The following contains major spoilers from Suits LA Season 1, Episode 8, «Acapulco,» which debuted Sunday, April 13 on NBC.
Suits LA Season 1, Episode 8, «Acapulco» is an episode that begins and ends with Harvey Specter. Gabriel Macht makes his second return to the NBC spinoff to tie the past and present storylines together, and his presence once again energizes the proceedings. Unfortunately, the rest of the hour is bogged down in overly dramatic choices and story beats that are already starting to feel too familiar.
«Acapulco» is so titled because its main focus is on Ted Black’s past timeline, where he puts hitman Jimmy on the stand to testify about every time mob boss Pellegrini ordered someone to «take a vacation.» When that goes sideways, Ted is forced to ask Harvey for help. In the present, things between Ted and Amanda Stevens get very obvious, while Erica and Leah almost have a meaningful subplot. Yet the episode never gels together in the way that it should this late in the season.
Suits LA Season 1, Episode 8 Needs Harvey Specter to Succeed
Audiences Will Be Thrilled to Have Him Back
Harvey Specter’s return is the best — and for some viewers possibly the only — reason to watch Suits LA Season 1, Episode 8. Harvey takes over the narrative whenever he appears on screen, not just because he’s the star of the original show but because actor Gabriel Macht’s presence is so much more engaging than that of anyone else. When Ted needs corporate information to win his case against Pellegrini, it turns out that one of the companies is represented by Pearson Hardman, so he asks Harvey to get him the file. An argument ensues — one that then is backtracked on when it’s revealed said company is represented by Daniel Hardman, who’s just left the firm. (Audiences now know how actor David Costabile gets back into the Suits universe.)
It’s nice to see someone effectively stand up to Ted, as Harvey’s fight with him unintentionally highlights how Suits LA sometimes makes Ted a child used to getting his way. Harvey refuses to give privileged information to Ted, explaining that such under the table behavior is what made him leave the District Attorney’s Office for private practice, which is fair and which audiences know from Suits Season 1 is painfully true. Ted’s response is a series of cheap shots: trying to guilt Harvey by saying he’d do it for him if their roles were reversed, telling him they’re the same kind of person because they both like winning, getting angry and saying it’ll be his fault if Pellegrini is acquitted. One can cut Ted some slack by saying he’s upset because he’s so invested in the Pellegrini case and he’s desperate, but this is the second episode where the show has made him look like not a great guy. That’s a problem when he’s supposed to be the main hero.
Harvey’s scenes here also beg the question of if Suits LA is intentionally playing on his and Macht’s popularity to drive viewership. That’s certainly what’s happening — Harvey is all over the promos, which even go so far as to spoil the very last scene of this episode. But to send Harvey back to New York with Ted and make an event of it seems to prove that leaning on Harvey was the plan all along, and that’s not a good sign for the show’s longevity. Ted’s return back to New York should be about Ted and getting closure. The show also needs to stand on its own; comparisons to the original Suits will exist as long as original characters keep popping up. And bringing back legacy characters has the side effect of highlighting how the current characters aren’t nearly as well developed.
Suits LA's Attempt at an Office Romance Just Isn't Working
Ted and Amanda Don't Have Romantic Chemistry Yet
A prime example of how Suits LA isn’t writing its characters with the same depth or finesse is the subplot between Ted and Amanda Stevens. At the top of the episode, Amanda turns down Ted’s offer to head up Black & Associates’ new criminal law division — but because Ted’s way seems to be the prevailing way on this show, has changed her mind by the end of the episode. She also tells him that she can’t be in a relationship with the name partner and run the division, indirectly confirming that she has romantic feelings for him. But those feelings barely exist to the audience. Almost from the time she was introduced, Amanda has been telegraphed as Ted’s love interest (including Ted’s cringe-worthy dream about her and his ex-fiancee Samantha Railsback). The show is telling fans that these two should get together, while not showing them enough to make them want that to happen.
So many TV shows feel they need a romantic subplot and so introduce one almost right away, instead of letting one develop organically. The best way to interpret this is to once again compare it to the original Suits: Mike Ross had a crush on Rachel Zane from the pilot. But that ended up working, because audiences actually got to see him stumble over himself and win Rachel over, and because Mike’s awkwardness around Rachel also helped flesh out his character. In contrast, Ted and Amanda just feel like Suits LA starting an office romance because it needs one. The chemistry between Erica Rollins and Rick Dodson is better for this, has more use to the plot with their being at rival firms, and at least those two characters didn’t just meet eight episodes ago.
Amanda’s characterization also doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, and points out how Suits LA has a strange perspective on any type of law that is outside of Ted’s wheelhouse. Amanda is proud of being a pro bono attorney, yet when Ted asks why she’s had her change of heart, she makes a comment about how it’s time for her to «start playing in the big leagues,» which comes across as a slight to pro bono work, that it’s not big or legitimate enough. Likewise, Stuart Lane’s storyline is still about the ethics of criminal defense — something he’s gone over a few times now, and it’s not getting any better. Stuart first tells «fixer» David Bowie to find a new lawyer when he realizes that David has threatened more than one person… yet Suits LA also unwinds that argument a few moments later. And one of the closing scenes is Stuart having a crisis of conscience when he things that other person David threatened is dead. The show can’t seem to decide how it feels about Stuart defending guilty people any more than he can.
Suits LA Season 1, Episode 8 Has Awkward Character Dynamics
The Relationships Struggle to Feel Genuine
Suits LA Season 1, Episode 8, «Acapulco» gives the impression that the characters on this show may not like each other that much. On one hand, that’s refreshing because the «found family» dynamic is utilized in so many other TV series, whether it’s a law firm or a hospital or a police unit. But on the other, it makes everyone harder to root for; how can the audience like these people if their own coworkers don’t? One of the early scenes in the episode features Lex Scott Davis’ character Erica Rollins learning that a beloved neighbor has died. At the same time, Leah Power gets the news that her beloved cat has died. This could have been a great opportunity for these two mismatched characters to come together over grief; instead it falls into the same pattern of Leah and Erica butting heads, with Erica coming off poorly.
Alice Lee, who portrays Leah Power, also voices Lois Lane in Adult Swim’s My Adventures With Superman.
Leah chooses not to tell Erica why she can’t make a critical client dinner, fearing repercussions — and her fears turn out to be well-founded, as what starts as Erica sympathizing with Leah turns into a rebuke once Erica learns the cat was already dead when she asked Leah to help her out. She believes Leah should have compartmentalized her feelings so they could keep a major client (Star Wars alum Adam Driver, who isn’t in the episode). Suits LA is trying to frame this as Erica putting her own anger at not being allowed to grieve on Leah, but it doesn’t feel that way in watching it. When Erica comes home and opens up to her mom, she’s already lost the audience. This subplot would have been more effective if Erica had opened up to Leah and Leah could have perhaps comforted her — which would have also shown fans a side of Leah that isn’t just the quirky, indecisive character.
Suits LA doesn’t have the immediately likeable chaacters that the original series did, and as a result everything else in «Acapulco» gets overshadowed by the Harvey Specter scenes. There’s no emotional investment by the audience in Amanda taking Ted’s job offer, or if Ted and Amanda become a couple, or the whole Erica and Leah debacle. It’s great that the past and present timelines are being tied together, to create one cohesive story. But there’s still plenty of work to do for the spinoff to overcome its viewership woes.
Suits LA airs Sundays at 9:00 p.m. on NBC.
- Ted and Amanda's storyline is uninteresting and predictable.
- Erica and Leah's subplot is a good idea, but not executed well.
