The MIAMI VICE Experience - Page 2

I don't know how they managed to cram all that suit chicanery within a 77 minute running time.

Looks like a filthy porno! All of Olmos' friends look like they shuld be asking

WHICH OF US GETS TO SUCK YOU FIRST MY LORD>..... mmm forbidden delights...

but it is truly the "Star Trek Generations" of Miami Vice! Sierra... Olmos... two legends together at last!

I'm glad you highlighted the first shot of the episode, even though you didn't think it would be a very effective interrogation technique. Still, what a unique way to open an hour of network television.

2 Castillos feels a bit low to me. A lot of the faults you point out are fair but the use of Voices while they head to the Bahamas alone is worth a 3rd Castillo. That is beyond iconic.

I would have given Calderone's Return Part II 1 Castillo. I was disappointed completely. Tubbs should have been the one to blow him away, the daughter is the major factor that ruins the episode, along with Calderone' only having 2 scenes. It should have been titled Calderone Returns, but only for 2 scenes, and in the second part.

I was hoping you'd have a picture of Calderone's death, Erix. Still, it's another great humorous write up and the other pictures you posted along with the captions were hilarious.

I agree with Eko this is a terrible episode, aside from the "Voices" scene and the car chase which is very well done. Sam McMurray was a fun character also. Also some interesting trivia... apparently in the original NBC airing of this episode, Calderone's shooting death was more graphic, and was censored on reruns and dvd. So that version is lost forever, unless someone out there has it taped...

I liked this episode. Felt epic enough to me. While this isn't my favourite, Paul Michael Glaser's other two episodes, SMUGGLER'S BLUES and PRODIGAL SON, are amongst the five or so best of the series, so I guess I just have an affinity for how surreal his episodes could be. The show was always over-the-top and retarded, so I accept a lot of the worst scenes in this as highlights. Here is the all-time classic bad MIAMI VICE scene: "OPEN UP YUH MIND... AND YUH EYES...

"

Because these forums are fucking atrocious, I was unable to edit that post after screwing up the formatting, so allow to me atone for my sins by posting this clip: TOUGH, UNIQUE, BAD BOLD AND... SASSY. It's too slow-paced to be a truly classic Tubbs compendium, but it does contain, at 2:50, the all-time worst Tubbs moment. I felt embarrassed the first time I saw it. Thankfully, the creator of this clip combines the sugar with the spice, and includes Tubbs' best-ever scene straight after.

The man had the moves, you gotta give him that.

Oh yes, the Sam Mcmurray factor is another reason I'm sweet on this one. As a longtime admirer, to see him in one of his earliest roles is a treat.

That sitting and falling backwards stunt would make a great .gif.

Agree on that scene being terrible with it's overacting. She starts grabbing at her head with those crazy eyes. I actually started laughing at how ridiculous it all is in that scene.

Not to detract too much, but I've got one episode left, and then I'll be done with the first season of Miami Vice. A lot of the episodes didn't really grab me with the impact I was hoping, but there were still quite a few standouts, and it's enough to get me to order season 2.

Though I've been a huge fan of this feature and reading it regularly, I have not posted in this thread yet, and upon my first post here, I've discovered that this could very possibly be a spin-off of the B Action Thread with this rollercoaster of craziness. Everything related to The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit had me dying of laughter. Trying not to laugh when I first saw the poster during an online sidetrack in class yesterday was painstaking, mainly due to the unrecognizable Olmos and the LECHEROUS Joe Mantegna. Sadly, I can find no video evidence of anything about the film on YouTube.

That being said, I love this experience so much. Some of these screencaps are murderous too, Erix.

Yeah, Erix manages to get the best screencaps. I especially liked Crockett's piss poor version of The Argentinean, compared to the real deal. He looks a shitload like William Petersen in that screencap.

Love how Tubbs sums up Castillo at first sight:

"Charles Bronson by way of Havana."

Castillo introduction and the opening fight scene aside it's a fairly routine outing. I dig Farina's second appearance on the show more.

