Suits LA Spinoff Is Already Forgetting Why People Love the Original

The USA Network drama Suits became a streaming hit last summer after Netflix acquired the first eight seasons. With billions of minutes streamed, it’s no surprise that NBCUniversal would be eager to return to this world that so many people have grown to love. Whispers of a spinoff have been in the air since the show started gaining popularity, but now it’s official – Suits is coming back.

Suits: LA recently received a pilot order from NBCUniversal, and production is slated to begin in late March. However, even though the series will be written and produced by Suits creator Aaron Korsh, as of this moment, none of the original cast members are set to return. Instead, Suits: LA will feature a new cast and primarily follow Ted Black, “a former federal prosecutor from New York, who has reinvented himself representing the most powerful clients in Los Angeles.”

After the last Suits spinoff Pearson only lasted for a season, it’s understandable that Korsh and other producers may want to take a different approach. Pearson was fairly intertwined with the original series, with Gina Torres carrying on her character Jessica Pearson’s story and other characters like Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) making appearances. But even though Pearson may not have been the success NBCUniversal was hoping for, that doesn’t mean that totally abandoning Suits’ original cast of characters is the way to go either.

While plenty of procedurals like Law & Order, CSI, and NCIS have found success in creating spinoff shows with new characters set in the same world, this approach to Suits: LA feels like it’s missing the point of what people loved about the original series. The chemistry of the Suits cast is going to be hard to match, let alone beat – Donna (Sarah Rafferty) and Harvey’s banter, Louis (Rick Hoffman) and Mike’s (Patrick J. Adams) see-sawing respect and disdain, and Jessica’s commanding presence are all things that make this show what it is.

With original cast members like Adams and Hoffman willing to return to this world, it feels like it would be a missed opportunity to start entirely from scratch. I’m not saying a remake, reboot, or straight sequel is the way to go – I’m just as tired of this trend as most people – but totally ignoring the characters of the original series in favor of a whole new cast disregards the fact that people have spent billions of minutes with these characters.

If the powerhouse that is Jessica freaking Pearson wasn’t enough to get the first Suits spinoff off the ground, why would an entire cast of strangers do any better?