Summary

• Donna's character was underutilized in Suits Season 9, despite her history of being an influential figure at the law firm.
• Korsh missed an opportunity to showcase Donna's capabilities in Suits season 9, tarnishing the legacy of strong female characters in the show.
• Donna's reduced role in the final season was disappointing and did not do justice to her importance in the series.

Suits' streaming domination four years after its original run on the USA Network wrapped up. Long before this belated fanfare for Harvey Specter and the rest of his cohorts at Pearson, Hardman, I was already a big fan of the show. I followed it almost weekly during its original broadcast, and even got myself DVDs of the series.

Despite my long-time love for the show, I was still surprised by its success when it landed on Netflix. Naturally, it also compelled me to do a rewatch of the whole series, including its final season, which was just recently added to the said streaming service. Several years removed from the drama's initial run on USA Network, I have formed new opinions about it, not to mention questions about Korsh's next expansion show — Suits LA. More than anything, however, I'm frustrated with the way Suits season 9 handled my favorite character from the series.

Donna Was Underutilized In Suits Season 9

Suits Season 9 Could Have Used Donna Better To Fight Faye Richardson

While Suits season 9 saw almost every original character doing better, I cannot say the same for Sarah Rafferty's Donna Paulsen. The show started with her being Harvey's trusted and competent secretary. Despite her ranking at the law firm, Donna was never treated as someone beneath the lawyers at the organization. I fully believe that Harvey wasn't going to be as effective if it wasn't for her. As she deserved, she was promoted as the company's COO. But despite her higher rank, which meant more power to make moves, she was severely underutilized in Suits season 9.

Even though she wasn't a lawyer, Donna was smart, efficient, and ingenious, but none of those qualities truly shone in the final 10 episodes of the legal show.

Instead, Donna was reduced to barely doing anything as Harvey and Louis Litt fought Faye Richardson. The majority of her role in Suits season 9 revolved around throwing threats that never really materialized and arranging secret meet-ups for Harvey and Mike. Even though she wasn't a lawyer, Donna was smart, efficient, and ingenious, but none of those qualities truly shone in the final 10 episodes of the legal show. Granted that she was able to recover Harvey's painting from Elliot Stemple, but in the grand scheme of things, she was almost useless during Pearson, Hardman's final ordeal.

Why Underutilizing Donna Taints Suits' Legacy

Suits Was So Great At Writing Compelling Female Characters

Much has been said about Harvey and Mike being the backbone of the project. However, one of the more overlooked achievements of Suits was its female characters. Korsh did an amazing job writing empowered but not stereotyped women, especially at the start of the series. Jessica Pearson, Rachel Zane, and Donna were fleshed-out characters who were equally interesting as their male counterparts. At the end of Suits, Donna was the only original female character in the show, so I was expecting that the series would give her more to do. Little did I know that I was going to be disappointed.