There were a lot of crap in the 80s and MV was a shiny nugget of goodness. It's gotta be one of the first tv shows to start looking like a feature film, add in the cool music and action and it became the seminal show for every cop show that came after it.
shareI loved Miami Vice, but unless you remember it from when it first aired, I am not sure how it stands the test of time. Stories were great, as was the acting, but was very much a show of its time.
shareyeah the show is a little dated but that's what gives it charm and 80s nostalgia is the big rage today like the 70s nostalgia was a couple years ago.
Cops driving around Miami whilst Phil Collins is playing is always cool.
Miami Vice is a great show in the essence that it is a definite classic but sucked to a degree when it became The Don Johnson Show.
When theres no more room in Hollywood, remakes shall walk the Earth.
Agree...the downfall of TV shows
Family Ties became the Michael J. Fox show
Happy Days became the Henry Winkler show
MASH became the Alan Alda on a soapbox show
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I had a chance to view some episodes when it was on centric. They took it off the channel earlier in the year.
I was in 1982 i dont remember the show from beginning to end. From episodes ive seen this was a great show and the theme is my favorite part of the show.
The first two seasons kicked ass . Then it became hit or miss after that .
shareYes, MV is the greatest show ever!
shareI never saw the show, but I love the theme, the setting, and the iconic fashion. I have to get the DVD so I can watch all the episodes.
You dodge a question like a character dodges a punch on Mortal Kombat.-IceJJFish
I have a lot of love for this show; I was too young (ages 7-12) to fully appreciate and understand the plots, but even back then I knew it was a great show. Watching it as an adult, I think it's one of the stalwart TV shows of its time, and also paved the way for better producing and more in-depth broadcast television overall. A real landmark show on many levels ("ripped from the headline" stories, big budget soundtracks, an entire movie feel).
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shareYeah, the show's list of guest stars is an entity onto itself; I can't think of another TV series which had so many promising or known performers in guest spots.
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shareOh, there's definitely some visuals errors and jump cuts, but still so ambitious and innovative; I'm currently re-watching the episodes I have recorded (about 101 out of the 122). I'm up to 'Smuggler's Blues' right now (fantastic episode).
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shareHa, yeah, Richard Jenkins: he was twice for Vice, as a fed and then much later as a mob boss. I do believe that the "Smuggler's blues" song added a lot to that episode, good tune.
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share"Brothers in Arms" wasn't a Vice title though, but it did appear in its full length on the episode 'Out Where the Buses Don't Run". I think 'Little Miss Dangerous' and 'Smuggler's Blues' are it as it goes with song & episode titles.
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shareI never thought about it, but since you brought it to my attention, yeah, out of all those episodes I'd think there would be more episode titles that were also song titles, especially since certain songs were creating specifically for the show.
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shareI kind of have the song "Red Rain" by Peter Gabriel from the episode 'Stone's War' on my mind at this time, which is a song that I've heard outside of the show, but still associate it with the show for the most part, same with Don Henley's "Dirty Laundry" from the 'Rock and a Hard Place' episode.
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shareYeah, the actor is Bob Balaban, and his Ira stone character was in two episodes, which highlights Crockett's past duty in Vietnam. I thought it was powerful stuff. I think Balaban would probably be best known for his guest spot on "Seinfeld", when he played an NBC executive who become enamored with Elaine and her cleavage. But I agree, good character actor.
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shareOh yeah, I remember Balaban from "Lady in the Water" and "Bob Roberts", but also from 1981's "Absence of Malice" and 1989's "Dead Bang" (with Don Johnson again).
The Bill Paxton (R.I.P.) & Wesley Snipes you speak of is "Streetwise" from season 3. Wait...I just realized that the song from the beginning of the show is also called "Streetwise", so that means there is another episode title what has a song title as well! I just remembered that.
Um, favorite episode of Vice? Hmmm...there's so many, so I'll make a compromise by choosing an early episode & a later episode. From the early episodes I'll choose "Definitely Miami' (I dig the dual plot going on in the episode), and from the later episodes I'll choose "Honor Among Thieves?" due to the sticky situation Crockett and Tubbs find themselves in, along with the plot twist near the end.
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sharemiamivice.wikia.com is a great reference on the show, going into great detail about the series, episodes, and character profiles.
The shows that you named are excellent (I just re-watched 'Evan', and there are scenes there which still make my eyes well up), and I believe those episodes would make most people's top ten. It would be tough for me to create a comprehensive list, and I'd probably feel like I left an episode out. I'd be better served to name the episodes I don't like (it's really only 'Missing Hours', then there are just a few which don't leave an impression on me, but I think they're okay).
