Richard L Schur: Suits, Gebunden

Blurb

Fifteen years after the show's debut, take a look back at the pop culture phenomenon Suits and its place in the pantheon of famous legal dramas.

The television show Suits (2011-2019) has succeeded wildly. Reaching multiple generations of viewers, the show has become one of the most binged shows on Netflix long after its initial broadcast on USA Network in the 2010s. Drawing on the history of the television lawyer, workplace dramas, and postmodern comedies, the show explores the moral compromises facing professionals in the high stakes world of corporate litigation. Characters struggle with office politics, feeling like imposters, and finding family and community while working long hours. They also clash with their clients and opposing counsel who frequently engage in morally dubious behavior and who are willing to do whatever it takes to win their cases.

Suits: A Cultural History provides an in-depth look at the show. This book reveals how the show re-configures televisions tropes and provides insight into cultural attitudes about lawyers and the law, social status and ambition, and the increasing demands of work. The show illustrates the hope and optimism of the Obama years and hints at the simmering undercurrents of political polarization of the Trump era. The television show possesses a deeply held sense of morality even as it skeptical about the choices lawyers face and how the legal process works. The book ultimately concludes that Suitsis not simply a television show about rich, attractive lawyers involved in sometimes outlandish cases but a window into the viewers' desires for family, community, and justice. The show's popularity as binge-worthy television also offers insight into how television production and viewing is changing.