CHUD.com Community › Forums › SPORTS, GAMES & LEISURE › Television › Miami Vice - Revisited
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:

Miami Vice - Revisited - Page 2

post #51 of 99
10/2/07 at 8:56pm
While reminiscing about Vice I realized how much I liked the usage of pop music in the show (it also spurred me to watch Manhunter yet again, and the music holds up well there too, with the exception of that awful "Heartbeat" song at the very end.) Several examples have been brought up already, but this show introduced me to the Swingle Singers. They did the music in the "Jack of All Trades" episode (the one with Crockett's cousin), a-capella classical music set to a jazzy beat. Not everyone's cup of tea, but I think it's great. Bouncy and fun.

Since it's been years since I've seen Crime Story, does Mann make similar use of period music in that show? I only recall "Runaway" from the opening credits.
Reply
post #52 of 99
10/2/07 at 9:50pm
Heartbeat, heartbeat, listen to my heartbeat! Oh oh!

They also used that song in a first season VICE episode. The one where Crockett sleeps in with Kim Griest which leads to Tubbs getting beat up while undercover.
Reply
post #53 of 99
10/2/07 at 10:17pm
That's one of those episodes where Crockett has a girlfriend at the start and, even though it's the first we've seen her, they make it look like they're on the cusp of marriage. They did that a lot. There was one in the later seasons where he starts the episode on the verge of proposing to a smack-addicted doctor, played by Helena Bonham Carter, who looked no older than 19 at the time.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nekkerbee
Since it's been years since I've seen Crime Story, does Mann make similar use of period music in that show? I only recall "Runaway" from the opening credits.
I've only seen the first season of "Crime Story" but the music of that era depicted often played a key role in the series. Sadly, a chunk of the original music used isn't on the first season DVD set.
Reply
post #54 of 99
10/2/07 at 11:38pm
Molti, I am disappointed. How can you not look at William Russ and think Roger LoCocco from Wiseguy?
Reply
post #55 of 99
10/3/07 at 12:20am
Sorry to say but I never really got into "Wiseguy." I was a tad young when it was first on, which is actually true of "Vice" as well. When "Wiseguy" first hit DVD a few years back I rented it and it just didn't click for me. Ken Wahl was the personification of one-note.

I do recall Russ having a nice role in the pilot for "Crime Story."
Reply
post #56 of 99
10/3/07 at 12:37am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
Michael Chiklis in a dress:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=AoAjbK-b0ug
Assuming that's the last season which I'm thinking was '89. It's crazy to see Chikilis with the balding guy ponytail and realize he's only 26 at that point.
Reply
post #57 of 99
10/3/07 at 1:01am
That would mean he was only 28 when he landed "The Commish." Who the hell becomes commissioner of a police department at that age?
Reply
post #58 of 99
10/3/07 at 2:10am
Thread Starter 
The season one finale was pretty good too. They ended the season with some pretty strong episodes. The episode where Zito moves in with Switek should have been better. It should have been an all out joke fest. So much lost potential.
Reply
post #59 of 99
10/3/07 at 2:32am
I liked the Zito/Switek dynamic in terms of being a direct contrast to Crockett/Tubbs but the couple times they were the focus of episodes fell flat. They had one in the second season where Phil Collins appeared that didn't offer too much.

But I'll say that the death of Zito was handled well, and Michael Talbott toned down his hammy acting style quite a bit:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=DNVlLUc9BaE
Reply
post #60 of 99
10/4/07 at 2:26am
Thread Starter 
Wow, Crockett was lucky that helicopter he shot at in the season two opener didn't fly into a building in NYC and kill a whole bunch of innocent people. I like that a Phil Collins song was at the end of the season two opener. Fitting really.
Reply
post #61 of 99
10/4/07 at 3:03am
Just watched the one brought up earlier, "The Cell Within," where Tubbs is taken prisoner by an insane criminal-turned-author. Decent ep, especially by season 5's standards. John P. Ryan makes it fun. Such a terrific overactor.
Reply
post #62 of 99
10/7/07 at 1:13am
Thread Starter 
Hands down my favourite scene in Miami Vice:

Out Where The Buses Don't Run - Episode 3, Season 2

Anyone know what song that is?
Reply
post #63 of 99
10/7/07 at 10:56am
Dire Straits - Brothers In Arms