How about that episode with Bruce Willis, 'No Exit'? I thought there was some quality drama there, and I think that was before Willis got the "Moonlighting" gig.
shareAs for re-watching the show, it's available for free on nbc.com (although a few episodes are missing).
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shareI recently read an interview with Michael Mann that was published in 2012, and he was going over all the TV shows he worked on up to that point. In regards to Vice, he said that there were episodes, especially in the first 2 1/2 seasons that there were strong, timely, and serious stories being told in that time, which he felt became lost in the public's image of the show (pastels colors, the show's style). I agree, some of the more face value aspects of Vice overshadow the actual content of the episodes.
Anyway, yeah, I use nbc.com for some of the episodes I don't have recorded (most of the first half of 'The Prodigal Son', part 1, 'Junk Love' 'Trust Fund Pirates', etc.).
I think season 4 of Vice is actually the weakest season (still like it), and if you have the time to revisit Season 5, I think you'll find some quality episodes (I particularly like 'The Lost Madonna', 'Asian Cut', 'Victims of Circumstance', 'Line of Fire', and 'World of Trouble'). Season 5 didn't pull any punches: the themes are super dark, the attitudes are cynical & bitter, and the violence/strong language is dialed up a couple notches.
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shareYeah, I'm on Season 4 now, and well...first off, if people don't like Sheena Easton or the whole Sonny/Catlin relationship/marriage, then the season's probably going to be a dud anyways, but I'm cool with all the episodes (especially 'Love at First Sight'). However, some of the weakest & weirdest episodes are also from this season: 'Missing hours' (the only defense I had for the episode is, in that era, "Unsolved Mysteries" was also on NBC and on Fridays, and they had a segment on Missing Time, so maybe Vice thought it was simpatico to have an episode like that? By the way, I LOVE "Unsolved Mysteries"), 'The Cows of October' (Gerrit Graham made the episode for me, but yeah, it doesn't fit what the show should be about), 'The Big Thaw' (some funny lines, but what I said about 'The Cows of October' again applies), and almost making the cut is 'Amen...Send Money' (Brian Dennehy, Anita Morris, and James Tolkin save it for me, but I think the plot literally asks for too much faith in trying to follow it, in which the bad guy is counting on WAY too many events to fall into place for his scheme to work). Otherwise, I think the other episodes are great.
I just got done with 'Indian Wars', and that one is a Castillo & Tubbs episode, with Castillo in the field as a player, which I think is awesome. I also like the chemistry between Tubbs & the Becky Wells character, which I thought was subtly romantic & sweet, but also didn't get in the way of the story.
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shareYeah, I thought Ben Stiller was pretty fun in his one scene. Actually, since Izzy gets on my nerves sometimes (I do like his anachronisms though, and I suppose he was never overused) , I would've liked more like the character he played as the offbeat informant.
I just finished Season 4, begun Season 5, and finished the main chunk of the Sonny Burnett arc. I think that circumstance divides some too, but at least in the world of TV I find the whole scenario plausible enough. I mean, Crockett went through a lot to begin with (Evan, being set up by a fed, being on a hit list, divorce), then Catlin gets killed by the guy he sprung from prison, and his job is juggling two identities (he stated early in that series, half-joking, that sometimes he remembers who he is), so sure, maybe after a huge explosion his persona flipped completely. Plus, he had a doctor & a dealer tell him he was Sonny Burnett, and he couldn't remember a thing anyway, so he just went with it. I think Don Johnson did a great job with the whole Sonny Burnett deal anyway.
Speaking of Castillo, the next episode I plan on watching is "Heart of Night", when Castillo reunites with May Yin. This is another episode where Castillo's true self ( I always see him as a Samurai, kind of like Batman) reemerges.
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shareFor the the most part I just tolerate Izzy, and I actually liked Noogie better, but I heard there were on set problems with Charlie Barnett, so he kind of had to go; the Noogie had to boogie.
Yeah, good point about the amnesia being used on TV on a regular basis. With the way Vice did it, I was sold.
