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5[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Miami_Vice.jpg]]
6[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/PhilCollins "I can feel it, coming in the air tonight... oh lord..."]]'']]
7
8->'''Sonny Crockett:''' Hey, Tubbs, you ever consider a career in Southern law enforcement?\
9'''Rico Tubbs:''' ''[chuckles]'' Maybe. Maybe...
10
11''Miami Vice'' is a CrimeDrama BuddyCopShow which ran on Creator/{{NBC}} from 1984-1989. Created by former ''Series/HillStreetBlues'' writer and producer Anthony Yerkovich, with Creator/MichaelMann as the Executive Producer, the series drew much of its premise from real-life laws allowing property seized from drug dealers to be used in drug enforcement. In other words, if a drug dealer has a CoolCar or CoolBoat, and that drug dealer is jailed, the police can use his stuff. These laws gave the producers a perfectly valid excuse for putting their public-servant characters in Ferraris and Armani suits.
12
13The series stars Creator/DonJohnson and Creator/PhilipMichaelThomas as James "Sonny" Crockett and Ricardo "Rico" Tubbs, two pastel-colored officers of [[UsefulNotes/{{Miami}} Miami-Dade]] PD's vice squad, as they chase down drug lords, pimps, renegade FBI agents, weapon smugglers, militia members, and other [[FashionVictimVillain badly-dressed criminals]] whose downfall is to be ignorant of Miami's [[ClarkKenting worst-kept secret]]: ''psst, these two are actually'' cops.
14
15Crockett's [[CowboyCop the muscle]], a former wide receiver with a personality not unlike [[UsefulNotes/DavyCrockett his namesake]] (he even owns an alligator). Tubbs is a [[BigApplesauce New York]] transplant who arrives in Miami to [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge avenge his brother's murder]]; he specializes in... well, posing as an out-of-towner and getting it on with a parade of beautiful ladies. Together, they fight crime.
16
17The series was notable for its use of contemporary popular music, and for being one of the first shows regularly broadcast in stereo. By design, the show often resembled a music video rather than a standard PoliceProcedural. Extended musical sequences were common, often featuring little or no dialogue and numerous images of cars, boats, guns, nightlife, and [[SceneryPorn scenery]]. The show was filmed on location in UsefulNotes/{{Miami}}, and made use of a distinctive color palette, mostly white and pastels.
18
19''Miami Vice'' was one of the most influential (perhaps ''the'' most influential) TV series of all time when it comes to style and fashion. Crockett's white-suit-over-t-shirt style, PermaStubble, and Ray-Ban sunglasses all became fashion trends. His lack of socks did not[[note]] Come the 2020s, however...[[/note]]. Even several decades later, many people's ideas of the 1980s come straight from the show (which explains why many people tend to have a rather exaggerated idea of the period — not everybody dressed like the prostitutes and drug dealers of the series).
20
21A [[TheFilmOfTheSeries film of the series]] was [[Film/MiamiVice released in 2006]] starring Creator/ColinFarrell as Crockett and Creator/JamieFoxx as Tubbs.
22
23----
24!!''Miami Vice'' features examples of:
25
26* TheEighties: A major TropeCodifier. The show defined many tropes - music, fashion, attitudes - that people link to that decade to this day.
27* EightiesHair: Most of the women who appeared on the show, notably guest star Creator/PamGrier as seen in [[https://web.archive.org/web/20161203174656/http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w17/steven-spielberg/newest%20photos/COOPER%20AND%20BURNETT/valerie.jpg this photo]]. The men would also have distinctive 80's hair styles, up to and including the Mullet.
28* AbandonedWarehouse: The site of many meetings, murders, and shootouts. Of particular note is an abandoned hangar that appears as the site of a weapons demonstration in "Evan," a double execution in "Phil the Shill," a secret lab in "Missing Hours," and a drug deal in "To Have and to Hold" before finally getting blown up in ''Film/BadBoys1995''.
29* AbusiveParents: It's suggested in some episodes that Crockett's father was an alcoholic, frequently absentee and may also have been abusive, giving Crockett a drive to protect other women as young Crockett could not protect his mother.
30* ActorAllusion:
31** Sonny Crockett's pet alligator on the show is named Elvis. Don Johnson played Music/ElvisPresley a few years earlier in the made-for-TV movie ''Elvis and the Beauty Queen''.
32** Creator/PamGrier [[Film/{{Coffy}} as a woman who loses her sister to drug dealers]].
33** Recurring villain William Maynard, a retired military officer who had worked in intelligence was portrayed by J Gordon Liddy, an ex-military officer who had worked in intelligence and later served time in prison for his role in the Watergate scandal. This was Liddy's first acting job and was largely just stunt casting but it would lead to dozens of roles for him in various TV series and movies.
34** American born KGB agent Surf in the episode "Bushido", played by Creator/DavidRasche, also played another American born KGB agent in the film Film/BestDefense1984.
35* AddledAddict: Quite a few, but the worst is probably Yvonne from "Too Much, Too Late," who lets her dealer rape her adolescent daughter in exchange for crack.
36* AffablyEvil: Some of the bad guys are polite enough... until it comes time to pull the weapons out.
37* AirVentPassageway: In "Baby Blues", crooked adoption lawyer [[MeaningfulName Famiglia]] crawls through a very spacious ventilation system, complete with ladders between floors, so he can shoot the mother of one of his victims through the grate.
