Miami Vice: Season 1 (1984)

By the end of Season 1, you'll think pink is the new black

Genre: Action Crime Drama Thriller Series

Starring: Don Johnson (A Boy And His Dog; "Nash Bridges"), Philip Michael Thomas

Created By: Anthony Yerkovich, Michael Mann

Overview: That's right, you heard me, "Miami Effin' Vice", and not only that, I'm proud of saying that I watched this story of Crockett and Tubbs, two cops in the vice squad of Miami, dealing with drug dealers, undercover-style.

Performance:

First I need you to get over the fact that I saw this. If you remembered this as poorly as I did, you'll remember that Don Johnson played the MacDaddy and Philip Michael Thomas was the funny but tough cop. Not even the case. Thomas is a real dog, and though his acting is not as good as Johnson's, he's got a heavy presence that supports Don quite well. What I didn't like was the ridiculously over-acted comic relief of Charlie Barnett as the 'Noog man'. talk about being strung out on set, ouch.
Rating: 8

Cinematography:

I know you're laughing, but I haven't said anything funny yet, so it must be because you can't get over the fact that I actually went out of my way to rent a whole season of this. Well get over it. No kidding, this season has some real cinema flair to it from time to time. I'm talking low-angle, avant-garde stuff that makes you realize that sometimes the lens is telling the story. That's not even what television's about today, so how on earth could this crew be so ahead of its time? If it weren't for the occasional need for another edit or the odd song montage that went on for a little (way) too long, I'd be calling this fine art.
Rating: 8

Script:

And you know what else? I rented not one but THREE disks. That means I went to Invisible Cinema, rented one, then went BACK for the next one, then went back AGAIN to finish the series, all on a recommendation that I thought was so shaky that should watch these just to spite the man who said I should pay money to see them. When the season started, he was right, especially that amazing 2-hour pilot episode, but by the end the cheese was starting to pile up. I bet this is the reason shows don't do 22 episodes a season anymore...
Rating: 7

Plot:

The more I think about it the more I must bow down to the truth that this was ten top-drawer episodes, five quickly thrown together, and five really bad ones. I could even say that watching the first two disks is enough to get a good impression of this season, because the end is filled with Miami Vice doing the job of robbery division, busting gun sales as well as counterfeit money rings. I thought counterfeit was US Treasury Department's field? Isn't that Federal? Untouchables? Hello?
Rating: 7

Mood:

That's right. Don Johnson wearing salmon shirts, peach pants and loafers, har dee har har, grow up. The eighties was a time of strange discoveries and was deep in the aftershocks of 1978 fashion. Try to get over the fact that Don Johnson is actually not that well dressed. Aside from the girls in the bikinis, there's only one woman out of ten with a wardrobe that's anyway decent even by 80s standards. This is pretty much what this whole season's flair rests on. If you can't get past the ultra-heavy kitsch, then you won't like it, but if you actually give this show a chance you'll find that there's this deep self-fulfilling prophecy of a subtext that it blows you away on an anthropological level. The mood is great not because it's immersive, but because it did all it could to be cutting edge and super-hip to an extreme that merely likens it to 'fad', a beefed up fantasy of what they thought the 80s should have been: multiplied by three and overwhelming us with glitter and machismo, old school Cuban drug lords and constant borderline sexual harassment. If it weren't for the genuine respect these guys have for their female counterparts it would be sickening.
Rating: 9

Oh My God Is there anything cooler in the UNIVERSE!?

Overall Rating: 78% (Sinful But Sweet)

Aftertaste:

The only reason I watched this is because I was ordered to see the film, recently released on DVD. As I understand, Michael Mann took the basic premise of this show, made it current, included very little dialogue, and flipped film technology on its ear with the quality of video found in it. Now that I remember Season 1, we'll see what Mann did with in in 2006.