It was used years later by The West Wing:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=uaUPDYXQUtw
Reply
post #64 of 99
10/7/07 at 1:59pm
Brice Mcgill is so good in that episode. No wonder Mann has cast him in a lot of his films.
Reply
post #65 of 99
10/7/07 at 2:53pm
Yeah, yet again a Collateral character whose movie I would like to see. Butin that ep he was pretty damn great.
Reply
post #66 of 99
10/7/07 at 3:58pm
Thread Starter 
At first I wasn't digging the performance. How he was playing it was part of the reason why I never really liked the Jack Dalton character he played on MacGyver. He was to constantly outrageous and goofy. But it all gets explained at the end and then you forgive him for acting the way he did. Plus, it was great to see a semi-young David Strathian.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti
Brice Mcgill is so good in that episode. No wonder Mann has cast him in a lot of his films.
I was thinking last night how he could have made a good Lt. Castillo in the Vice movie.
Reply
post #67 of 99
10/7/07 at 4:24pm
I could see that. I mean if he could be Timecop's boss then why couldn't he do the same for Crockett and Tubbs?
Reply
post #68 of 99
10/8/07 at 4:15am
I got the first 2 seasons, they're still pretty great. I'm reluctant to go further though, based on my hazy memories of a sad, non-pastel world.
I vaguely remember a musical montage where Crockett was driving, and as the music reached its peak, Don Johnson slowly, dramatically looked directly into the camera. I think my sister started laughing.
Reply
post #69 of 99
10/8/07 at 4:32am
I'd say go ahead and check out the 3rd season. There was still a lot of quality stuff going on that year. Mann had probably put all his attention into "Crime Story" by that time but the tone of the first 2 seasons is still felt strongly.

The 4th is where you really need to be a die-hard to keep up with the program.
Reply
post #70 of 99
10/8/07 at 12:23pm
I swear I remember reading when the show was on how Mann went and did Crime Story and then came back to Vice because the hands he left it in did not do a good job. I remember reading Mann, to put it mildly, was not pleased in the direction they took it and he came back for the 5th season to put things right.

Then again I might be hallucinating.
Reply
post #71 of 99
10/8/07 at 1:24pm
I don't know how involved Mann was during the final season. I can't imagine that he was involved with the "Vice: The Next Generation" episodes.

It wouldn't shock me if he had a lot of influence over the finale. That one did a good job of getting back to the type of storyline you'd see in the first couple seasons.
Reply
post #72 of 99
10/12/07 at 2:33pm
Thread Starter 
"Goodbye daddy."

Damn... season two has started off great. Just finished the first disc and there was only one weak episode on it. I think it was the second or third episode. The one where Zito's beard mysteriously disappeared only to magically return in the next episode.

The Clarence Williams III voodoo episode was weird but ended up being pretty decent. I liked when Tubbs puts that tracking device on the truck right out in plain sight rather then hiding it. And when Zito finds Tubbs in the pool and doesn't do anything. He just calls Crockett over casually. Good times.
Reply
post #73 of 99
10/12/07 at 2:42pm
The voodoo one is worth it for when Crockett shoots that buff midget.

Did you get to the one where Miles Davis runs the massage parlor?
Reply
post #74 of 99
10/12/07 at 2:46pm
Thread Starter 
Yeah, that's the one I just quoted above. Where the dad is banging his daughter. I didn't see that coming. Well... I did after I fell asleep and woke up when the bad guy said he was her dad. Then I had to rewind to Castillo finding out and I was pretty pissed.

And the shooting of the midget was great. I also like when Tubbs pulls out his shotgun that he carries tucked away in his pocket I guess and shoots Clarence Williams. The guy is facing forward but when he falls off the boat he somehow magically turned and then steps off the boat. He doesn't fall. You can clearly see the stunt man step off.

I love 80's TV.
Reply
post #75 of 99
10/12/07 at 2:52pm
I couldn't understand a word Miles Davis said, but I suppose it was still a coup to land him on the show.

You should be close to "Bushido." That's a keeper.
Reply
post #76 of 99
10/12/07 at 3:04pm
Thread Starter 
Miles Davis? I just remember a walking skeleton!
Reply
post #77 of 99
10/14/07 at 10:26pm
I just watched the Miami Vice 90minute pilot for the first time...don't laugh at me! Never watched the series before, only some minutes here and there...never a whole episode.

Now I want to know if I should watch more. Is the Columbian thing the subplot for the whole first season?
How much ongoing story is there? Is this a typical dealer of the week thing from now on? How much do the characters evolve?