38* AlienEpisode: In "Missing Hours," the otherwise normal TV series sees a lot of weirdness, including a woman claiming her deceased husband has been abducted by aliens and Crockett and Tubbs later seeing a UFO.
39* AlliterativeName: Stan Switek.
40* AmbiguousEnding: in 'Out Where the Buses Don't Run it is pretty clear that Hank Weldon is destined to go to prison or more likely back to the mental asylum. But what happens to his partner, Marty Lang? He states that he helped Weldon "build the wall", does he mean that literally, helping him conceal the murdered drug dealer's corpse or just that he suspected Weldon had killed him and he'd helped him construct the fantasy that his quarry was still alive as he knew Weldon couldn't live with what he'd done?
41* AMFMCharacterization:
42** In the pilot, Tubbs looks through Crockett's music collection and finds Music/GeorgeJones, Music/JimmyBuffett, Dickey Betts, and Music/WaylonJennings, characterizing him as a GoodOlBoy.
43--->'''Tubbs:''' Where does Crockett get his music? Sears and Roebuck catalog?
44** Switek is a huge fan of Music/ElvisPresley.
45* AmicableExes: Crockett is still on good terms with his ex-wife Caroline, visiting her and their son regularly until she moves away in the first season.
46* AmnesiaEpisode: The four-part Burnett Arc, in which Crockett gets amnesia while undercover as the drug dealer Burnett and thinks he really is the drug dealer. Before he gets his memory back, he takes over a cartel, kills a DirtyCop and a number of drug dealers, and tries to kill Tubbs twice.
47* AmnesiacDissonance: Crockett goes through this when he gets his memories back. When he walks into the police station, all his friends pull their guns on him.
48* AmoralAttorney:
49** Season two's "The Fix" had Creator/KevinFierstein as Benedict, a lawyer practicing in Miami, specializing in drug-related and homicide cases. He managed to broker a deal with a judge, Roger Ferguson, to get his clients off on charges in exchange for money that Ferguson needed to pay off gambling debts owed to a racketeer, Pagone. Metro-Dade's Homicide Division reported several "slam-dunk" cases that Ferguson let fade into ROR or dismiss outright, leading them to refer to the judge as "Let-'em-Run" Ferguson. In the Vice Division, a dealer named Ortega was given a $7000 bond instead of the $2 million the state requested thanks to Benedict. Later when Ortega's gofer Berlioz asks Benedict for a similar favor, the Vice detectives recorded the entire exchange (as well as Benedict's visit with Ferguson) to corroborate the evidence of Benedict's involvement, and he is arrested.
50** Season five's "Fruit of the Poison Tree" had Creator/StephenMcHattie as Sam Boyle, a lawyer who had secret dealings with the mob, especially with Frank Romano, for whom Boyle was laundering money. He ran afoul of Romano by skimming some of the clean money to finance his Vegas vacations, and Romano arrived in Miami demanding repayment of his "unsecured loan" of $500K--$1 million or else. Boyle was defending a drug dealer, Roberto Enriquez, and got him off of a charge of dealing on a technicality when he got wind of his 199 kilo cocaine shipment, so Boyle saw this as a way to pay his debt--steal the shipment, which he did by killing Skip Jordan, sold it to Romano as re-payment, then got $1 million from Enriquez by saying Jordan had stolen his cocaine.
51* AndStarring: The opening credits end with "and Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos as Castillo".
52* AnyoneCanDie: [[spoiler:Rodriguez and Zito]].
53* ArmsDealer:
54** Tony Amato from "No Exit" plans to sell stinger missiles to a Jamaican gangster. He was the subject of investigations by both the Organized Crime Bureau and the FBI, but was rendered untouchable thanks to protection from another federal agency (very likely the CIA) in return for his international connections.
55** Guzman from "Evan" is an international arms dealer, specializing in Ingram MAC-10s with armor-piercing bullets. His customers include terrorist groups in El Salvador, Nicaragua, and other Caribbean countries, and ATF has been building a case against Guzman for several months, especially after getting one of their agents, Evan Freed, into his organization.
56* AvengingTheVillain: Esteban Calderone's son Orlando (played by a young Creator/JohnLeguizamo) attempted to kill Tubbs to avenge his father's killing.
57* {{BFG}}: Tubbs carries various shortened shotguns as his standard sidearm. Commonly an Ithaca 37 Stakeout or a sawed-off double barrel.
58* BadassBoast: From the episode "Glades". A drug dealer has a shotgun to the head of an innocent young girl, taunting Crockett that all he needs to do is twitch and the girl is dead. Crockett's response? "Maybe...you won't even...twitch..." Then he shoots the drug dealer in the head. He doesn't twitch. This scene was recreated note for note in TheMovie.
59* BadassCrew: The whole Metro-Dade Vice Squad. Believe it or not, Crockett and Tubbs were not the only great cops working in Miami.
60* TheBadGuyWins: A frequent case in the show is the bad guy will be able to get off scott free due to either having judges on their payroll, not enough evidence, or just plain horrible luck. Crockett and Tubbs will sometimes be able to make this a KarmaHoudiniWarranty but not always.
61* BaldOfEvil: J. J. Johnston from "The Prodigal Son."
62* BangBangBang: Shotgun noise is used for the firing of pistols.
