Now that nearly the entire developed world has fallen in love with Suits, thanks to its domination of Netflix last year — and with the series turning 13 on June 23 — it’s only fitting to take a moment to celebrate some of the reasons why we’re all so smitten. Of course, there is the top-notch ensemble. Led by Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross, the genius dropout who never attended law school, and Gabriel Macht‘s Harvey Specter, the high-powered corporate lawyer who hired him and kept his secret, the USA series bristled with their banter and dynamic duo vibe that would carry the show through 99 percent of its nine-season run (2011-2019). Even after Adams left before the final season, fans still considered him part of the family and warmly embraced his return for the final episodes.
At the same time, we had a whole bastion of beloved characters to keep us occupied, including Sarah Rafferty‘s unsinkable Donna Paulsen, Gina Torres‘ graceful badass Jessica Pearson, Rick Hoffman‘s Louis Litt (easily the Most Improved Character Ever) and, in the last seasons, the new regime played by Katherine Heigl, Dule Hill and Amanda Schull. There were also wildly absorbing cases, some that wound up factoring into future seasons, as well as a great respect for the history of the show’s events. Something that happened in Season 2 might matter down the road, or a character we thought was off the canvas would return in a surprising new capacity.
The show was also slick as hell in both production design and styling (the costumes, my god!), and it broke the mold when it came to legal dramas, in that these folks rarely entered a courtroom. When they did, it was usually one of their own on trial. And don’t even get us started on the drinking game that could have been created around the ever-changing names on the wall of the show’s law firm. Pearson Hardman. Just Pearson. Then Pearson Darby. Pearson Darby Specter. Pearson Specter. Pearson Specter Litt. Specter Litt. The place had more partners than the guy on Sister Wives.
But for real, it was the relationships that hooked us. Be it the Mike-Harvey bromance, the fractured family ties that caused the characters’ internal issues, or any one of the many actual couples that popped up along the way — including the one that inspired its own hashtag — Suits had no shortage of romances worth making a case for.
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