A curious feeling came over me as I watched the first episode of Suits' third season. It's a feeling I've become used to, following tons of television series over weeks, months and years, but it always makes me sad, melancholic and hell, even nostalgic. It's the feeling you get as you put on a show you love, with characters you really like hanging out with, where the plot is great and the dialogue fun, but you just don't... feel it.
It happens. Television is a medium where things change, and just like a show can have a dull first season, then start cracking things up and exploding with creativity in its second, a show can suddenly falter, go on for too long. The well can be filled just as quickly as it can dry up and you never quite know when it happens. As awesome it is to see a show figure itself out and as sad it is when its well runs dry, it's part of the fun of following television.
Which is why when I sat down and watched the second episode of Suits' third season, I was nervous. One disappointing episode isn't enough to quit a show - not when you've seen two seasons and really, really like it - but it is enough to scare you a bit. I wondered if season three would be the first real dud in the shows' pretty much incredible run, packing episodes with vague multi-episode arcs that didn't matter much when there was much more interesting stories and conflicts to focus on - those internally in the formerly Pearson/Hardman-offices.
I shouldn't have worried. At least not yet. While the second episode might've been a fluke in what still might be a seasonal dud, I don't think it will be. Not after this. The fun dialogue, the focus on the past, loyalty and what these characters have been through, tons of truths finally coming to light as well as interesting legal cases... It all flowed.
When you follow many television series, some of my favorite times have been when the episodes don't slow down but still manage to awake a sense of all these characters have been through. Lost is one of the shows that pulled this off regularly, making the show a tale not just about the mysteries of a certain island, but of the people on it - their hopes, dreams, secrets and flaws. The show rarely slowed down, but it excellently brought up the adventures its characters had shared, along with everything else they'd been through that had brought them to this moment.
Suits' second episode of its third season nailed that feeling. Every dirty secret, along with everything these people have done to each other, both good and bad, came out into the light. In addition to this, the story of two legal cases were told - though it seems one of them isn't quite over yet - some romance were included, along with a lot of fun stuff established through dialogue that we actually got to see. The episode was cracking with movie quotes, its characters' pasts and presents, flaws, hopes, dreams and idiosyncraties - something Lost rarely could focus on; being on a desert island makes it hard to tell about your characters' favorite restaurant or whether they like to take mud baths - along with its two legal cases. It was a joy to watch and if the third season can keep producing episodes that are on this level, or even two or three beneath it, it'll be far from a dud.
Here's hoping that well doesn't run dry yet.