6
Thursday, July 21, 2016
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
ARTS
‘Suits’ ill-fitted
By ALEX INTNER
Summer Managing Arts Editor
Can anyone explain what hap-
pened to “Suits”? I’m struggling to
come up with why the show is still
running
and
why they decid-
ed to substan-
tially
remove
the drama from
where it was
at its creative
peak. This sea-
son
premiere
didn’t feel like
the
“Suits”
I
fell in love with
when it first premiered. It’s a com-
pletely different show, with a tone
that feels unfamiliar and, quite
frankly, wrong.
Season six picks right up where
season five left off, with Mike Ross
(SAG Award Nominee Patrick J.
Adams, “Orphan Black”) adjusting
to prison after pleading guilty to
fraudulently practicing law despite
not being an actual lawyer last sea-
son, and Pearson Specter Litt deal-
ing with the consequences of pretty
much all their staffers leaving as a
result of a deal gone wrong.
In preparation for the season six
premiere, I binged the last six epi-
sodes of “Suits” ’s fifth season that
aired last winter and it felt like the
series was preparing for its end-
game. Where can this show go after
permanently separating the show’s
two leads in Mike and Harvey Spec-
ter (Gabriel Macht, “The Spirit”)
after having Mike’s guilty plea?
Doesn’t that mean it just blew up its
whole premise? The drama seemed
lost during its premiere, trying to
rediscover its tone with its new arcs
while seeming to struggle greatly.
Mike’s prison story is what felt the
most off-base from what “Suits” has
done before. The premiere shows
him trying to adjust to a new way of
life and a new group of people while
imprisoned. It’s embarking on a dark
storyline, especially as Mike gets
tricked by his original cellmate Frank
(Paul Schulze, “24”) into telling his
life story and texting his girlfriend
Rachel (Meghan Markle, “Fringe”)
from the man’s phone. Frank then
reveals himself as someone Harvey
is responsible for imprisoning, and
that he’ll use this information to get
back at him through Mike. A story
of having Mike deal with villains in
prison feels distinctly different from
what the show used to be. The series
invokes “Shawshank Redemption” a
lot in these scenes, but it’s not nearly
at the level of the movie it’s referenc-
ing.
Where “Suits” gives glimmers of
hope is in its story involving Har-
vey, Jessica Pearson (Gina Torres,
“Firefly), Louis Litt (Rick Hoffman,
“Samantha Who?”), Donna (Sarah
Rafferty, “Brothers & Sisters”) and
Rachel trying to recover everyone
from leaving. “Suits” is at its best
when it throws an intriguing chal-
lenge at its lawyers while simulta-
neously watching them dig their
way out of it, and elements of this
idea were at play in the premiere’s
storyline. Additionally, the moment
where Louis accidentally gets some
of his late assistant’s ashes on his
face is one of the few moments
where the episode allowed itself to
loosen up and be humorous.
In this story, the show didn’t
double down on its misery. It didn’t
force the characters into situations
where they’re not allowed to be
happy, like it did for most of last sea-
son and it’s doing to Mike with the
prison storyline. They’ve jettisoned
the character off onto his own show
and they’re struggling to figure out
what it should be. Honestly, I might
be done with the show at this point,
because once they made this choice,
there’s no way the show can reunite
and become what it once was, even
if there are hints of what I enjoyed
about the show still existing.
USA
I wish Alicia Florrick was here instead.
TV REVIEW
What’s next for Nintendo?
VIDEO GAMES COLUMN
Y
ou know what Pokémon
Go is. If you haven’t
noticed the people
around you playing it, you’ve
probably read one of the thou-
sands of news
articles cover-
ing its meteoric
rise to the top
of the app store
and its gar-
gantuan rev-
enue stream.
According to
CNBC, it’s the
biggest mobile
game in the
history of the
United States. There’s not much
more to say about the game that
hasn’t been said — it’s a bona
fide cultural phenomenon. And,
as someone who follows gaming
culture very closely, it’s been
wonderful to see.
However, as fascinating
as it has been to watch
Pokémon retake the cultural
consciousness both locally and
internationally, I have to say
that I’m even more interested
in seeing how Nintendo handles
its current boost in fame and
fortune. Long story short, I
think they’re already failing
to capitalize on their biggest
opportunity ever.
