‘Suits’ has found new life after Netflix’s resurgence. How the legal drama is gaining prominence for a second time.

It’s been 10 months since Suits saw its popularity soar after its debut on Netflix last June. The legal drama ended the year as the most-streamed show of 2023, with more than 57.7 billion minutes watched, cementing its reign at the top of Netflix’s streaming charts for the year.

Since then, the hour-long series — which ran for nine seasons from 2011 to 2019 on USA Network — has reaped the rewards after its second life. The streaming demand for If it suits, which set several records for Netflix has led to a slew of new projects, as those involved in the show try to parlay its streaming success into, well, more from that.

“The amount of exposure we’ve had since joining Netflix, I never in a million years could have predicted,” Suits The creator Aaron Korsh counted the Hollywood reporter in August 2023, at the height of It suits’ pandemonium streaming. “Something was happening before it even started on Netflix, and then Netflix just took it and expanded it by a billion.”

What’s Happened Since ‘Suits’ Streaming Explosion?

Suits starred Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross, a genius with a photographic memory who lands a coveted job working with Gabriel Macht’s Harvey Specter, a famous New York lawyer, at a prestigious corporate law firm. The only problem: Mike is not a licensed attorney. The series was an entertaining look at the cutthroat legal world, along with intriguing power dynamics and complex personal relationships.

Also starring in the drama were pre-royal Meghan Markle as paralegal Rachel Zane, Sarah Rafferty as Harvey’s secretary Donna Paulsen, Gina Torres as partner Jessica Pearson and Rick Hoffman as lawyer Louis Litt. Adams and Markle left after the seventh season, although the former returned to help wrap up the series. In later seasons, Katherine Heigl, Dule Hill and Amanda Schull joined as regular cast members.

Amid renewed enthusiasm surrounding the series, Korsh began work on a spin-off, Suits: LA, which received a pilot order from NBC in February. It also made headlines for its casting choices and moving the action from the Big Apple to sunny Southern California. Arrow alumnus Stephen Amell has been tapped to play former New York federal prosecutor turned Los Angeles entertainment lawyer Ted Black, whose firm is facing a crisis at the start of the proposed series. None of the originals stars are currently attached to the spin-off.

Most of the original Suits cast, sans Markle, reunited at the Golden Globes, where Adams joked onstage about “having to wait so long to see her show get that kind of recognition.” Several of them — Macht, Adams, Torres, Rafferty and Hoffman — starred in high-profile Super Bowl ads for T-Mobile and elf Cosmetics.

Most recently, a rewatch podcast with SiriusXM hosted by Adams, who confessed to never having watched Suits while he was doing this, and his co-star Rafferty, it was announced. “This summer, seeing so many people discover it again really made me realize it would be crazy not to go back and see what came of those years and years of laughter and tears, early mornings and long nights,” Adams wrote on Instagram. .

Damian Holbrook, senior writer at TV Guide Magazine, told Yahoo Entertainment that the additional promotional push after SuitsThe explosion of streaming “definitely helped extend its lifespan and generate even more interest.”

“There were certainly people who saw [the ads] during the Super Bowl and asked, ‘Who is this?’ and then they found their way to it,” he said. “They have been masterful at maintaining the Suits live conversation for so long. It helps that the cast was so playful in playing together without feeling desperate.

How it ‘matches’ found success for the second time

Since then Suits reentered the pop culture conversation last summer, theories abound about why it was that legal procedurals that captured viewers’ attention at such an exponential rate. Was it the Meghan Markle effect, the timing of Netflix’s launch, the show’s narrative, its inherent coldness, a combination of all these factors, or something else? It doesn’t hurt that there are over 100 episodes to watch – 134 to be specific – for audiences to invest in with the promise of a beginning, middle and end.

“A lot of Suits“The surprising second wave of success was due to a perfect storm of activity surrounding last year’s WGA and SAG-AFTRA raids,” Jason Lynch, curator at the Paley Center for Media, told Yahoo Entertainment. “With very few new scripted series releasing during those months since there was no talent available to help promote them, it was the perfect opportunity for Netflix and the company’s algorithm to direct viewers to a show with an extensive library that it was ‘new’. for them, like Suits.”

In addition to Law and order series, Lynch added, there aren’t many recent examples of successful legal proceedings since the original series of Suits.

“Therefore, the program still feels relatively modern and current compared to other successful legal procedures of the past, such as Los Angeles Law, The practice It is Boston Law,” he explained. “And of course, no other legal procedural presents a real future in the cast like Suits has with Meghan Markle. It may have been an initial attraction for many Netflix subscribers and then the show was propulsive enough to keep them coming back for more episodes.”

Holbrook believed that part It suits’ The ongoing appeal lies in the show’s creative direction, as well as the natural chemistry between its stars.

“The Donna and Harvey of it all certainly kept fans intrigued all season, as did the inimitable chemistry between Gabriel and Patrick,” he said, adding that the show’s foray into more serialized arcs as it went along meant that the Viewers “could show up and get what was basically a complete plot — whether it was the British invasion, the battle over the estate, Mike’s incarceration. All of this felt self-contained in a serialized show, and that makes it eminently edible.

“But more than anything, it was the characters – protagonists, supporting characters and even recurring characters – that dominated viewers,” suggested Holbrook. “We cared about these people, we disagreed with their choices, we respected their intelligence and we wanted the best for them. Korsh created people who felt aspirational and relatable, and the cast couldn’t have been better chosen.”

How will a ‘Suits’ spin-off compare?

If the Suits branch, Suits: LAbecomes a full-fledged series on NBC, it will likely face some obstacles if it wants to reach the standard set by the original.

“Suits It’s funny, sincere, cool and complex. These are not things you normally find in the same room, much less by actors who just clicked,” said Holbrook, comparing Macht and Adams’ relationship to that of Butch and Sundance, which “you can’t recreate by force.” The writing needs to be “as smart, fast and sophisticated as the original”. (Korsh is returning to work with his former Suits executive producers David Bartis, Doug Liman and Gene Klein for the spin-off.)

“The biggest challenge is that, for now, the Suits the spin-off does not have any of the original cast members attached to participate,” Lynch added. “And it remains to be seen whether the IP [intellectual property] in itself is enough of a draw for viewers.