D(onna)+(H)arvey: Food for Psychology
Its been exactly 2 years that I first witnessed the ‘cockiness’ of the protagonist in the TV series Suits.
Over-hyped, then (for all the wrong reasons), and losing its popularity today owing to its slow track and Jessica Pearson’s exit, the show is indeed taking a long shot with respect to Harvey Specter’s growth with every passing season, associating a figment of reality.
If I were to pursue a major in Psychology and conduct a research on fictional characters with the closest affinity to human reality filled with leaps and bounds of emotions, I’d give it away to Harvey Specter, the self-proclaimed narcissistic god, that he knows he is not.
Swooning women over their feet, and barging through the office door to make a heroic entry two hours late, we are confused if we should idealise him for being everything that we want to be or hate him for anything that stands against the principles of the society.
He talks like he owns the world, and calls your ‘bullshit’ out loud ‘goddammit’. He thinks of himself highly, and do not give two fucks if you don’t (though silently he’d know that you know that he’s a badass).
But then, there’s a side of him that everyone sees on the screen, associate with and incredibly love, but barely acknowledge.
At the end of season 4, when his savage (crush alert) secretary Donna Paulsen finally starts expecting ‘more’ after he says ‘I love you, Donna’ post saving her from the crisis, we see him feeling uncomfortable with the show of his vulnerable side. She eventually leaves him to start working for Louis Litt, only for our hearts to break to see him suffering from panic attacks (Entry: Paula Agard).
The therapy begins and we see Harvey’s past to understand his reasons of being so emotionally closed. When Paula is delving deeper into the impact that her mother’s affair had on him and how he chose to respond to it, I end up falling in love with his beautifully knitted flaws and the fact, that in those critical moment of flashbacks, Donna stood by Harvey like a best friend, more than just an assistant to help or a professional keeper.
The audience isn’t blind enough to not notice how the two of them behave when Stephen Guntley or Paula Agard enters their lives to make the other person feel just a second ‘bothered’, but ‘doesn’t mean we…’. Just never completing the sentence, though.
Why we dislike Harvey Specter?
’cause his loyalty is unmatched, unparalleled and perhaps unreal. But we CRAVE for it to happen to us.
Why we pity him?
’cause he simply can’t accept what he needs to himself.
The little egoistic fellow fails to admit that he too, like any other regular human being on the planet would want to have a normal relationship with feelings involved ’cause the mere thought of suffering apparently does make you feel weak.
He’ll be loyal to Jessica, and cry like a two year old on the thought of Mike going to jail just a day before the verdict, but both the times, he’ll make sure that Donna knows about the fluctuations in the former and that she saves him from himself in the latter.
He knows that he isn’t any different but the strength to not be like everyone else and yet be happy with whatever comes makes him different. He learns from his mistakes, is unapologetic and selectively (and preciously) emotional. And then, his luck to be a part of Darvey…..
A relationship which is not professional or personal at all. We see it, and we are just smitten by the virtue of how they’d hold hands at their most delicate moment and talk through their eyes every millisecond.
Darvey makes us feel lost and incomplete. They remind us how all our self-assessed people are incompetent to fill the void of unconditional love and an understanding that’ll never be.
We want them to screw what they have. We want them to be human.
We want Harvey to kiss her back and be together for the rest of their lives ’cause that way, they won’t be any different from the rest of the pairs on screen. Or in our lives.
And we see that happening when Donna kisses him to understand what she feels and to what extent she does, if at all (which we all know is).
I think, the reason why Harvey is cherished, admired and despised all at once by people is, ’cause we all are probably as complicated as him, but the only difference being, his show of warmth and devotion is too good to be true. Just too good.
