It’s a repeat of the Friends Netflix phenomenon, with fewer laughs and much, much better hair.
The cheesy legal drama Suits starring Meghan, the Duchess of Sussex, back when she was Meghan Markle, has seemingly from nowhere become the world’s favourite series. Having recently landed on Netflix in the US, Suits is having a surprise moment in the spotlight, leading Rolling Stone to christen it “the TV show of the summer” – 12 years after it first aired and four after it sauntered off into the great corner office in the sky.
There is one big difference between Friends and Suits, however. When Rachel, Ross and the gang arrived on Netflix and introduced a new generation to their zinging 1990s humour and low-key homophobia, the New York-set sitcom was already decades old and practically a historical document. Suits, by contrast, has only just left the building. Four years is nothing in TV, and a revival isn’t beyond the bounds of possibility.
Suits producer Gene Klein has admitted bringing the cast back together would be a significant logistical operation. Still, he hasn’t entirely shut the door on the idea, saying he was “expecting a call at some point”.
The Duchess of Sussex as Rachel in Suits, seen here with Rick Hoffman as Louis (Photo: Dave)
The obvious challenge would be tempting the Duchess of Sussex out of retirement to reprise her role as no-nonsense legal secretary Rachel Zane. She has moved on to other things. Earlier this year, she said that “acting will not be an area of focus for the foreseeable future”. For the time being, her showbusiness forays will likely be behind the camera. This follows reports she and Prince Harry are producing a Netflix “origin story” about Great Expectations character Miss Havisham.
Suits fans will hope she changes her mind. In season seven, Rachel disappeared into the sunset after marrying love interest Michael Ross (Patrick J Adams) and moving to Seattle. But from a storyline perspective, it would be a cinch to engineer Rachel’s return to the Pearson Hardman legal firm in glittering midtown Manhattan (or glittering midtown Toronto, where Suits was filmed). And Suits would be so much better with her in it.
There is a case to be made that without Rachel, a Suits reunion simply wouldn’t work. While never the biggest draw, Rachel’s understated likeability was always crucial to Suits’ appeal – and it’s no surprise that the series called it quits two years after she left.
This brings us to the strangest aspect of the phenomenon of the Duchess. Every aspect of her life – from her family strife to her taste in fashion – has been poked and pored over endlessly. Aside, that is, from her acting career, which is hand-waved away as preamble to her true purpose in life, marrying Prince Harry, being crucified in the tabloids, and photographed and followed wherever she goes.
Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, and Prince Harry, Duke of Sussex, leaving the Ziegfeld Theatre on 16 May in New York City before they were chased by paparazzi (Photo:James Devaney/GC Images)
The great Netflix Suits revival of 2023 is, however, likely to put a renewed focus on Meghan Markle, actress, rather than Meghan, Duchess of Sussex, Person Least Likely to Receive a Christmas Card from the Windsors. And that comeback has had the bonus of reminding viewers the Duchess was an accomplished performer long before she was a twinkle in Prince Harry’s eye.
Suits is the show for which she is best known. Still, up to that point, she already had an intriguing screen career. Her first experience of the spotlight came when she was 11, when she protested about a sexist ad for washing-up liquid – the tagline went “women all over America are fighting greasy pots and pans” – and wrote to former First Lady Hilary Clinton and to Proctor and Gamble. The story took on a life of its own, and young Meghan ended up on Nick News, a sort of American version of the BBC’s Newsround.
“I don’t think it is right for kids to grow up thinking that mom does everything,” she said in that 1993 interview. “If you see something that you don’t like or are offended by on television or any other place, write letters and send them to the right people and you can really make a difference – not just for yourself, but for lots of other people.”
Her next noteworthy role was in the video to Tori Amos’s 1999 single “A 1000 Oceans”, where Amos writhes in a glass case in downtown LA as passers-by watch on and strive to forge a human connection. Cameos followed in CSI, General Hospital and the rebooted Beverly Hills 90210, where she featured in a notoriously suggestive scene outside a high school. She also had a part as the “briefcase girl” in TV quiz Deal Or No Deal (“It was solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains,” she would lament).
“It was solely about beauty and not necessarily about brains”: the Duchess on Deal or No Deal (Photo: Trae Patton/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal/Getty)
All of which was leading up to Suits, where it took a while for her to win a following. She doesn’t dominate the screen like co-stars Gabriel Macht and Patrick J Adams, aka bromantic duo Harvey Specter and Michael Ross (Rachel’s eventual love interest).
But Suits wouldn’t work without her. As with all great ensemble dramas, the unique chemistry between the cast is what makes it hum, and Meghan is a crucial part of that formula.
Rachel Zane is an upwardly mobile young woman who has decided to live in genteel poverty rather than rely on her megabucks parents. Her dad is a hugely successful lawyer. However, Rachel does not excel at written exams so cannot get into law school. Instead, she works as a legal secretary, while quietly hoping to one day qualify as a lawyer – the driving impetus across her seven seasons.
Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross and Meghan Markle as Rachel Zane in Suits (Photo: Ben Mark Holzberg/USA Network/NBCU Photo Bank/NBCUniversal via Getty Images)
Fair enough, she’s no Tony Soprano or Walter White. Rachel is straightforward – a cardboard cut-out, even. But the Duchess sells the character. She brings the appropriate level of earnestness to the gutsy part while communicating to the viewer that she’s in on the joke about the ridiculousness of Suits.
Her take on Rachel dovetails perfectly with the cartoonishness of Suits, where everyone is a heightened version of a real person. That includes Patrick Adam’s Michael Ross, a hustling young man with photographic memory who lies about his legal qualifications. And Macht’s Harvey Specter, a master of the universe-type lawyer with a hidden sensitive side.
These dramas call for a certain acting style –a knowing cheesiness. Meryl Streep wouldn’t work in Suits because she would see how ridiculous it is and perhaps struggle to conceal her disdain. But Meghan is perfect as Rachel, the quiet girl who wants to make a lot of noise in her career.
Her acting is very “TV” – nobody could accuse her of stonking subtly or having hidden reserves of nuance. But she is perfect as legal secretary-next-door Rachel, and the Suits renaissance reminds us she’s a much better actor than she is given credit for. Without her, a future Suits revival would be all hype and no trousers.