Race, Gender/The Role of Women, Class and Sexuality Themes in TV Drama “SUITS”

I love Suits and I catch myself watching it more times than I'd care to admit. I love it because it is interesting, riveting and the dialogue also forces me to delve deeper.

If you have not watched Suits, let me bring you up to speed.

The Cliff Notes

Suits is a Television drama series that centers on a cast in the Law profession. This story commences on a scene where a college dropout, Mike Ross, who is a slacker and is in a hurry because the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) agents are after him. He is out of breath, and he is much disheveled. He walks into an interview room, and the interviewer likes him. He gets a job that he did not apply for. He becomes a top class lawyer despite the fact that he did not go to Harvard. The cast of this show are Patrick J. Adams (Mike Ross) and Gabriel Macht (Harvey Specter).

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This drama takes place in Pearson Hardman which is a law firm in New York. This law firm only accepts job applicants who have been from Harvard Law. Mike Ross has not attended Harvard. In fact, he has not been to any law firm. Mike managed to impress Harvey Spector during the day of the interview. Mike has a great gift of remembering everything he reads. He also has a great problem-solving abilities and great critical thinking skills.

After watching the show for a while, some themes emerge. The reason why we are speaking about these themes is that they are important because sometimes, TV directly reflects what is going on in society. These themes are race, class, gender (role of women) and sexuality and they make the show more widespread and eternal.

Race

In this TV series, there is diversity of race in the cast. The directors make sure that there are different races in the cast. Race is a very sensitive topic in the world. When a TV series portrays one race in bad light this can irk the public. Suits is a drama series that has a great balance of races. It also does not directly explore the theme of race like other shows like Blackish or Orange is the New Black.

This TV series has a great reception from all the races. “It also incorporates other people from different origins in some of the episodes. Jessica’s ethnic background does not come up a lot in the series” (3). Some shows bring out the identity of their cast to show diversity and fairness. For example, in this show, Rachael is bi-racial because her father is African American and her mother is white.

The issue of race does not appear directly in the series. The creators merely imply it in an indirect fashion. The creators of this script gave it a balanced approach when it came to race and this is instrumental in drawing audiences from all fronts. Race is a very sensitive topic and one way to not rub people the wrong way is to not talk about it.

Gender/ The Role of Women

In terms of gender, I love that this TV series has a balanced cast. There are both men and women in power suits. Most of the time, people refer to women as the weaker sex and in most series women don’t take leadership roles. The female characters are very powerful and they run the firm with relative ease and authority.

Women in the world have different roles and they are the main care givers in the home. Sometimes, it is very hard for them to balance work life and their careers. Most producers have touched on all the roles of women. In the modern world, the woman has emancipated herself from the shackles of conformity and this is one of the TV series that highlights that.

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Jessica is very authoritative in her position as the leading partner in the law firm. She makes sure that everything in the firm runs smoothly. She makes all the tough decisions without second-guessing herself.

In some instances, Jessica argues with Harvey and she has stepped her foot down to remind him that she is the boss. In some societies, people think that a woman should never raise her voice to a man. This series defies all those assumptions because the women battle with the men on the same grounds. This series also shows women in professions that people reserve for men.

Women shied away from taking law related careers in the past. It portrays how women in the modern societies are in a race to make their careers flourish. All the people in these series say the truth and they are not afraid to tell it to each other.

I find this a very refreshing way of approaching the plot of the stories. The directors of this series have arranged it in such a way that it has a great following from both genders. It defies the misconception that women are the weaker sex. The women in this series outdo themselves in terms of getting to work and putting their money where their mouth is.

The men, on the other hand, also work very hard. Donna and Rachael are also very sure of themeselves and they chart their course in the male-dominated industry. It is refreshing to see a balance nd co exixtence between the men and the women in this industry.

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According to Carty (1), “The people in this law firm are busy working and making it the best law firm in New York. However, the place of women in the modern society is also a great issue in this series”.

I remember incident when Pearson Hardman accused Folsom foods of failing to promote qualified women. The company, however, said that women are sensitive, aggressive and abrasive. This is stereotype that makes the company pass over the women for promotions. Even though the series does not have very many female actors, the few that are there have great roles.

This show depicts them as equals to the men. Jessica is the boss of the law firm and she is very strong. She manages to save the firm when her partner, Daniel Hardman tries to cheat and take over the firm. There is a time where she manages to kick David Hardman out of the firm and she leaves her name on the door. “Jessica has no permanent man in her life and this keeps her focused to her job. Rachael Zayne who is a paralegal is also very strong and she works hard to be a lawyer” (4). She tries hard to take a test that will take her back to school.

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Class

Class is a main issue in this series. The creators of this series made it glamorous and the cast have a great class. Pearson Hardman Law Firm prides itself as one of the best law firms in New York. The cast has very gorgeous ladies. These are Gina Torres, Sarah Rafferty, and Meghan Markle.

All these ladies strut in the offices with their designer dresses and well-pressed suits. They also wear stilettos and their hair is always impeccable. The men on the other hand wear designer suits. Their houses are impeccable with state of the art interior décor. This reflects their class and it also shows that this law firm is top notch.

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This is one of the methods that TV series hooks the audience because people love watching postmodern programs. In season one of the series, Donna says, “that she wears Dolce and Gabbana and her salary pays for it all” (5). This shows that the law firm compensates its employees well. However Mike introduced himself as a person from the low class part of the society. As he climbs the class ladder he lets go of his older friends and he immerses himself in the life of the New York elite.

Sexuality

Sexuality is an issue that emerges in this TV series. There are different scenes that have sexual and explicit content. This is an adult oriented drama but it has a positive message. It has a very unique premise and clever dialogue but the curse words and the language restrict it from the young audience. “It is not very sexual but it has a lot of adult language. The people curse occasionally and it is not suitable for children” (3). This is a unique way of restricting some audiences from watching the show.

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The series does not have any themes of sexual orientation because most of the people are straight. In this day and age, so many TV series are accommodative to the LGBT people but this show does not have any obvious gay person or gay couple. There are scenes with sexual innuendo when two people are talking.

Other things in the show are social drinking, partying and gaming in clubs. There is a secondary plot that has a scene with a drug dealer. This is an adult series but it does not center the plot on sexuality. It only does this enough to capture the attention of the audience and to keep them entertained.

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Conclusion

In summary,I feel that the directors of the TV series, Suits take a lot of consideration as they make the plot of the story. The story is not gender insensitive as it depicts women as equals to men. It also has a lot of racial and cultural diversity as there is a balance of the cast.

In terms of class, the cast of the story are the upper class and the New York elite.The people have great cars and they work in the best law firms. Their houses have the best interior décor. Sexuality in this TV series is not implicit neither is it direct. There are different sexual scenes and a lot of cursing. It is a program for the adults. The approach that the writer of the script took was very effective.

The only restrictions that it has is the age barrier. I can agree that anybody else can watch the program because it is not offensive to certain genders, races and sexual orientation. It is appealing to people from all social classes. It also has a great plot and it gives people a sneak peek of the life of a lawyer in a top law firm in New York.

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I explored these themes because I love the show and these are some of the hard hitting things that people explore in different shows. It is always interesting to see how directors navigate this.

Disclaimer: This reviews Suits up to Season 4. Alot could have changed since then.

Sources

1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5

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