63* BattleCouple: Tubbs and his on-and-off girlfriend Valerie, an NYPD homicide detective, are this during the few times they're paired together.
64* BecomingTheMask:
65** During the four-part Burnett Arc, Crockett develops amnesia while undercover as a drug dealer, leading him to think he is the drug dealer.
66** This is discussed at times as a real danger for undercover cops.
67* BeingGoodSucks: Several instances in the later seasons (which contributes to Crockett and Tubbs eventually quitting the force) show that, for all their attempts to do the right thing, it often results in the villains getting off on technicalities and innocent people being caught in the crossfire.
68* BeleagueredChildhoodFriend: On many occasions, the detectives are approached by an old friend who has gotten themselves in trouble. Often the trouble involves illegal activities on the part of the friend. It usually ends bad.
69* BerserkButton:
70** Tubbs hates machine guns, especially when they are being fired directly ''at'' him. Kind of ironic since he himself keeps an arsenal that would make the NRA squeal with delight.
71** Also Crockett and men who abuse women. This takes an ugly turn if he's drunk.
72** Don't ''ever'' touch Tubbs' Cadillac... just don't.
73* BigBad:
74** Esteban Calderone is the ArcVillain of four episodes of the first five. He is the head of TheCartel and killed Tubb's brother as well as broke up Crockett's marriage.
75** Al Lombard is a member of TheMafia and the villain in two episodes before becoming TheStoolPidgeon.
76** [[TheSociopath Frank Hackman]], a recurring antagonist, manages to be one of the most dangerous criminals that Crockett has faced.
77* BigBrotherInstinct: Raised in a family with a largely absentee and possibly alcoholic father, Crockett had an older brother, Jake, who protected him from bullies in their youth.
78* BigNo:
79** "Calderone's Demise" features a string of no less than eight successive iterations of the slow-motion Big No.
80** Crockett does this at the end of "No Exit" when [[spoiler: [[VigilanteExecution Rita shows up and shoots Amato at the end when he's about to get off scot-free]].]]
81** Also Tubbs in "Little Miss Dangerous" when [[spoiler: [[DrivenToSuicide Jackie shoots herself]]]].
82* BikiniBar: This regularly appears in the show as a location for criminals and low lifes to gather, allowing the viewer plenty of MaleGaze while remaining safe for broadcast. The pilot, for instance, has a lengthy scene of a dancer in one of these.
83* BittersweetEnding: Many, many of them. This was one of the first cop shows where the good guys didn't always win, or if they did there was a high price to pay.
84* BloodlessCarnage: For all the shootouts that take place on the show, they rarely use squibs or showed blood. When they ''do'', it would be driblets, not gaping wounds.
85* BodybagTrick: In "Tale of the Goat," a voodoo chief fakes his death with tetrodotoxin so he can be smuggled into Miami inside a coffin.
86* BodyguardCrush: Crockett meets his second wife, Caitlin Davies, because she's testifying against her former manager for payola and needs protection. At first she dislikes him, calling him the "fashion police" and asking him, "What are you going to protect me with? A blowdryer?" They don't resolve their differences until Crockett saves her from hitmen.
87* BookEnds:
88** The pilot and series finale both end with Crockett asking Tubbs if he's ever considered a career in Southern law enforcement as they walk off.
89** The pilot and series finale also have Crockett and Tubbs chasing a drug dealer who's escaping via flying boat (hell, it's even the same dock!).
90* TheBoxingEpisode: The two-parter "Down for the Count," in which Zito goes undercover as a boxing manager in order to catch a crooked bookmaker, only to [[spoiler:get murdered by the bookmaker and his accomplices]].
91* BriefAccentImitation: Apparently, Crockett and Tubbs do this by using a couple of posh British ones while joking with each other in "Lombard"; however, since the scene is dark and filmed from behind, it's difficult to say whether the dialogue is really Johnson and Thomas.
92* BrokenPedestal:
93** The repeated moments when one of the heroes finds out an [[BeleagueredChildhoodFriend old friend]], love interest, or a colleague they used to trust has gone bad.
94** In the acclaimed episode "Out Where The Buses Don't Run," the detectives are approached by a retired Vice cop, Hank Weldon, who says he is on the tracks of a drug lord who disappeared five years ago. Weldon seems mentally unstable and fixated on said drug lord. At the end, it turns out that Weldon has [[spoiler: murdered the drug lord and kept his body hidden for five years]].
95* BulletproofFashionPlate: Most of the time, no matter what happens to them, Crockett and Tubbs' clothes never get dirty or damaged and their hair never gets mussed.
96** Averted in the pilot, where Crockett's famous white linen suit and pastel teal T-shirt get blackened by a car bomb; his appearance at Maria's diner and his son's birthday party both attract attention for his filthiness until he explains what happened.
97** And in "Glades". Both of them end up covered in dirt with ripped clothes, and are constantly bitten by mosquitoes for good measure; although they aren't wearing their usual stylish threads here.
98** Crockett gets blood on his clothes and hands in "Milk Run", and a little less obviously in "The Good Collar".
99** And he gets beaten up repeatedly and brutally in "Bad Timing", complete with a lot of blood, although again, it happens when he's not dressed to work undercover.
100** Tubbs gets blood on his clothes when things go wrong in the first part of "Red Tape".
101* BusmansHoliday: In "The Afternoon Plane," Tubbs and his girlfriend Alicia win an all-expenses-paid trip to an island retreat. It turns out to be a trick by his enemy Orlando Calderone to lure him away from Miami.
