By its third episode, NBC’s Suits LA has gotten itself somewhere in the ballpark of what you’d expect from a series called Suits LA. There’s a blandly attractive ensemble trading dutifully quippy banter. There are storylines about professional rivals and potential office couples, maneuvering around difficult clients and unsympathetic judges. There are many establishing shots of the CAA building in Century City, recognizable to anyone in Los Angeles adjacent to “the industry.”

Sure, it might not be fun or fizzy enough yet to replace Original Flavor Suits in anyone’s heart. And no, no one from Suits has appeared yet to explain what one show has to do with the other. But you can see how it’s trying to get there, and even how it eventually might. All in all, there are worse ways for a spinoff to start.

The problem, of course, is that it’s not the start.