at 11pm).
For those who haven’t seen it, here’s a trailer for the show:
One major reason I like “Suits” is that it shows smart characters making mistakes. Mike Ross (played by Patrick J. Adams) has an eidetic memory and is intelligent, but this just makes him good at remembering things and figuring out puzzles. It doesn’t make him automatically right. The same is true of Gabriel Macht’s uber-attorney Harvey Spector.
Too many shows – I’m looking at you “Bones”, “Body of Proof”, “House” and so on – mistake intelligence and memory for making a person foolproof in their opinions. If the genius thinks something in these shows, it has to be true – reality and common sense will re-write themselves to fit. In “Suits”, the characters can think something, find out they are wrong and have to scramble to recover. It’s a refreshing change.
If I have to criticise something about “Suits” is that Spector’s-adversary-in-chief Louis Litt (played by Rick Hoffman at his most rat-like) comes across as incompetent or mistaken in pretty much every scene he appears in. For Litt to actually be a threat to Spector, he needs to be almost-but-not-quite-as-good, and he has to win sometimes.
Let’s hope “Suits” season 2 keeps up the quality and characterisation this show has established thus far.
World Class Villains 
Hmm, he’s smart in almost a Rain Man type of way. It doesn’t really challenge the House mythos of infallible geniuses.
Does he get things wrong because even smart people get things wrong (or looking at the economy, especially smart people get this wrong) or does he get things wrong because he’s mildly dysfunctional?
Sorry – been away for a few days…
Mike Ross is smart in that he’ll remember the specific law if he’s read it, but doesn’t actually know the “basic” parts of being a lawyer, and has been outplayed a number of times since he isn’t as duplicitous as some of the people he works with / can be quite naive. He may be smart, but this doesn’t stop him being taken advantage of.
I love this show. The character development is great, and probably the most important part of the show in fact. It is also very clever in the episode to episode stories. Gabriel Macht plays Harvey so well to the point where you can’t imagine anyone else playing him, kind of like Hugh Laurie as House. And lastly, Meghan Markle is a Goddess!!
I also agree with you on Louis needing improvement, but he is just one of those characters that you love to hate.
The cast on “Suits” is great and I hope that season 2 builds up Litt as worthy of being a thorn in Spector’s side, not just there-because-the-script-said-so.