A Just Cause reference! You're awesome, Erix. You know it, but it's great to see you reference that. Plus the information about Joe Dallesandro being older thann Billy Drago. That's almost mindboggling, but they are similar.

I'm with Molt on liking Lombard's second appearance better, but he does great here.

Castillo also goes against all the police superior stereotypes in that HE NEVER YELLS. Seriously, the man barely talks above a whisper.

Loved the new column, Erix, and I'm certainly looking forward to your next entry which was one of my favorites of the first season.

Today when I accompanied my parents to dinner, and my girlfriend met up with us, I discussed Miami Vice: Season 1 with my Dad, and mentioned I got the box set because of your Blog on it. I'll be getting Miami Vice: Season 2 soon. That's a certainty.

I'm going to be honest and say that to add to the TV Guide references and in-jokes, you should have put in brackets, "Preempted from an earlier date," due to the delay in the article.

The Castillo Stare has got the potential for funniest recurring bit here, due to the way you edited everything together in the writeup.

And yeah, the way "Wonderful Tonight" gets used is well, wonderful.

Rene and Erix with the obscure allusions to a Sean Connery movie I thought nobody had remembered (except you two and me who never saw it) in the slightest was hilarious.

By the way, in 1985, Olmos did take the Emmy for Best Supporting Actor in a Drama Series, and rightfully so as seen throughout the rest of the show, the man is a classic case of a deep, conflicted man with his skeletons in a big storage unit, and throughout the first season and into the next four, you'll learn that The Enigma of Castillo (possible occasional feature?) is one of the show's greatest strengths at acting and storytelling.

As for the next writeup, the infamous No Exit, where Bruce Willis gives a memorable guest turn as an abusive, uncompromising pimp, has so many elements to it (and I know one of you guys who post in the B thread or here has an AMAZING gif from this episode that needs to be here) that could very well make this particular experience the best Vice Experience yet. And I'm anticipating each new entry more than my collective excitement for a shit ton of big summer movies in 2011. So THERE.

This could explode. The marvel of this, Erix, is that it's a show that's either primarily forgotten, that some people think is cheesy, and smaller groups are able to champion the show's excellent and very often brilliant writing and directing (and yes, the acting). And it's exactly the sort of show that CHUD readers will be more than interested to read through.

Something tells me you're up to something good.

Oh yeah, something good.

Great write ups. I love how casually intense Olmos is. It's actually pretty cool that they didn't replace Sierra with a copy cat character, and took the opportunity to go in a different route with the superior officer character. Dennis Farina is the shit here, but I have to concur and that I like his second appearance on the show much better, but this episode had some pretty great guest stars.

On another note, I'm kind of surprised how fast I'm blowing through this show. I'm already at the third episode in season 2. I expected to get bored after about two or three episodes, but I'm still digging it. I was already a fan of the film Mann did in 06, and I think that watching the show is making me appreciate it even more, I just ordered a copy of it on blu ray and I'm planning on watching it after I finish the show. 

I'm a little worried though moving on because I read that Mann took a backseat on producing duties after season 2. 

Mann was more focused on launching Crime Story, not to mention working on MANHUNTER, after the first couple seasons of Vice. Don't worry too much, you won't notice much in the way of a quality dip in the 3rd season. Lots of memorable outings there. After that season you will see the dip. Oh my Lord will you see the dip. But on the bright side this blog just might bring out the fun in even the crummier of season 4/5 episodes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Moltisanti 

Mann was more focused on launching Crime Story, not to mention working on MANHUNTER, after the first couple seasons of Vice. Don't worry too much, you won't notice much in the way of a quality dip in the 3rd season. Lots of memorable outings there. After that season you will see the dip. Oh my Lord will you see the dip. But on the bright side this blog just might bring out the fun in even the crummier of season 4/5 episodes.

That's a shame that there's that big of a dip, but seeing as how the show doesn't employ long term story archs I can see how after three seasons they'd run out of strong story material. I don't know if there's a trade off because I absolutely love Manhunter. How is Crime Story? I've never seemed to have heard of that one before.

