Suits spinoff Pearson might be too drastically different for fans of the original series

TV Guide

While both Suits and its new spinoff Pearson share Gina Torres' Jessica Pearson character, the two shows don't otherwise have much in common. "Pearson follows a different structure than its predecessor, choosing to tease a flash-forward mystery that's solved in the final moments of the first season," says TV Guide's Megan Vick. "It looks different, as well. While Suits is all shiny glass and brightness to represent the white-collar world of corporate law, Pearson is dark and muddy as a metaphor for the dirty business that Jessica is getting herself involved in. Differences are not necessarily a bad thing, and I applaud Pearson for going the extra mile to establish itself away from Suits, but the stark contrast could make it hard for many Suits fans to make the jump. Meanwhile, new fans will have to wade through some identity issues before Pearson finds its true groove." Vick adds: "Instead of the story propelling you forward, the characters with their multiple vices and habit for backstabbing keep you going, which isn't how it should be with a show positing itself as a political crime drama. The season finale felt like Pearson finally got to a place where it can really get started, but there's no jaw-dropping cliffhanger or big twist to help stick the landing. It doesn't matter how good the lines are or how commanding Torres' presence is if the story isn't there to back up why those lines are being delivered in the first place."

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• Pearson is like The Good Fight, but dryer and less clever: "There’s apparently not much humor to be had when there are city aldermen to lobby and union leaders to hammer," says Robyn Bahr. "Arguably ninety-five percent of Pearson’s scenes take place in a dark room between two characters at odds with each other, a static pattern that became funnier to me the more I recognized its consistency. That’s about as much fun as I extracted from this moody ten-episode opening season."
• Pearson couldn't possibly be a similar show to Suits: "Pearson is going for a grittier, more noir approach to things, and it actually makes sense that Pearson would be a more serious series than Suits," says LaToya Ferguson. "While Jessica regularly proved she was just as in the loop when it came to the pop culture references and quips/zingers as any other character in Suits, those things were also never actually an integral part of her world. They were just reminders or even surprises to those other characters that she had a lot more up her sleeve. Pearson has her having to start all over to prove to a new bunch of—far more humorless—new characters that same thing, only through arguably seedier, more ruthless means."
• Pearson has plenty of fuel when it comes to deal-making and sharksmanship
• Gina Torres: "It was important for us to move into something else. It’s a legacy piece, it’s not a sequel. It’s not Suits Jr."
• Torres on Pearson being a much darker show than Suits: "No one is safe," she says. "It is darker — I mean, it’s not Gone Girl, it’s not The Purge, we do still find time for gallows humor, but nobody’s dancing through the halls on this show. That’s not happening. As wonderful and entertaining and fun as that is, we're in a world where the stakes are higher because you are dealing with life and death, and with people’s livelihoods, and how quickly a fortune can turn, and how that breeds desperation. Desperation is the mother of a great many things. It can be the mother of great things, and it can be the mother of nefarious things, and we touch on both, and everything in between."