How L.A. is ‘Suits LA’? Inside the celebs, sports teams and power lunch spots on the show

Welcome to Screen Gab, the newsletter for everyone waiting to see how quickly “Suits,” which was born and raised in New York, establishes its West Coast cred.

As Yvonne Villarreal writes in this week’s Break Down, “Suits LA,” premiering Sunday, moves the action to the City of Angels — specifically the world of entertainment law — and she has all the details on how the show’s protagonist navigates the place The Times calls home.

Also in Screen Gab No. 169, a visit with Michelle Randolph of “1923” and “Landman,” plus streaming recommendations for your weekend.

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The star-studded sketch “New York 50th Musical” performed during the live prime-time special “SNL50: The Anniversary Special” on NBC.

(Todd Owyoung / NBC)

Six of the best moments from ‘SNL50: The Anniversary Special’ (and a bonus): “Saturday Night Live” celebrated its 50th anniversary with a live special on NBC; The Times’ television staff weighed in on their favorite moments.

‘The White Lotus’ Season 3 premiere: Get in the boat, we’re going to Thailand: Season 3 of HBO’s addictive black comedy anthology is finally here. Times writers will be unpacking the latest mystery each week.

‘The Baldwins,’ Alec and Hilaria’s TLC show, addresses ‘Rust’ shooting and PTSD: Alec and Hilaria Baldwin star in a reality series premiering Sunday that documents their home life and discusses the actor’s trial for manslaughter on the set of a film.

No one has higher expectations for ‘Suits LA’ than the creator of the ‘Suits’ universe: The mastermind behind the “Suits” universe insists he’s more concerned about meeting the bar he’s set for himself and “Suits LA” to worry about everyone else’s.

Turn on

Recommendations from the film and TV experts at The Times

Renée Zellweger and Leo Woodall in “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.”

(Alex Bailey / Universal Pictures)

“Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” (Peacock)

Nearly a quarter century after she first fell for Mark Darcy (Colin Firth) — and fell into bed with Daniel Cleaver (Hugh Grant) — Renée Zellweger’s foul-mouthed British diarist is back with the fourth installment in the rom-com franchise, this time with an unexpected emotional kick. Picking up four years after Darcy’s untimely death, as Bridget, now a widow and mother of two, tests the waters of modern romance, “Mad About the Boy” still delivers on all the elaborate swearing, sexual innuendo and public embarrassment that fans have come to expect from our heroine and her pals. It also serves a generous portion of beefcake in the form of Bridget’s much younger love interest, Roxster (Leo Woodall). For all the delights of Hollywood fantasy, however — including a scene of soaking-wet chivalry set to the title track — the film stands out more for its interest in Bridget’s grief and Daniel’s aging (“a fraction tragic,” he admits), two subjects that scream not “rom com” but “real life.” Whatever lessons the film finds in Bridget’s ambivalent attraction to Roxster, science teacher Scott Wallaker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and staying in her pajamas, it would be hard to call them “amorous” in nature. In fact, the best piece of advice comes from her father (Jim Broadbent): “It’s not enough to survive. You’ve got to live.” —Matt Brennan

The cast of “Death in Paradise.”

(BritBox)

“Death in Paradise” (BritBox)

After 13 seasons, the popular Caribbean-set comic murder mystery “Death in Paradise” has finally appointed a Black lead detective to its cozy (and otherwise Black) island police force. Don Gilét follows Ben Miller, Kris Marshall, Ardal O’Hanlan and Ralf Little as the latest fish out of water — surrounded by water — reluctantly posted from London to the culturally French fictional British Overseas Protectorate of Saint Marie. (He’s less finicky than his predecessors, but more grumbly.) The series’ formulaic structure is a feature, not a bug, that brings in the audience, like a sing-along lyric at a rock show; in Gilét’s first episode, as DI Mervin Wilson, there is a nice joke about the “tradition” of gathering the suspects when the solution is revealed. The cast has revolved and evolved regularly over the years, but still here are the long-serving Don Warrington as stern, paternal Commissioner Selwyn Patterson, Élizabeth Bourgine as free-spirited Catherine Bordey, at whose open-air bar the team typically ends its days, and Harry the ageless animated lizard, who inhabits the scenic beach shack every chief inspector eventually makes home. People may die, but the near-the-surface subtext of every seaside season is that it’s good to be alive. — Robert Lloyd

Guest spot

A weekly chat with actors, writers, directors and more about what they’re working on — and what they’re watching

Michelle Randolph in “1923.”

(Trae Patton / Paramount+)

With the return on Sunday of “Yellowstone” prequel “1923” (Paramount+), you may be wondering how writer/producer Taylor Sheridan — who concluded the franchise flagship just last fall — keeps all the plates spinning. But it’s not just Sheridan who’s pulling double duty. As actor Michelle Randolph notes, the Western-flavored fictional universe has attracted a repertory of performers, crew members and others who keep coming back for more, including Randolph herself, fresh off a turn in breakout hit “Landman.” Randolph stopped by Screen Gab recently to discuss what era she’d like to be transported to, what she’s watching and more. — Matt Brennan

What have you watched recently that you’re recommending to everyone you know?

