So, Suits Is A Thing…
Nielsen reported that Suits accounted for 18bn minutes of streaming in the month of July alone, the second most-streamed series ever recorded by the measurement company when considering viewership totals over six consecutive weeks. Yes, that procedural (workplace?) legal drama that aired on USA from 2011-2019. Yes, the one with Meghan Markle. And yes, it recently landed on Netflix.
Perhaps, Suits broke through as a result of the writer's strike with what many outlets have dubbed a slow TV Summer. At another look however, Suits is a completely irreverent offering in the modern TV landscape, and maybe that is why it’s resonating. It’s glossy, set inside the offices and lifestyle of a big-time NYC legal firm. The stakes are “high” (to these characters) but really incredibly low (to the audience) episode to episode, the characters are beautiful and they magically never fail. Unlike the rest of the streaming landscape, it’s worth considering another insight into why Suits is breaking through: it’s just so light and easy.
It may be a golden era of Entertainment content, but taking a look back on 2023’s releases, it is also visible just how heavy TV has become. Don’t forget how light it used to be. Despite the dawn of premium originals, library content like Friends and The Office were once the most watched content on modern streaming platforms. A recent study found that over a third of people 30 years old watch TV before bed, watching 2 or more hours. That is arguably the most condensed viewing window of the average streamer's day. A recap of buzzy tentpole streaming originals for 2023 -- from Beef, to The Idol, Swarm, Yellowjackets, Silo, and Pokerface -- is a reminder that perhaps these series aren’t exactly shows audiences can fall asleep to. They’re quite intense, outside of Ted Lasso that is. In that sense, it’s not a radical surprise, that coupled with a disrupted pipeline of new releases due to the writer’s strike, Suits has emerged as a contender for series of the Summer. Despite having wrapped in 2019, Suits took the #1 spot on Nielsen’s streaming charts for 3 consecutive weeks.