Gabriel Macht (left) as Harvey Specter and Patrick J. Adams as Mike Ross in Suits

If Grisham is your god and legal thrillers your TV fodder of choice, then auto-tune your remote to Suits tonight.

Yes, the television show that took the US by storm last summer makes its way to our screens at last (premieres Monday at 10.30pm on Comedy Central).

Lauded as one of the “most well-crafted and well-acted” shows to air on American screens in the last five years, Suits is a legal thriller with twists and turns guaranteed to suck you in. Even if the only law you have an interest in till now is Jude Law.

Here’s why you need to book a date tonight (and every weeknight) with Suits…

PLOT: Created by Aaron Korsh (the man who wrote Everybody Loves Raymond), Suits is set in the fictional law firm Pearson/Hardman in New York. The show offers a peek into the daily dynamics and seedy shenanigans of the legal profession. Smart and sophisticated, witty and original, Suits is as much fun to watch when the drama plays out on the streets of Manhattan as it is when it happens inside a court. Even as the primary players constantly engage in a game of lies and deceit, hidden identities and dark secrets, Suits doesn’t limit itself to being an overtly serious watch. The drama is fittingly frothy and the legal tangles rarely deal with murder.

PLAYERS: Harvey Specter (Gabriel Macht) and Mike Ross (Patrick J. Adams) primarily contribute to the action in Suits. Specter is the hotshot honcho at Pearson/Hardman and is widely regarded as the best “closer” in New York. He hires Ross as his new associate on an impulse, impressed by his eidetic memory. For in Ross’s own words: “I like to read, and once I read something, I understand it, and once I understand it, I never forget.” That Ross doesn’t have a Harvard law degree — a strict criterion for recruitment at the firm — isn’t the only count that disqualifies him; the college dropout landed up in Specter’s office, a briefcase full of pot in hand, while evading the cops. The two, however, form a perfect team, even as Specter stretches himself to hide Ross’s identity from the bosses. However, Ross’s upright talk and sympathetic stance for clients (and even opponents) often put him at odds with Specter.

Jessica Lourdes Pearson (Gina Torres) is the managing partner of the firm who favours Specter over the others and she even paid his law school fees. Louis Marlowe Litt (Rick Hoffman) as Specter’s arch-rival is deliciously wicked. The hint of a romantic interest is provided by Donna Paulsen (Sarah Rafferty, right), Specter’s legal secretary and confidante and the only one aware of Ross’s real identity.

INTRIGUE: While the cases provide most of the intrigue, the question of who the real Ross is... is the ticking time bomb that keeps the show alive. Situations where Specter pulls him back from the brink just as his real identity is about to be compromised mark the show’s edge-of-the-seat moments.

EYE-CANDY: Gabriel Macht’s easy screen presence and good looks have contributed to the show’s massive female fan following with Patrick J. Adams’s genius-meets-bad-boy-persona acting as the ideal foil. For the men, there is Sarah Rafferty’s never-ending legs and Meghan Markle’s — who plays Ross’s “close friend” Rachel Zane — eye-popping cleavage.

What else do you need to know? The Suits premiere episode tonight is 90 minutes long. Tune in.

Suits will air Monday to Thursday at 10.30pm on Comedy Central