Meghan Markle in Suits: why you should dive back in

No joke, if she were a better actress, Meghan Markle’s TV character could have become a feminist icon.

Meghan Markle was the star of Suits.

More than 10 years ago, when I started watching Suits, it was a niche American import that appealed mostly because of its glamorous setting – a high-powered Manhattan law office – its sexy workplace intrigues and its designer runway wardrobe.

At the time, Meghan Markle, who starred as the paralegal Rachel Zane, was an actor with little claim to fame.

But her rise to royalty prompted Netflix to acquire Suits last year and all of a sudden everyone seemed to be a fan of these corporate lawyers and their dastardly deeds. Amazingly, it became the most-streamed show of 2023, with viewers watching almost 58 billion minutes. Is it genuinely addictive TV or merely a chance to ogle the Duchess of Sussex in her pre-Harry ­heyday?

Like so much glossy, style-conscious American TV it’s how you look in Suits that counts for more than what you say. And Markle certainly fitted the bill throughout the seven seasons she stuck with the show, which ran from 2011 to 2019.

Markle as Rachel: fighting for justice and trying to make the world a better place.

She does have her actress moments, I give her that. Picture: Supplied

As Rachel, she provides brunette eye candy in figure-hugging frocks and perilous heels as she tries to fulfil her ambitions of becoming a lawyer. If Markle were a better actress – and the script had challenged her more – Rachel might have become some kind of feminist icon but beneath all the smart-ass dialogue there isn’t a lot of real depth.

So why stick with it? Despite my critical comments, I have to admit a sneaking affection for Markle’s character. She’s a woman struggling to compete in a man’s world without compromising her femininity. When Rachel finds out that her boyfriend Mike Ross – who also works at the firm and is played by the likeable Patrick J Adams – has been practising law illegally (it’s not a spoiler alert, his duplicity is the show’s starting point) she stands by him like a loyal puppy. And in her own sweet way, she’s fighting for justice and trying to make the world a better place.

Meghan Markle in the Suits Season 7 Finale wedding.

There are other reasons to be seduced by Suits. Although some of the corporate wheeler-dealing can be hard to follow, there are always the uber-slick Gabriel Macht (as the ruthless lawyer Harvey Specter) and the supremely elegant Gina Torres (as the profit-driven managing partner Jessica Pearson) to provide dramatic heft.

Indeed, it’s the bromance between Macht and Adams’s characters that drives the plot as much as the romance between Rachel and Mike. Whatever the finer plot points, though, it’s the presence of the Duchess of Sussex in the cast that will have most viewers tuning in.

And beyond the fabulous look, which she effortlessly models in each episode, she does have her actress moments, I give her that. Those tears of rejection when she doesn’t get into Harvard Law School feel hard-earned; the flare-up of visceral anger when she finds out that her boyfriend has been lying to her explodes in a convincing slap or two. And you can believe in the tenderness and truth of her feelings for Mike, a television love affair that ended up being mirrored in real life when she met her British prince.

Suits, streaming on Netflix.

MEGHAN’S TOP 3 SUITS MOMENTS

1. THE SLAP, SEASON 2 FINALE

When paralegal Rachel (Meghan Markle), who desperately wanted to go to Harvard Law School, discovers that the firm’s wonder boy Mike has lied and did not, in fact, go to Harvard himself, her anger comes out in a sharp slap. They make up pretty quickly, though: the storm is followed by memorable sex in a filing cupboard.

2. FIGHTING THE HARVARD RULE,
SEASON 3 EPISODE 10

“I have been killing it here for the better part of a decade. I am better than most of the associates in that bullpen and I haven’t even gone to law school yet,” Rachel says with calm determination as she demands her boss waive the rule decreeing she has to be Harvard-educated to work as a lawyer there (this theme comes up a lot). Some might read this as a foreshadowing of Markle’s refusal to fit into the prescribed princess box.

3. THE WEDDING, SEASON 7 FINALE

One corporate door closes, another gilded one opens. Rachel and Mike’s sweet wedding, with John Legend’s All of Me playing in the background, marked the end of Markle’s run on the show. After that, it was time for the build-up to her somewhat grander real-life nuptials.