Crime Story is well worth watching. Dennis Farina is the epitome of hard-boiled as Lt. Mike Torello. Like Vice, it's also chalk-full of "Before they were star" appearances from tons of actors who went on to big careers. It lasted two seasons, the first is pretty much quality the whole way through while the second is not nearly as consistent but still has some merit.

But if you're digging Vice and you like Mann's films then you'll surely find a lot to enjoy about Crime Story.

Well looks like I'll be checking that out when I'm done Vice. It seems season 2 is out of print though, it's not on netflix and it's going for $70 and up on Amazon.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erix 

I think some of the individual seasons are out of print. You can check Ebay... But you may as well purchase the full 5-season set from Amazon for a hundred bucks. It's not a bad deal, all things considered.

 

About Crime Story... It's a show I've never really watched outside of a couple of episodes. I do remember the opening credits with the legendary use of Del Shannon.

 

I may look into that eventually.

I was actually referring to season 2 of Crime Story being out of print. I've been watching Miami Vice via Hulu which has all five season uploaded.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Erix 

Thanks for your support...

 

I'm glad someone got my Just Cause reference. It's not a good movie, or even a particularly popular one, but I threw that in there. My Ed Harris avatar also quotes Just Cause.
 

If the person who made that gif you are referring to is willing to send it my way, I would probably use it in the piece.

I do not know if this is what you mean........

To me what's funnier than Willis tossing his wife in the pool is what he says before the send off. "You want something to wear? WEAR THIS!" *Splash*

Good job highlighting the odd use of that Teddy Pendergrass song.

It's too bad scumbag Willis hasn't appeared in more movies. Guess he sorta did a white trash version of his Vice persona in MORTAL THOUGHTS.

Isn't Mortal Thoughts supposed to be dogshit?

Holy fuck, this one made me piss myself.

Erix, I'll be honest: this might be the absolute funniest writeup you've done yet. The Operation Wolf and Don Henley references were fucking perfection, and then I just about lost it again when Operation Wolf 2 came up, and finally a Contra reference for the hell of it.

Your Hawaiian pizza anecdote was also very intriguing as well, though here in the States, at least in Jersey, I've never seen a Hawaiian pie that had cherries on it. And the thing about "Tutti Frutti ice cream" probably got the biggest laugh from me in the whole article.

"No Exit" is my favorite episode of season 1, closely followed by Abel Ferrara's episode, and "Evan".

Everything in your review way spot on, Erix. It's a very cinematic episode, and no write up is complete without a Dorian Harewood reference. The man is a character actor treasure!

The final Crockett shot of the episode, and the Reservoir Dogs homage got the biggest laughs from me.

Oh, and about an hour ago I purchased Season 2 online, so I'll be seeing that one soon.

Bravo... the Operation Wolf references had me howling.. NO EXIT may not be my all time favorite of the season but it is definitely one of the most entertaining. The funniest part is the melodramatic way Crockett moans "This guy's scum..." after the poor lass gets dunked in the pool. Also I'd like to highlight how much I enjoy the character of LESTER played by the dopey-voiced Julio Oscar Mechoso. He is a good character and this is probably the episode where he gets the most stuff to do. Its really too bad they got rid of him so early, most likely to let Zito and Switek have more screentime perhaps.

Another great write up for a great episode. I made it up to about episode 6 or 7 of season 2 and I think I'm going to take a break for awhile. While the show is great, it's hard to watch a shit ton of case of the weeks in row. I only wish that Mann had employed season long story arches. I know that wasn't common practice back then, but I feel like it would make it easier to digest large quantities in a short period of time. 

I love the show, and even I admit that it's heavy going. If you're not in the right mood, or if you miss a single line of dialogue, then it's the most boring shit on Earth. It's a combination of weird, immersive style/pacing and complicated, unorthodox police procedural plotting. Either one of these on its own can be off-putting, but smoosh both of them together, and HOOO BOY do you have a difficult show. Second best show of the 80s, though. After MOONLIGHTING.