102* CallBack:
103** When Crockett dates Brenda late in the first season in "Nobody Lives Forever", he finally says "I don't like your game" after her vision of their future together lets him see it might be incompatible with his life as a cop. When he meets Margaret in New York in the pilot of Season 2, a few episodes later, he says "I don't like this game already!"
104** Crockett spells Burnett "B-U-R-N-E-double T" for Caitlin's crooked management in "Rock and A Hard Place". He does the exact same thing while he thinks he's actually Sonny Burnett the following season, right before shooting a crooked cop.
105* CarMeetsHouse: When Tubbs busts a televangelist's wife for buying drugs, she tries to drive away and smashes her Mercedes into a TV shop, where Tubbs sees her singing on TV.
106* CareerEndingInjury: Crockett played football in college, but had to stop after fracturing his knee.
107* CarpetOfVirility: Except for Crockett, all the main male cast members have one, but Switek's is probably the most prominent.
108* TheCartel: One of the most dangerous enemies in the series is the Caledrone cartel, a Columbian one of these. It eventually passes to his son and inflicts some of the most personal losses on both our heroes, including killing Tubbs's brother [[spoiler: as well as mother of his son]] plus causing the dissolution of Crockett's marriage.
109* CartwrightCurse: Crockett's second wife [[spoiler: Caitlin is killed off quickly.]]
110* CeilingCling: Castillo does this in "Bushido" to hide from KGB agents.
111* CerebusRollercoaster: Season four saw the extensive use of dark, gritty storylines scaled back somewhat, although some nihilistic episodes still remain. At the other end of the scale, some of the lighter episodes veer wildly into science-fiction and comedy, most infamously "Missing Hours". The disparity between dark episodes and light episodes leads to a decidedly uneven season.
112* ChaseSceneObstacleCourse: In "Duty and Honor," the killer knocks over some boxes during a car chase, forcing Crockett to get out of his car and clear them away. By the time he catches up, the killer has torched his car and fled.
113* ChopperOnStandby: In "The Prodigal Son, Part 2", Crockett is pursuing a bad guy who manages to get into a waiting helicopter. Crockett manages to shoot the helicopter down, unexpectedly. This is facilitated by the fact that the pilot flies very slow and very low right over Crockett's head, allowing him to empty his gun into the helicopter at practically point-blank range.
114* CIAEvilFBIGood: Whenever the FBI got involved, they would usually be portrayed as fundamentally well-meaning and upstanding law officials, but they would also frequently engage the Vice squad in petty JurisdictionFriction, as well as often being paper-pushers who were hopelessly out of their element in Miami, and often messing up Crockett and Tubbs' investigations through bumbling or bullheaded insistence on upholding bureaucracy and proper procedure. CIA agents, however, where almost always varying degrees of psychotic, sinister, trigger-happy thugs in suits, and were usually tangled up in {{Government Conspirac|y}}ies which Crockett and Tubbs had a tendency to end up of the wrong side of.
115* CitizenshipMarriage: Izzy claims it's a "tragic coincidence" that he and his ex-wife got divorced shortly after he got his green card.
116* ClipShow: "A Bullet for Crockett" has most of the characters reminiscing about past missions when Crockett is shot during a drug bust gone bad.
117* ClothingReflectsPersonality: Castillo's style of dress, with its severe blacks and whites, can be seen as a metaphor for the way in which he views the world, with no shades of gray.
118* CoffinContraband: During the Vietnam War, a colonel smuggled heroin out of Vietnam by hiding it inside corpses. Unfortunately, the wood alcohol used to preserve the corpses turned the heroin toxic, killing many people.
119* ColorMotif: The first two seasons featured a pastel colour scheme, which was ramped up in the second season with regards to wardrobe, backdrops, props and picture composition. In the third season, the pastel clothing is largely eschewed in favour of greens, yellows, blues and dark greys, a move severely criticised by fans at the time. Some of the new fashion even violates Michael Mann's famous "No Earth Tones!" rule that he implemented when developing the wardrobe for the show. Season four largely reintroduced pastel clothing, although some of the darker styles of the third season still appear regularly. In season five, the clothing style changes yet again to darker shades of color combinations first seen in the first two seasons, becoming more modern. Crockett also begins occasionally wearing stonewashed blue jeans, denim jackets and leather.
120* CompressedHair: In "Definitely Miami," the villain Charlie (Music/TedNugent) hides his back-length hair under his hat while he pretends to be Callie's abusive husband. After he beats up Crockett and kicks him out of the room, he removes his hat, letting his hair fall down.
121* ConsistentClothingStyle: Especially in the first two seasons for Crockett and Tubbs. Crockett was almost always in a white suit or a white jacket with light colored slacks and always wore a sleeveless pastel colored T-shirt, and off-white loafers. While Tubbs wore a variety of non-earth tone colors, he wore a double-breasted suit or blazer the majority of the time. Crockett's wardrobe expanded in later seasons to gray suit jackets and collarless dress shirts, but while Tubbs sometimes sported single-breasted jackets, in later seasons he still seemed to favor double-breasted suits throughout the majory of the series run. Marty Castilo, except for a handful of episodes, always wore an inexpensive black suit with a short-sleeve white dress shirt for the entirety of the series run, with the only variation being his necktie. He wore the outfit so much it could also be considered a LimitedWardrobe.
