Corruption and Power Moves in Suits Season 2
Welcome, weebs, to Animated Observations
And thank you for entertaining my venture into what is turning out to be some of the best TV I’ve ever seen. Of course, Rotten Tomatoes could have told you that and they would be right, but it’s a lot more fun coming at it from a more personal and anecdotal perspective.
When we last checked in on little old Mike Ross, his “friend” Trevor was trying to get him fired, except that plan backfired. Now, instead of just Harvey, it’s Jessica’s dirty little secret as well. Harvey manages to convince her that it’s worth keeping Mike, but she still has a lot of doubts.
However, while Mike is busy destroying, then repairing, and then destroying, and eventually repairing his relationship with Rachel, the firm he works for has a much bigger problem. Daniel Hardman, the second half of Pearson-Hardman, is gunning for his old job back. To most, he’s a nice guy, but Jessica and Harvey know the truth: that he was funneling money out of the company. Admittedly, it was to save his wife dying of cancer, but lies sting all the same.
Daniel’s character is honestly straight out of an anime villain beat: swarm-my and sure of himself all while pretending he’s doing nothing wrong. He initially contests that he doesn’t even want his position of name partner back, and yet by the second episode he’s come back ready to take over Pearson-Hardman once more. He is very much the type to set traps and watch other people walk into them.
This character archetype clashes nicely with Harvey, someone who’s always ready to go on the attack and who knows about the embezzlement from Jessica. He denies the allegations of being Jessica’s attack dog, but the 500 dollar pair of shoes certainly seem to fit.
Harvey also tests the limits of his relationship with Louis, as the two often come across as hot and cold at best and arch enemies on a good day. Louis presents himself as loyal, but deep down his character does come across as relatable, at least in some ways. He’s the butt of the jokes, mostly Harvey’s, but certainly Jessica and the others join in as well. Ultimately, it results in him betraying his colleagues and voting to re-instate Daniel Hardman.
The political elements of Suits ramp up quite dramatically, and it makes for pretty engaging storylines. Jessica and Harvey have to team up in order to keep Daniel Hardman out, and even when they do drive him out, its never really that easy, as he does eventually come back for revenge and all the firms money to boot. On top of that, though the two de-facto leaders of the firm have mostly presented a united front, season two does present the beginnings of a rift in their relationship, one which starts to get explored in the first half of season three, but we’ll save that for later.
An element that leaves me with mixed feelings though might ultimately be a minor thing are the out of universe references the show makes. Specifically, the fact that quoting movies and TV shows starts out as a way of bonding between Harvey and Mike. Given what is known about Mike and what is revealed later in the season about Harvey, it would make sense that the two would have had a lot of free time to fill with art in their childhood.
However, this bit very quickly gets proliferated between other characters, often as a way of humanizing or creating comedic levity in the middle of otherwise intense situations. Even Hardman, who is ostensibly the “villain” of the series in framing gets to make these references, though not met with much interplay from other characters. It serves as a reminder that most of the cast is in a morally gray position at best, not just because of their actions in the show but because of their overall societal role.
Multiple clients/antagonists throughout the series point out the fact that there job is essentially protecting bad people from facing consequences, sometimes knowingly, sometimes not. Sure, Mike comes in as the innocent, babyface good-two shoes ready to change Harvey for the better, and in a lot of ways he does. Still, its worth remembering the whole picture. All of that moral code that the two like to cling to in season one quickly starts going out the door in the middle of political and personal struggle.
What do you guys think of Suits? Let me know in the comments.
Thank you all so much for stopping by. For those who want to read a bit more, feel free to click back up top. Anyone who’s feeling generous or who would like to read some original poetry/short fiction from yours truly, look no further than directly below.
As always, special thanks to these lovely people for their support:
If you can’t, or just don’t feel like it, no worries. Thank you all again for reading, and goodbye, for now, friends!
Originally published at http://animatedobservations.com on August 20, 2024.
