Patrick J. Adams recently shared that ‘Suits’ helped pave the way for the success of HBO’s ‘Succession.’
Adams made this statement during an episode of ‘Sidebar: A Suits Watch Podcast.’ He said, “I think that ‘Suits’ walked so that ‘Succession’ could run.” He then started to explain several connections between the two shows.
Adams pointed out that both series have some cast and crew overlaps. “Dagmara Domińczyk,” he said as an example. “She was in ‘Succession,’ she was in ‘Suits.’ Rob Yang. Do you know who Rob Yang was in our show?” Adams asked Rafferty. “He was the doctor in ‘Suits’ pilot where he’s giving Mike [who Adams portrays in the show] the drug test… Do you know where else you’ve seen Rob Yang? The pilot of ‘Succession.'”
Kevin Bray, who directed and produced early episodes of ‘Suits,’ also directed episodes of ‘Succession.’ Adams thinks Bray was the one who was “arguably responsible for the look and vibe of the whole thing.”
Adams also noted that the two shows share similar themes. “The theme of the show,” he continued. “It’s in New York, we’re dealing with New York. Power brokers, people moving and shaking at the highest levels of New York society.”
Sarah Rafferty, who played Donna Paulsen on ‘Suits,’ said that the two shows were treated differently in the awards scene. ‘Succession’ received much more attention at award shows, but ‘Suits’ didn’t.
Adams explained that one of the main reasons for this difference is the network each show aired on. ‘Suits’ ran on USA Network. It has more content restrictions, so this resulted in what Adams called the ‘PG version’ of what ‘Succession’ did. ‘Succession’ aired on HBO, and HBO allows for more mature themes and scenes. This gives it a different appeal. HBO also had a larger budget and different production schedules, and this helped ‘Succession’ reach a wider audience.
‘Suits’ still remains popular, though. The show had a resurgence during the pandemic and became a top-streamed series. A reboot called ‘Suits L.A.‘ is also in the works and will air on NBC. The release date has not yet been announced.