Does it pay off to watch the whole thing? Or is it like with 24. Watch the first and second and forget the rest?
Reply
post #78 of 99
10/14/07 at 10:40pm
Thread Starter 
The Columbian drug lord, Calderone, is dealt with by the fourth and fifth episode of season one. It's a pretty good two parter. If you've read most of the thread here you'll see that we all agree season one and two are great. The show takes a dive around season three in quality and, as Moltisanti said, is really for people who love the show to make it worth watching.

Each episode has a different crinimal and they're not all drug lords/dealers. But they are a Vice squad so what do expect? Those are the types Vice squads deal with.

But anyways, I just watched the "Gina's Friend Gets Raped by Joaquim de Almeida" episode. Pretty good. I didn't like how they let Gina kill him at the end. It would have been better if he got away with it and either they got him later in the season or he just flat out got away with it. The ending seemed like a last minute decision.
Reply
post #79 of 99
10/15/07 at 1:07am
Even though Calderone is dealt with early in the first season, you could say his "legacy" is felt in the second and even third season.

"Vice" wasn't a show like "24" with season-long arcs but it did do a good job of bringing back characters every so often to give them some sort of resolution. I'm thinking of types like the journalist that Bob Balaban played or the mobster that Dennis Farina played a couple times in season 1 and who showed once more towards the end of the last season.
Reply
post #80 of 99
10/15/07 at 1:16am
Thread Starter 
I just watched the Balaban episode. I love when Crockett and him come under mortar attacks while on the Scarab. And I love that G. Gordon Liddy played a corrupt soldier. What a stretch for him!
Reply
post #81 of 99
10/15/07 at 1:37am
I dug Liddy's henchman in that one, Mr. Mung. God only knows how many dumpsters they had to turn over before they found that dude.
Reply
post #82 of 99
1/28/08 at 3:30am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
The feature length episode where they go to New York is great as well. Rip on Phil Collins all you want, but when Tubbs is running through the airport trying to catch a flight back to Miami to the tune of "Take Me Home" it is poetry in motion.
Anybody know where I can find that footage mentioned above? NBC took it off of youtube and apparently the rest of the internets as well. I needs me some sweet Rico action.
Reply
post #83 of 99
1/28/08 at 4:01am
It's gone? They're all gone? For shame NBC, for shame.

Best I can offer up is Phil Collins' actual "Take Me Home" video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tJIqxMOy-uw

Watch it fast before some corporation robs us of its riches.
Reply
post #84 of 99
1/28/08 at 4:11am
Quote:
Originally Posted by Moltisanti View Post
It's gone? They're all gone? For shame NBC, for shame.

Best I can offer up is Phil Collins' actual "Take Me Home" video:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=tJIqxMOy-uw

Watch it fast before some corporation robs us of its riches.
I kind of wept a little on the inside when I couldn't find Tubbs and his super sweet moves set to the soothing sounds of Phil Collins. There has to be a way to find that video, there just has to be.
Reply
post #85 of 99
3/24/08 at 12:27pm
I'm finally working my way through Season Five for the first time and the show is definitely still watchable. I just watched a pretty enjoyable episode with Brion James as some sort of special government agent. It had a classic Vice ending to it that reminded me of the earlier years.

The wrap-up of the Burnett storyline was also great. My only problem is that they rushed the story arc. Johnson goes from a low-level muscle man to head of the whole drug organization in like one episode. I think the show might have had a chance to boost ratings and revitalize itself if it had continued with that arc for most of the season.
Reply
post #86 of 99
3/24/08 at 2:48pm
If the show had any gas left at that point it might have made for an interesting season-long arc. But by that time everyone was on auto-pilot and basically just playing out the clock.

Joe Polito was great in that arc as "El Gato."
Reply
post #87 of 99
11/27/08 at 8:22pm
I think my two favorite episodes of Miami Vice are "Payback", and I forget the title but the one with Bob Balaban as Crockett's old Vietnam buddy. The Jan Hammer prison music from Payback is amazing and my favorite miami Vice song.

Share the wealth, Crockett!
Reply
post #88 of 99
4/23/09 at 11:54am
Halfway though Golden Triangle. Olmos just did some sweet wing chung moves.

Also liked 'Milk Run', although the guy playing the naiive drug traffiker was an awful actor, like a lot of the bit players.
Reply
post #89 of 99
10/9/10 at 5:15am
I'm working my way through some late-night reruns of VICE. Currently snoozing my way through Season 4.

