“Characters welcome.” That’s the USA Network’s ostensible motto. But it has a secret one, too – its true motto: “Fluffy characters welcome.”
White Collar? Fluffy. Psych? Fluffy. In Plain Sight, Fairly Legal, Covert Affairs, Royal Pains. Fluffy. Everyone’s essentially nice. Even Burn Notice has Michael’s mum and a lost innocent in need of help every week.
So it’s something of a relief and surprise to find that USA’s new lawyer drama, Suits – I know, I know, like we need another drama about lawyers – is only a little bit fluffy. Because pretty much everyone in Suits is a bastard. Or a thief.
In it, Mike Ross, a college drop-out finds himself in a drug-deal gone wrong. He runs into a job interview for a law firm that only hires Harvard graduates, but because the guy running it, Harvey Specter, is a total dick – and because Ross has a photographic memory that has already allowed him to pass the bar without going to law school – Specter hires him. All they have to do now is teach Ross the difference between the law you find in books and evil, amoral practical law, while keeping the fact that Ross isn’t a Harvard graduate from everyone else in the firm. Oh, and work out what to do with Ross’s briefcase full of drugs.
See how wrong that is? Thankfully, she saw the (yellow) light.
But this random red hair infection is spreading. Scarlett may be her name, and she’s been reliably random for a couple of weeks now, getting a Hollywood Walk of Fame star, having one night stands with Justin Timberlake, and going to Motley Crue concerts. I mean Motley Crue – how random is that?
But this?
No. I don’t care if it’s for The Avengers. It’s just wrong.
Alex Breckenridge doesn’t even have that excuse. You’re on the True Blood premiere red carpet, Evan Rachel Wood is there and she’s already red: this does not need to happen.
At least Joanna Page is just inventing new red-coloured nail varnishes. And even though her character, 6, has black hair in the book, Syrup, Amber Heard is still reassuring blonde in the movie version.
