John Oliver Rips ‘Suits’, Makes An Enemy For Life… ME

HBO’s Last Week Tonight is one of the smartest, most essential programs on television. Each week, John Oliver takes aim at an insidious societal issue plaguing our nation and dissects the topic with an incisive, satirical proficiency that’s both wildly informative and immensely entertaining. Along with Seth Meyers’ “A Closer Look,” Last Week Tonight deserves credit for continually shining a light on the pervasive corruption and myriad injustices in our world that would otherwise go unnoticed.

Sunday night’s episode tackled the polarizing topic of the Green New Deal. The proposed legislation aimed to kickstart a conversation about the very real effects of climate change, which if ignored, could lead to the end of the world as we know it. This is a matter of grave importance that deserves our nation’s undivided attention. The fate of civilization — your children, my children, our children’s children — hangs perilously in the balance. Folks, this is as serious as it gets.

Just as serious: John Oliver made fun of the hit USA legal-thriller Suits.

“We talk about legislation about as much as we talked about Suits before we knew who Meghan Markle was,” Oliver incorrectly stated on Sunday night’s show. “You weren’t talking about Suits! You didn’t go to the water cooler and say, ‘Hey, Fred. You catch Suits the other night? That Harvey Specter as portrayed by Gabriel Macht sure is a piece of work, eh? On Suits. On the TV program Suits that’s captured my imagination.”

How dare you, John William Oliver. You wanna ridicule Hawaii Five-0? Cool. You wanna mock NCIS: Los Angeles, a show starring LL Cool J and the actor who’s not Al Pacino from Scent of a Woman that I assume tackles crimes that take place on or near boats in the greater Los Angeles area? Go nuts. But not Suits. Never Suits.

Also, I know you were joking, but Harvey Specter truly is a piece of work.

Premiering in 2011, Suits, a two-time People’s Choice-nominated series The Huffington Post once referred to as “delightful,” tells the story of Harvey Specter, a no nonsense lawyer who hires a charming drug dealer with a photographic memory, Mike Ross, to practice law at one of New York City’s most prestigious law firms. Mike doesn’t possess a law degree, but he does have a can-do attitude and encyclopedic pop culture knowledge, which if TV legal thrillers have taught me anything, is like 85% of being a lawyer.

You may be asking yourself, “Wait, how does he practice law without a law degree?” Great question. Short answer, I don’t remember. Long answer, don’t worry about it. Every television show has a plot hole. Can Rachel and Monica really afford their apartment on Friends? Who knows. Should we discount Suits because the basic premise and almost everything that happens from the word go is legally implausible, morally unethical, and deliciously unrealistic? No! Suits is so much fun. Mr. Oliver, John, if I may, you really gotta watch it. It’s a cascading reservoir of insanity that features a never-ending assortment of hot people cursing, flirting, and saying things like “Harvey, it’s legally impossible for you to win this case.”

Guess what, John? He finds a way to win the damn case. Why? Because he’s Harvey Specter, baby. A real piece of work.

You might mistakingly believe that Suits ended after Meghan Markle and Patrick J. Adams exited the series to become the Duchess of Sussex and appear in five episodes of Sneaky Pete, respectively, but nope. Much like life, Suits, uh, finds a way. Last year, Katherine Heigl walked onto the Suits set and was like, “I work here now, too.” And you know what? She does. And she’s terrific.

As we prepare for the ninth and final season of this sartorial television gem the Boston Globe once referred to as “too bland to elicit very strong feelings either for or against,” I make one simple plea to John Oliver: watch Suits. From The Mueller Report to lethal injections to opioid abuse, you’re forced to immerse yourself in a lot of heavy, mentally taxing subjects. Unwind by embracing the elegant, low-stakes nonsense of TV’s cool side of the pillow known simply as Suits.

Where to stream Suits