122* ContemplateOurNavels: Tubbs in Season 1 was especially prone to this kind of behavior; almost anything involving the BigBad or his daughter would immediately launch the audience into a five minute long BigNo-filled {{flashback}} {{montage}}.
123* ContemplativeBoss: Julian Beck does this in his one scene as the BigBad when Crockett and Tubbs walk in on him.
124* ContinuityNod:
125** The Testarossa that is given to Crockett in "Stone's War" is hinted to be the same one owned by Irish mobster Bunny Berrigan in the preceding episode, "When Irish Eyes Are Crying" (as Crockett comments that it has "new paint" when he first sees it).
126** In "Stone's War", Crockett says that he can't play Stone's recording of the massacre in Nicaragua because he doesn't own a television. Ten episodes later, in "Forgive Us Our Debts", Crockett finally buys a small television for the bedroom on his boat.
127** "A Bullet for Crockett" begins with a scene reminiscent of the pilot, where (in both instances) Crockett and Tubbs drive to an undercover drug deal as Music/PhilCollins' "In The Air Tonight" plays in the background.
128** In "Deliver Us From Evil", Crockett's locker has a photograph with him and his college friend Robbie, who appeared in the second-season episode "Buddies".
129* CoolBoat: For the first two seasons, Sonny Crockett lives on an Endeavour 40 sailboat, which is replaced by a Endeavour 42 sailboat for the rest of the series run. He also pilots a Chris Craft Stinger 390 in the first season and a Wellcraft 38 Scarab KV afterwards.
130* CoolCar:
131** Crockett drives a Ferrari Daytona Spyder 365 GTS/4 during the first two seasons and a white 1986 Ferrari Testarossa later. The first Ferrari was a replica (for budget reasons) which was replaced by the real article at the insistence of the manufacturer.
132** Ricardo Tubbs drives a 1964 Cadillac Coupe de Ville Convertible.
133* CoolShades: In the very early portion of the first season, Crockett wears brown Carrera 5512 Large sunglasses and Alpina TR 4 glasses; for most of the first season and all of the second season, Crockett wears tortoise shell Ray-Ban Wayfarers. In the third season, Crockett wears black Persol Ratti 69218 glasses. For the fourth and fifth seasons, Crockett wears black Ray Ban Wayfarers, however he wore blue mirrored Revo sunglasses while masquerading as Sonny Burnett.
134* CorruptChurch: "Amen... Send Money" focuses on a televangelist who preaches that materialism is holy and openly asks his followers to send him money for fancy suits and manicures.
135* CowboyCop: Both Crockett and Tubbs had no problem tossing the rule book. This pissed off a fair number of other law enforcement officials. Oddly enough, however, their own chief, Lt. Castillo didn't seem to really mind, as he focused more on results. But then again, he was a FourStarBadass himself, so.
136** This literally happens [[spoiler:when a retired Texas Ranger (played by Willie Nelson!) shows up in Miami to avenge a dead son.]]
137* CreatorCameo: Jan Hammer (the show's composer) appears as a wedding musician in the episodes "One Way Ticket" and the fourth-season episode "Like a Hurricane".
138* CreepyCrossdresser: The first episode, "Brother's Keeper," features a hitman whose signature method of killing is to dress as a woman so as to conceal himself from his intended victims until it's too late for them to react.
139* CriminalAmnesiac: Crockett loses his memory while undercover as a drug dealer. As a result, he ''becomes'' the drug dealer and [[spoiler:proceeds to take over much of the Miami market. But in the process he shoots Tubbs when his ex-partner tries to force his memories back. When Crockett does regain his memory and tries to return to the vice squad, he's arrested. It takes a convoluted plot of defeating an AxCrazy criminal and saving Tubbs' life to return Crockett to the force.]]
140* CrossReferencedTitles: "Forgive Us Our Debts" and its SequelEpisode "Deliver Us From Evil."
141* CryptidEpisode: "Missing Hours" has one of the characters being kidnapped while investigating a cult and the rest of the cast rushing to find her, only to find out that they have run into an honest-to-God AlienAbduction plot with honest-to-God aliens (the leader of which is played by ''Music/JamesBrown''). A good example of the "BizarroEpisode" variant.
142* CyanidePill: In "Heroes of the Revolution," a drug dealer hides a cyanide capsule in his car keys and swallows it when he is arrested.
143* CynicismCatalyst: Caitlin's death is a major contributor to Crockett's burnout and depression in Season 5. As Tubbs puts it, "Ever since Caitlin died everything tastes sour."
144%%* DaChief: Lieutenant Castillo.
145* DamnItFeelsGoodToBeAGangster: Played straight and deconstructed. The show explores the glamorous side of the Miami underworld, and part of the reason Crockett and Tubbs are so cool is that they play along in this world. On the other hand, we often see the less glamorous consequences of a criminal lifestyle and how cruel and ruthless the underworld is.
146* DarkerAndEdgier: Compared to other cop shows of its time, such as ''Series/MagnumPI''. In fact, it can still be surprising today just how thematically dark the show is underneath the pop hits and pastel suits, and how many episodes end in [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] or [[DownerEnding downer]] ways.