Some things I've heard about Season 5 is that the show was going through the motions and that certain storylines are recycled from previous seasons. Okay, so I just finished viewing the episode 'Jack of All Trades', and I suppose one could say that it's like 'Phil the Shill' in a sense, but just in basic concept. I mean, Phil Collins is a long way from someone playing Crockett's flim flam cousin, and sure, Switek's in it, but only at the end (now if Zito showed up, wow, that would be some feat). There aren't many lighthearted episodes in Season 5, (if any more that I can recall), but I thought this was done well, not in that "going too far" way that Season 4 did when it veered towards comedy.
To backtrack though, I don't get why so many people say, "Yeah, the first two seasons were great, but it sucked after that" or variations of such a statement. What was wrong with Season 3, I don't think it had one truly lousy episode (I don't love either 'Viking bikers From Hell' or 'Everybody's in Showbiz', but I think the rest are aces). I don't know, maybe I like dark storylines (another show I rate right up their with Vice as a fav and can babble on incessantly about is "Dexter", so maybe it's just me).
Maybe that's where Season 4 got goofy at times, NBC & Vice listened to the viewer complaints, and overcompensated.
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shareThat's all true, I totally agree; once the 1980's ended, so did the show. Even if the show was still doing well in the rating department in 1989, I still think it would've been a good idea to move on. The cast was static (the characters sure weren't, which is another great thing about the show; everyone evolved), and I wouldn't want it any other way, so eventually everybody had to go their separate ways.
I've been reading up on some goofs for the show, and I've caught most of the ones in which Crockett's Testerossa was framed backwards (easy catch really, since all you have to look for is one mirror), but a goof I like is a language goof in 'Heart of Night' when Tubbs, in telling Castillo Ma Sek isn't around, calls him "Ma Seek". That makes it more realistic for me, since names get mispronounced all the time (I know I do it) in daily life.
I was revisiting a Vice Top Ten Episodes on YouTube, and the video also included three things to avoid in a Vice episode, which were the sports episodes like 'Florence Italy' (I liked it okay enough), 'The Fix' (hey, it's Kramer! And yeah, overall I really liked it), and 'The Good Collar' (I thought it was heartbreaking actually, and powerful), The episodes that didn't involve Crockett or Tubbs (poor Trudy got saddled with 'Missing Hours', but otherwise I'm happy to see the rest of the OCB team get their own stories), and of course, what we already talked about, the Sheena Easton episodes.
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shareI agree with you on 'The Fix' though, when it comes to the acting of Bill Russell & Bernard King (I thought when he said the line "I can't play poorly", it was pretty bad).
Another thing I really dig about Vice overall is how the job burnout of Crockett, Tubbs, and Swiek was handled in Season 5. I mean, they were done being cops, and the show was over, so it all worked out. I'd like to imagine Crockett & Tubbs getting into the P.I. business, Switek becoming a magician, Gina & Trudy promoted to homocide, and Castillo, well...he's an OCB fixture, so I think he stays.
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shareI found another Vice episode in which the song (this time an instrumental) is also the title: Season 3's 'Shadow in the Dark' (the one where Crockett goes to a dark place mentally to catch a bizarre house burglar).
shareNBC tried to have a spin-off of Vice with that episode 'Leap of Faith' and that Young Criminals Unit (haven't re-watched that yet, about to get to it though); it wasn't picked up. If it was, I guess OCB would have cameos, mostly Crockett, Tubbs, and Catillo. I'm honestly glad that wasn't picked up, as all it would be was NBC's answer to "21 Jump Street".
In an interview with Rolling Stone a few years ago, Don Johnson talked about the idea of being back Vice in some kind of form & strictly for streaming (so viewers can binge on it), but that probably won't ever happen.
Gina living happily ever after? Yeah, her character deserved it, plus she had characters fall for her before, they just weren't right for her (like Liam Neeson's Sean Caroon). She could quit the force and be a singer, she had the skill for it. I'm not sure if either Trudy or her lost the taste for law enforcement though (she should have; she was raped, had to deal with a victims rape/suicide, and watched a kid get blown up by a package intended for her, amongst other things), since I didn't see much burnout from her.
I think it's too bad that back in the day NBC was in a hurry to get rid of Vice and relegated the Al Lombard-based episode 'World of Trouble' as a "lost" episode (the equally excellent 'Too Much, Too Late' that closed the Valerie Gordon character was deemed too rough with its child molestation plot for NBC themselves to air it). 'Leap of Faith' and 'Miracle Man' (that episode is saved for me by having the topic of manic depression involved, which I doubt any other show in that time tackled, as the world at large was just getting introduced to manic depression at the time) I understand, but Al Lombard was a huge part of Season 1, and who I thought was an extremely memorable character.
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