My goodness. So many great things came out this year. I can’t stop thinking about “The Substance” [Mubi]. It’s definitely one of those films that lingers with you. The messaging of it ... the blood ... and of course, Monstro Elisa-Sue. I also just finished all three seasons of “Hacks” [Max] last week. I was so entertained. The comedy in every episode, the chemistry between Jean Smart and Hannah Einbinder — I need Season 4!

What’s your go-to comfort watch, the film or TV show you return to again and again?

Without a doubt, “A Cinderella Story” [The Roku Channel] with Hilary Duff and Chad Michael Murray. It has been my favorite movie since I was 10 years old, and I’ve seen it more times than you can imagine. It’s as if nostalgia were a movie. If my life depended on it, I might be able to quote the entire thing. Oh, and “The Office” [Peacock]!

Taylor Sheridan’s series for Paramount+ have proven a hit with audiences. Given that you’re in two of them, what is appealing about the universe he creates on set and on screen for you as an actor?

I love the way he tells stories. He tells them through relationships that are layered and multidimensional. To me, the most interesting stories are about relationships because they drive the plot. That was definitely the case for both the “1923” and “Landman” scripts. Another one of my favorite parts of working with him is that a lot of the crew work on multiple shows of his, which says a ton about the set environment he creates. Our sets have turned into one giant family.

“1923” allows you to time travel to the early 20th-century West in a way few people will ever experience. What place and time would you visit if you could actually time travel, and why?

This is a tough question. I think I would definitely choose the early 20th century. Having had a “taste” of what it would be like in Montana, I’d like to experience the silent film era in Hollywood. Although I hope I’d make a seamless switch to the talkies once we hit the mid- to late 1920s. Damien Chazelle’s “Babylon” [Prime Video] is one of my favorite movies from the last few years — it brilliantly captures the vibrant chaos of that time!

Break down

Times staffers chew on the pop culture of the moment — love it, hate it or somewhere in between

Stephen Amell, left, and Bryan Greenberg in “Suits L.A.”

(David Astorga / NBC)

It’s been almost six years since the characters of “Suits,” the glossy legal drama on the USA network, embarked on one last con to save the show’s constantly renamed firm from potential destruction. Spoiler alert: They succeeded. And, by the end, made it impossible for some fans to hear “Viva La Vida” without thinking of hotshot corporate attorney Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht), who reflected on nine seasons’ worth of major moments to the Coldplay tune before departing the firm’s sleek Manhattan offices. He then embarked on a new chapter with his assistant-turned-COO-turned wife Donna (Sarah Rafferty) by his side, ready to fight in the gray for the good guys with his former sidekick Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams).

Premiering Sunday on NBC (and streaming the next day on Peacock), “Suits LA” expands the (legal) proceedings. And yes, that’s the CAA building in Century City serving as the exterior of the spinoff’s central firm — a fitting wink to the new show’s planned premise, which initially revolved around Hollywood agents before the streaming resurgence of “Suits” transformed the idea into a spinoff of the legal drama.

“Suits LA” follows Ted Black (Stephen Amell), a former federal prosecutor from New York who has reinvented himself as a heavyweight entertainment lawyer representing some of Hollywood’s biggest names at Black Lane, the firm he started with his best friend, criminal lawyer Stuart Lane (Josh McDermitt).

“Actors do the acting,” Amell said when I spoke with him last month. “And you think, ‘Oh, it’s your agents that get things done or it’s your manager that gets things done.’ No, it’s your lawyer. That’s where the finishing touches are put on, that’s where all of the screws are tightened, that’s where things are buttoned up. It’s an interesting world. These are the true power brokers of the entertainment industry.”

There’s one criminal case, involving a producer, that will spread across six episodes, series creator Aaron Korsh told me when I visited the set. Other cases or deals are lighter, like an actor who wants to change how he’s seen by the industry. (Actors, including comedian Patton Oswalt and “The Office’s” Brian Baumgartner, play versions of themselves.)

“Even though, really, that would probably be the job of an agent, we kind of hybridize our people and make it their job as a lawyer,” he said.

According to the show’s lore, Ted is a former colleague of Harvey’s who made the move from New York to L.A. about 15 years ago. But does Ted finally consider himself a local? He’s at least name dropping like a Hollywood power player, trying to avoid a star run-in with (an unseen) George Clooney while at a business dinner in the show’s premiere. But when I ask Korsh if Ted had adopted the Dodgers as his hometown team, he is evasive on the character’s baseball loyalties. “What I can say is that he has adopted the Lakers, and you’ll find out why in Episode 102.”

OK, but does Ted have a local recommendation for power lunches? “I’m pretty sure his go-to lunch spot in L.A. is Craig’s [in West Hollywood],” Korsh said. “We put it in the original pilot, but we had to change it for various reasons. That would be the place that Ted would go to to get something done.” — Yvonne Villarreal