147** Season three saw the storylines, along with the general tones of the show, become grittier and nihilistic; more episodes end abruptly after a violent climax that leaves numerous people dead, both good as bad alike. In line with the general tonal changes, the music shifts away from the popular, upbeat synthpop and soft rock heard in the first two seasons towards darker material, including new wave, electronic and metal sounds.
148** Season five saw the stories become even more dark and violent, perhaps peaking with the BannedEpisode "Too Much, Too Late", which was not originally broadcast because its child-molestation plot was considered too extreme for TV. The language also becomes more grittier, Switek becomes a far more serious character with his severe gambling addiction an underlying plot line and there's more focus on gunplay, with characters seen firing weapons whilst diving through the air, sliding across tables, and even DualWielding firearms.
149* DatingServiceDisaster: In "Love At First Sight," a female serial killer is hooking up with men via a video dating service, then killing them and cutting off their genitals. Crockett signs up and, after dating a few red herrings, finally manages to find the right woman. She stabs him in the shoulder before he shoots her.
150* ADayInTheLimelight:
151** "Golden Triangle" and "Bushido" delved into Castillo's past and expand slightly upon his typically taciturn character.
152** The first season episode "Made for Each Other" focused on Zito and Switek.
153* DeadPartner: Crockett's original partner falls afoul of a car bomb early in the pilot.
154* DeadStarWalking: Despite the plethora of famous guest stars on this series, being played by Music/SheenaEaston should have been a clue Crockett's FourthDateMarriage to Caitlin Davies wasn't going to last long or end happily.
155* DeathByOriginStory: Tubbs' older brother Rafael is killed in the pilot episode, causing Tubbs to go to Miami to seek revenge.
156* DeathGlare: [[https://static.wikia.nocookie.net/miamivice/images/e/e3/Castillostare.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100719175015 The Castillo Staredown]]. The famously taciturn Lieutenant used the gesture to convey his emotions without resorting to the harsh words or raised voice that are often seen as epitomising the "police chief" figure in crime fiction, particularly during the 70s and 80s.
157* ADeathInTheLimelight: Switek and Zito had always been the back-ups/comic relief to Crockett and Tubbs. So when "Down for the Count" featured them as the main characters in a case, it unsurprisingly ended with [[spoiler:Zito being murdered]].
158* DeathSeeker: The title character of "Evan" is implied to be this.
159* DeepSouth: A few episodes whose plots require the protagonists to travel outside of Miami involve them dealing with such crises as a turf war between redneck families in the Everglades. Crockett himself is a very stereotypical southerner at times.
160* DeskSweepOfRage: Crockett does this twice: once in "Shadow in the Dark" because of the Shadow's influence on his mind, and once in "Child's Play" when he's distraught after accidentally shooting a child.
161* DidNotDoTheBloodyResearch: Exploited in "Phil the Shill." In the '80s, before the Internet had opened up the world, most Americans had no idea what a wanker was. Music/PhilCollins, being English, most certainly did know, and knew the Americans didn't; thus, he was able to get away with turning to Izzy and saying "Do I look like some sort of wanker?" which would be a perfectly reasonable phrase for his (English) character to use.
162* DiedInYourArmsTonight: Caitlin is shot as she's walking towards Crockett after a concert. She collapses in his arms.
163* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: In the episode "Milk Run," some kids play the ''Miami Vice'' theme on a boombox.
164* DirtyCop: One of the show's themes was how the "lure of easy money" surrounding the drug traffic could turn even your closest friends on the police force into backstabbing criminals.
165* DirtyHarriet: Gina and Trudy are frequently undercover as prostitutes. At least, this tends to be the only time they get the spotlight; otherwise they are mostly support for Crockett and Tubbs.
166* DisappearedDad: Crockett himself becomes one after his ex-wife and son are almost killed by a hitman in "Calderone's Revenge" and he decides that they will be safer without him. His son is pretty resentful about it when he finally gets back in touch three years later.
167* TheDiseaseThatShallNotBeNamed: In season four's "God's Work", it was never stated that Louie was dying of AIDS, but the story and circumstances of Louie and Felipe's relationship (and the fact that Louie was visiting Ernesto's AIDS hospice) implied this was the case.
168* TheDogBitesBack: "No Exit" ends with the villain escape justice, only to be murdered by his abused wife.
169* DollyZoom: Done in "Miracle Man" to show the titular vigilante's mental breakdown.
170* DomesticAbuse: A pre-stardom Creator/BruceWillis (in his first major acting role) guest starred in "No Exit" as Tony Amato, an ArmsDealer who verbally and emotionally abuses his wife. She kills him at the end of the episode.
171* DoubleTap: In "Calderone's Return," Jim Zubiena demonstrates the Mozambique Drill: a double tap to the chest followed by an aimed shot at the head.
172* DownerEnding: Most episodes tend to end on this or a BittersweetEnding. This was one of the first cop shows where the good guys didn't always win, or if they did there was a high price to pay.
173* DramaticGunCock: As Crockett is recovering from his bout of amnesia, he makes his way to the police station, walks into the squad room, and stops. His fellow officers, believing him to have turned rogue, draw and cock their weapons in succession. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK. CLICK.
174* DressHitsFloor: A comparatively rare genderflipped version in "French Twist". In Crockett's case, it's "jacket" and "holster" hitting the floor, before anything of the woman's he's with.
175* DrivenToSuicide: A FBI agent takes his own life after he can't come back from his undercover lifestyle.
176* DrowningMySorrows: Crockett does this for three weeks after [[spoiler:Caitlin is shot]].