Even though Pokémon Go
wasn’t developed or published
internally at Nintendo (instead
developed by Niantic, Inc.,
which Nintendo owns a stake in),
the resurgence in the popularity
of the Pokémon brand has still
managed to double Nintendo’s
stock price. Apparently you can
hear Silicon Valley executives
salivating from as far west as
Arkansas.
But, like any smash hit on the
app store, Pokémon Go won’t
be able to keep its grasp on the
zeitgeist forever. Observing the
stories of fly-by-night app boom
companies like the currently
gasping-for-air Zynga shows a
distinct trend of initially massive
hits in mobile and social gaming
that fail to recapture their early
successes. If Nintendo wants to
fully capitalize on their enviable
situation, they need to make
several significant moves sooner
rather than later.
First and foremost, Nintendo
needs to announce NX right
now. Like, within the next two
weeks. It’s already baffling
that Nintendo hasn’t even
announced the real name of
their still-codenamed console,
which is due to be released in
March 2017. If they want to
turn around the rather rough
story their hardware sales
numbers are telling (Wii U has
sold around 13 million units
worldwide, a little more than a
tenth of what the original Wii
sold), they need to jump on their
worldwide news media attention
and provide details on their next
big hardware launch as soon as
possible. It’s not like they’ll lose
out on coverage from the games-
specific press if they put out
the news in the fall. The IGNs
and the Gamespots of the world
will hound Nintendo’s every
decision regardless of when or
where it happens. What they
will lose out on is a significant
portion of the mainstream
press — your EWs, your Us
Weeklys. All of these influential
outlets are rubbernecking in
Nintendo’s direction right now,
but they’ll turn their heads back
toward the highway if Nintendo
doesn’t work their magic with a
hardware press conference soon.
Nintendo also needs to find
a way to load Pokémon Sun and
Moon — the new main-series
Pokémon games — into Pokémon
Go’s powerful trebuchet. While
the more traditional Pokemon
games never really stopped
selling big (Pokémon X and Y for
Nintendo 3DS sold an impressive
15 million units), they haven’t
done the ridiculous numbers the
original games did back in the
late ’90s, never mind the mind-
boggling numbers Go is doing on
the App Store. If Nintendo can
correctly maneuver the message
around their new games,
perhaps even by promoting
within the Pokémon Go app,
they might be able to massively
boost their sales even past what
they were in the first generation.
It’s really their only chance to
come out of this holiday season
in the black, since both the NX
hardware and their new “Legend
of Zelda” game aren’t releasing
until next year.
Finally, Nintendo should
attempt to understand the
social aspect of Pokémon Go
and incorporate it into future
software and hardware.
Nintendo has always been a
company notoriously behind
the curve with social and online
features — the Wii was maligned
for requiring lengthy “friend
codes” to connect with other
players online, and neither
it nor the Wii U has offered
any sort of social networking
comparable with the online
ecosystem of Playstation
4, Xbox One or Steam. To
this end, Pokémon Go has
demonstrated that it has power
far beyond financial. It shows
that Nintendo’s brands have
the ability to connect people in
droves — to bring people from
diverse walks of life together
under one big geeky umbrella.
If Nintendo could learn to
make something powerful and
interesting out of people’s shared
love of their games (perhaps a
functional online profile and
chat functionality for their next
console?) they could drastically
improve the future of their
hardware.
Besides a few tweets about
the next Pokémon game’s roster,
the only news we’ve heard
from Nintendo post-Pokémon
Go is the announcement of
their “NES Classic Edition,” a
replica of their iconic ’80s home
console that’s bundled with 30
digital games. It’s a lukewarm
announcement that really only
appeals to Nintendo’s perennial
hardcore fanbase. Again, these
people aren’t the ones Nintendo
needs to be looking to right now.
This article isn’t meant to
be a scathing criticism about
a company I have problems
with. On the contrary — his is a
layman’s advice for a company
that I care very deeply about.
I’ve been a gigantic Nintendo fan
for as long as I can remember,
and I truly believe in the quality
of the art that Nintendo’s
talented developers create. If
anything, Pokémon Go should
be proof that the Big N should
never be slept on. Just when you
think they’re out for the count,
they deliver a huge uppercut that
puts them right back in the fight.
Pokémon Go is their biggest one
yet.
Pokemon Go just crashed on
Jacob Rich’s iPhone. If you’re as
angry as he is about crashes,
email jacobdr@umich.edu.
JACOB
RICH
C+
Suits
Season 6
Premiere
Wednesdays at 9 p.m.
USA