Wow! I loved this one! With a show like MIAMI VICE, inordinately long boat chases don't hamstring anything - MIAMI VICE thrives on boring, and the boat chase is so long that it becomes hypnotic and soothing. And it's beautifully shot. It doesn't feel like padding so much as it feels like pure genius. I wish I could say the same for that party band, though. Jeez.

There was originally supposed to be more to my post, but seriously, these forums have gone to fucking hell. No wonder nobody posts on this piece of shit of a site anymore. Please forgive any typos in this post, because there's no way I'm going to go back and edit it, for fear of losing my "Enter" function again.

ANYWAY, I would also like to add that:

1) "Born to be Wild" just works so well when accompanying speeding vehicles, and Jan Hammer's original music for the second half is uplifting and inspirational! And the raunchy "Rico's Blues", which accompanies the scene in which Tubbs beds down with this week's dusky black girlfriend for eight minutes, is also outstanding.

2) McCarthy, a.k.a. Eric Roberts, is really truly honestly one of those actors who I feel like I've seen every day of my life, when in fact I'd never actually seen him in anything. I thought he looked like Eric Roberts, but didn't feel satisfied. Then I realised; he looks exactly like the doctor from NIP/TUCK whose girlfriend took a shit in his hot tub in that one episode.

3) The Zito/Switek interlude is a prime example of what I'm talking about when I refer to MV's weird plotting. We follow Crockett & Tubbs for a good 35 minutes, and then it's mentioned that they urgently need an entry fee to participate in the boat race, so then we shift to Zito & Switek for a good five minutes, on an unrelated case, which culminates in them seizing enough money for Crockett & Tubbs' purpose! The show really lives up to its name; it is like a slice of life in the Miami Vice squad, where not everyone's actions necessarily relate to one another, but sometimes they do. GIVE A LITTLE, TAKE A LITTLE, also from Season 1, is the exemplar of this weird type of plotting.

4) Zito's WILD hootin' and hollerin' during the boat chase is hilarious. Not in the same stratosphere as Charles Martin Smith's hootin' and hollerin' while riding on a horse in THE UNTOUCHABLES, but still significant. Both characters are experiencing a new lease on life!

5) You didn't even mention the worst feature of the episode, which is especially weird because it's the very model of a TACKED-ON TRAGIC ENDING; when Tubbs is forced to arrest his dusky Negress lover for murder! As though we're supposed to care about their shitty relationship. And it feels truly, truly, truly tacked-on. You can almost hear the editors not being able to wait to cut away to the end credits.

So, overall, I loved this one! Doesn't hold a candle to COOL RUNNINS, MON or ONE-EYED JACK as far as boring Season 1 episodes go. Those two are Snooze Central.

Right on, Erix. This episode was a big waste of time. I pretty much tuned out while I was watching it due to it being so boring.

"Switek is – as usual – a fucking bartender."

I had been laughing throughout the entire writeup (kudos to your extensive research of Vice's syndication history and references to Days of Thunder), but that line for some reason was what set me off. This is as good as, if not funnier, than the No Exit writeup.

I had forgotten (fortunately, I'm sure) that Crockett and Zito are dressed as X-Wing pilots from Kenner's Star Wars line during the race.

What gives... I love THE GREAT MCCARTHY! McCarthy is a magnetic character with charisma to spare! The episode has many subtleties... for instance I strongly believe McCarthy's red-headed right hand man, "Dale" I believe his name was, had eyes for the Great McC! It is evident in the scene where Tubbs meets McC for the first time! The fact that McCarthy enjoys blacks as I do gave me a POPPER! While some say it goes on a little too long, the musical performance of "Some Guys Get All the Luck" and that Laura Brannigan song hit the spot for me! Two fun songs and it gives the episode a relaxed calming feel because its putting the plot aside for a few minutes and letting this band play two full songs. Bravo to the Great McCarthy...

I can understand them wanting to get out of the Miami setting to change things up a bit but you're right that it's a fairly middling episode. Though the final standoff between Crockett and that one hillbilly threatening to kill the little girl is a tremendous moment.