177* DrugsAreBad: A persistent theme of the series is that not only does the drug trade have a lot of death and destruction in its wake, but the individual drug users are led to a criminal lifestyle by their addiction.
178* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
179** The first few episodes form a conventional FiveEpisodePilot, and had a large number of elements (like the character of Lieutenant Lou Rodriguez, who was killed off after his actor expressed displeasure living in Miami and wanted out) that seem odd in comparison to later episodes. Especially the musical montages, which used to take up extended airtime and would occur for the duration of the song instead of a short clip in later episodes and seasons. These same episodes also feature a really dodgy, prototype remix of Miami Vice Theme in their opening credits, which is missing the main guitar line and just sounds like a lot of aimless drumming.
180** Zito and Switek's schemes used to take up entire segments during certain episodes in the first season, but this was eventually trimmed and removed altogether in later seasons.
181** Several of the early episodes had scenes where the team planned their operations together - later episodes skipped this setup and went directly to the execution of the plan.
182* EdgyBackwardsChairSitting: Tubbs sometimes sits like this while interrogating people.
183* ElvisImpersonator: Switek briefly goes undercover as a very bad one in "Everybody's in Showbiz." He sings a few off-key bars of "Heartbreak Hotel" before another character cuts him off.
184* EmpathicEnvironment: As Crockett mourns the loss of [[spoiler:Caitlin]] on the St. Vitus Dance, the Miami sky takes on an overcast, somber, and forboding look.
185* EndOfSeriesAwareness: During Crockett and Tubbs' final goodbye at the end of "Freefall," Crockett says, "Well, we had one hell of a run, didn't we, partner?" referring to both their careers and the show.
186* EstablishingSeriesMoment: The opening scenes of the pilot feature the lead characters "in their native environment," so to speak. In New York, Tubbs heads into a nightclub with the intent to assassinate a Colombian guy, but is nearly killed in the process. After the credits roll, we see Crockett and his partner making small talk about home life before they head off to meet a drug dealer. All this happens before the two meet and before the audience even knows that they are both police detectives. The good guys playing bad guys in order to catch the bad guys, along with MusicVideo techniques, is firmly established. Then Crockett's partner is unceremoniously blown up by a car bomb, establishing that 1) AnyoneCanDie and [[PyrrhicVictory pyrrhic victories]] will be common, and 2) drug dealers will be unrelentingly evil people, making the war on drugs more than a buzzword for the heroes.
187* EunuchsAreEvil: Frank, aka "the Savage," is a former CIA agent who used to work in Vietnam. He was emasculated by a prostitute he mistreated and subsequently became a serial killer of prostitutes, stabbing almost 90 women to death and writing "VC Whore" on the wall in the victim's blood.
188* ExpectingSomeoneTaller: This is both Crockett and Caitlin's first impression of each other.
189* ExpositoryHairstyleChange:
190** In the first season, Crockett's hairstyle is short and parted over on the side; in the second season it becomes slightly longer in the front and becomes a combed back bouffant-like style; in the third season, it becomes short and spikey, and gradually grows out in the back, making it mullet-like; in the fourth season it reverts to being bouffant-like in the front and remains mullet-like, and grows out as the season progresses; for the fifth season he's first portrayed with a stylish ponytail until he regains his memory, after which his hairstyle becomes long and parted over on one side and continues to grow to its longest length.
191** In the first two seasons, Tubbs sported a jheri curl. It was short for the remaining seasons. In the fourth season, he had a beard, which was shaved off in the fifth.
192** Switek's hair becomes longer and shaggier in the fifth season. He often wears it slicked back while working undercover.
193* ExternalCombustion: Crockett's old partner is killed via car bomb.
194* FairCop: Crockett and Tubbs, Trudy and Gina. Especially Gina.
195* FakeDefector: In "Red Tape," Tubbs pretends to quit the force, then sell information about future busts to a drug dealer in order to discover the source of a leak in the department.
196* FalseRapeAccusation: In "Amen... Send Money," Tubbs is accused of rape by a parishioner after he arrests a televangelist's wife.
197* {{Fanservice}}: Quite a lot of it. Including things you wouldn't even expect, like Castillo in a Speedo.
198** There are many beach, pool, and boat scenes with scantily dressed men and women.
199** Miami's hot and humid climate means that the women will frequently be wearing rather skimpy clothing, usually without bras. Male and female nipples are frequently seen under T-shirts.
200** Many episodes take part in night clubs and among prostitutes where the women's outfits are outright {{Stripperific}}, including the things Trudy and Gina tend to wear undercover (or even in episodes where they're waiting to ambush drug runners at a jungle airstrip).
201** Crockett and Tubbs wear things skirting IntimateOpenShirt as their work wear in nearly every episode. (As seen in the page image.)
202** The opening credits feature a clip where the [[MaleGaze camera focuses]] on the breasts of a woman walking in a parade while wearing a skimpy bikini top, as well as two women strolling down the street in bikinis.
203* FashionDissonance: The show is often cited as a textbook example of outrageous 80s fashions. It's even more notable because many of the fashions in the show were over the top even then (normal people didn't dress like the pimps or gangsters of the show even in the 80's).
204* AFatherToHisMen: Castillo is this kind of DaChief. In one episode he clearly states that he'd rather blow the investigation than lose somebody.
