Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) is promoted to senior partner of the Pearson Hardman law firm.
To his annoyance, company policy requires he hire a Harvard Law School graduate as his associate attorney.
Meanwhile, college dropout Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) delivers a suitcase of marijuana for a friend, only to find that the drop is a sting operation.
While escaping the police, he mistakenly sits for an interview with Harvey and impresses the attorney with his eidetic memory, encyclopedic knowledge of law, and drive to become a good lawyer.
Conversely, others lauded the characters' interactions and the snappy dialogue and praised the series' attempt to make the typical USA formula more grounded and edgy.
To his annoyance, company policy requires he hire a Harvard Law School graduate as his associate attorney.
The suppliers find Trevor eavesdropping and force him to stay overnight so that he can't warn Mike of the possible set up.
In the suit, Nancy (Dagmara Dominczyk) claims her boss Charles Hunt sexually harassed her and then fired her under false pretenses.
On April 5, 2010, USA announced that it was developing seven new pilots for its 2010–2011 television season, including A Legal Mind, which would later become Suits.
[4] The network later picked up A Legal Mind on January 19, 2011 and ordered eleven one-hour episodes in addition to the 90-minute pilot.
[5][6] Creator Aaron Korsh, whose Notes from the Underbelly sitcom was canceled during the 2007–2008 Writers' Strike, wrote a spec script intended to be a "half-hour Entourage-type based on my experiences working on Wall Street."
Korsh noted that there is no degree or test needed to work on Wall Street and be a mathematical genius, unlike the bar examination in law.
On July 7, 2010, Patrick J. Adams was the first actor to be cast and was given the role of Mike Ross, a college dropout pretending to be a Harvard graduate.
[18] The rest of the series is filmed in Toronto, where the sets are built to be identical to the New York law offices seen in the pilot.
[19] To promote the series debut, USA had an advance screening of the pilot on June 2, 2011 at the Hudson River Park and distributed free Häagen-Dazs Sundaes cones at the viewing.
Ginia Bellafante, writing for The New York Times, stated that the series "erupts from a Mount Vesuvius of absurdities" and described the plot as preposterous.
She pointed out that the episode, like so many other USA series she described as "forged seemingly on creative autopilot", ignores all the negatives and only portrays the positive in an attempt to "appeal to the fantasy of second chances and sexy opportunities."
"[27] Diane Wertis of Newsday gave the episode 4 out of 5 stars, but she conceded that viewers must not think "too hard" about the premise or the fact that the other characters have not figured out Mike is not a lawyer.
"[30] Brian Lowry at Variety stated that the series "weaves together elements of White Collar, Fairly Legal and Psych."
He felt that although Mike is humanized by his youth and financial need, Harvey comes across as "a swaggering ass", a handicap not even the characters' playful banter can overcome.
"[31] Rob Owen of the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette compared the series to TNT's Franklin & Bash and said that Suits fares better as it is more realistic and is more grounded in reality.
He also commented that the cases were not compelling enough to make him overlook the series' structural flaws and said that there was little in Suits that cannot be found in other legal dramas.
"[33] The San Francisco Chronicle's David Wiegand is unsurprised that USA's new show involved a character pretended something he is not.
However, he believed that the show's appeal comes from the relationship between Mike and Harvey and praised the way Adams and Macht played off one another, though he doubted that this alone could sustain the series.
He stated that the premise is thin and felt that the series is an excuse for "attractive people dressed in nice outfits to banter."
"[36] Matthew Gilbert of The Boston Globe described the series as "light, inoffensive, character-driven, and mostly sunny with a chance of drama."
[38] Matt Fowler of IGN wrote that although the series portrays Harvey and Mike as charismatically mis-matched, he felt that the only difference between them is that "one's a total a-hole and one isn't."
In the end, he stated that the episode was not bad but not good and hoped that the series would bring a more interesting dynamic to Harvey and Mike's interactions.