Anyway, the first two seasons somehow wormed their way into my brain and won't let go. I'm not sure why. This has to be the most intoxicatingly weird mainstream show I can think of off the top of my head. Once it started getting less surreal, around Season 3, is when I started to doze off with greater frequency.

Best Surreal Scene: in "Whatever Works", when Castillo visits a voodoo witch doctor in a neon-lit courtyard, while surrounded by snakes, monkeys, and a chair that someone has set on fire for some reason. Then Castillo and the witch doctor stare at each other, in close up, as the bongo music soundtrack intensifies. This scene has no real bearing on the plot.
Reply
post #90 of 99
10/9/10 at 12:47pm
The best part of that scene is the casual attire Castillo sports as he walks through the voodoo courtyard. I'm a huge fan of Castillo in general, but I especially enjoy any time he wears something besides his trademark suit. I feel like it brings me closer to such a mysterious, and intoxicating, character.

Whatever Works is also notable for the guest turn from Eartha Kitt as Priestess Chata. There's one scene between her and Castillo where she appears to be wearing some sort of gold lamay turban.
Reply
post #91 of 99
10/9/10 at 9:37pm
My favorite Vice episode is the 2nd appearance by G Gordon Liddy..It's got a sweet kill set to "Red Rain" by Peter Gabriel
Reply
post #92 of 99
10/10/10 at 4:00am
My favourite has been THE PRODIGAL SON. The movie-length Season 2 premiere, and better than most actual movies I've seen in the last couple of years. Twists, turns, and thrills, and with a narrative that follows the drug trade from the squalor of the drug fields in Bogota to the flashiest Wall Street boardrooms!

And with an amazing celebrity cast. Pam Grier! Gene Simmons! Penn Jillette! The stars truly came out to play for that one.
Reply
post #93 of 99
10/10/10 at 4:02am
Not sure what the worst is - probably just one of the boring ones, of which there are many - but I saw one just the other night where a cryogenically frozen reggae star's CRYO-CHAMBER was lost at sea, and the final shot of the episode was of the cryo-chamber floating in the water, with a crudely-animated "sparkle" effect gleaming off of it.
Reply
post #94 of 99
10/10/10 at 4:05am
And there was one really funny episode where Nathan Lane rapes a woman in slow-motion.
Reply
post #95 of 99
10/10/10 at 4:19am
Any episode focusing on Gina or Trudy is destined to be a SLOG of an episode. Particularly bad was The Dutch Oven which focused on one of theirs (I forget which adn who cares!) romances. There was one funny scene where this pervy old man and a child pull up to Gina (who is dressed as an undercover hooker). The old man wants her to have sex with the small boy in his car! Breaking TV boundaries since 1984!
Reply
post #96 of 99
10/10/10 at 4:53am
Loved that episode. Fascinating plotline. Trudy falls - and falls hard - for a greasy nightclub singer with wide, child-bearing hips and a swaying fat ass. There's an entire scene dedicated to him singing a ballad at a nightclub - "Love is For Sale".

Then he finishes and goes offstage to talk to Trudy and nobody in the club applauds.
Reply
post #97 of 99
10/11/10 at 3:59pm
Last night, Crockett - for reasons that are still unclear to me, because he was happily married in this episode - joined a video dating agency. He had long, flowing locks in his video, and promised his prospective dates "fun in the sun".

Then he went on a date with Iman and she tried to cut off his penis.

Well, I'm assuming that's what happened. Because up until I fell asleep 30 mins into it, Crockett was on the hunt for a killer who cuts off men's penises, and Iman's name was in the opening credits and still hadn't appeared yet.
Reply
post #98 of 99
10/28/10 at 2:15pm
Anyone seen the new Lebron James ad?

Good to see Don Jonson back in that role.
Reply
post #99 of 99
10/29/10 at 10:29am
The season 2 premiere is indeed epic. I especially liked the Creepy banker / drug lord played by the actor who was the creepy preacher in Poltergeist 2. He should have acted more.

If I ever make it to the MV series finale I hope it’s more satisfying than the one for CRIME STORY. Which I liked up until the final shot. If you’ve seen it you know what I mean. I reallise they didn’t know if they would be renewed, but it’s still unforgiveable.
Reply
New Posts  All Forums:Forum Nav:
  Return Home
  Back to Forum: Television
CHUD.com Community › Forums › SPORTS, GAMES & LEISURE › Television › Miami Vice - Revisited