205* FauxDeath: In "Tale of the Goat," a voodoo chief uses tetrodotoxin to fake his death so he can be smuggled into Miami. Later, his followers inject Tubbs with the poison, almost killing him.
206* FinaleCredits: The credits of "Freefall" feature the song "Tell Me" by Terry Kath and use clips from previous episodes instead of the usual stock footage of Miami.
207* {{Foreshadowing}}: There's quite a bit of Crockett griping in the first two seasons about identity issues or the strain of being undercover -- including a conversation with Gina in the pilot that holds up for five seasons -- but the clearest sign of his eventual AmnesiaEpisode comes with the visual appearance of [[https://i.postimg.cc/9Qb0zG0t/Screen-Shot-2024-02-17-at-3-07-50-PM.png "Burnett" himself briefly]] at the funeral at the end of "Sons and Lovers", the second-season finale, two years before. Given that the episode [[spoiler:deals with Tubbs losing his child and his child's mother and Crockett having to stop him from vengeance killing someone responsible]], it's not that surprising. While he is framed by both Tubbs and Castillo in the shot, neither of them really look at or "notice" him.
208* ForeverWar: Part of the running theme of the series is the fact that Crockett and Tubbs never actually make a dent in the flow of drugs to Miami. No matter who they take down or kill, the money is simply too good to make a serious impact in the flow of cocaine through the port city. Eventually becomes a HopelessWar for Crockett and Tubbs as events continue to beat them down.
209* FourthDateMarriage: Crockett meets Caitlin about ten minutes into "Like a Hurricane." The last scene is their wedding. The episode takes place over the course of about a week.
210* FreezeFrameEnding: About four-fifths of episodes end on one.
211* FunctionalAddict: In "Theresa," Crockett's titular girlfriend thinks of her opioid addiction as a relatively minor flaw that doesn't interfere with her work as a doctor. [[spoiler:She still winds up selling police information to criminals in order to pay for her addiction.]]
212* FunWithAcronyms: In "Amen... Send Money," IGG stands for In God's Glory. It also stands for Ill-Gotten Gains.
213* TheGamblingAddict: Switek develops a gambling problem after [[spoiler:Zito is killed by Oswaldo Guzman in the third season]]. The problem compounds as the show goes on and never goes away. It actually manages to get worse when he [[spoiler:sells Crockett and Tubbs out in the SeriesFinale]].
214* GayngstInducedSuicide: It's implied that Mike Orgel, Crockett's friend from the academy, died this way. After Evan outed him and ruined his life, he carelessly got himself killed while off duty.
215* GenreShift: Not only are the last two seasons' episodes known for becoming gradually more ridiculous and unbelievable than the first three, one episode is actually more or less ''ScienceFiction''.
216* GoToAlias: "Burnett" and "Cooper".
217* GreyAndGrayMorality: Crockett and Tubbs on occasion mingle with people who are doing what they can just to get by. Not everyone's a criminal, and not everyone's a saint.
218* GroinAttack: In "The Home Invaders", Crockett gets rough on a bodyguard. His "primitive but effective" groin grab was edited so as to not show the actual action (the implication is that Crockett grabbed the bouncer, Angel, in a sensitive area and threw him in a closet).
219* HalloweenEpisode: "Shadow in the Dark," which aired on Halloween in 1986, has Crockett turning into TheProfiler in order to catch a cat burglar and almost going insane in the process.
220* HandOnWomb: Caitlin does this while calling Crockett before her final concert. She doesn't have time to tell him she's pregnant, so Crockett doesn't find out until her autopsy.
221* HeadsOrTails: Crockett and Tubbs would flip a coin to decide who would carry out certain tasks, either when multiple things needed to be done simultaneously, or simply when neither officer wanted to carry out the task at hand. It is worth noting that Tubbs always seemed to end up losing -- both in terms of betting on the result of the flip, and also in terms of the outcome of losing that bet.
222** "Milk Run" -- to decide who would question Angela and who would distract her boyfriend Zeke in the meantime; Crockett won and pumped Angela for information while Tubbs talked to (and was all but assaulted by) an angry Zeke.
223** "Red Tape" -- to decide who went to serve a warrant with Detectives Eddie Trumbull and Bobby Cruz; Crockett won and sent Tubbs into the building. The apartment was booby-trapped, and the resultant explosion killed Trumbull and wounded Diaz and Tubbs.
224** "Freefall" -- to decide who would see Johnny Miranda and who would see the accountant Max Flynn; Tubbs caught the coin in mid-air and decided to go see Miranda, but ended up losing anyway as the decision led to his capture by Caesar Montoya.
225* HealthcareMotivation: In "Knock, Knock... Who's There?" a DEA agent steals drugs and money during fake raids in order to pay for her son's kidney transplant.
226* HerBoyfriendsJacket: Caitlin is wearing Crockett's jacket the morning after they first have sex.
227* HeroicBSOD:
228** What happens to some of the good cops who don't go crooked: they go mad instead.
229** Partly explains what happens to Crockett when he gets hit with [[CriminalAmnesiac amnesia]]: [[spoiler:his second wife had just been killed by a SerialKiller seeking revenge on Crockett, and the aftershock of what happened made it easy for him to forget when the time came.]]
230* HeterosexualLifePartners: Crockett and Tubbs.
231* HiddenDepths: Consciously and intentionally averted by Crockett, who in spite of being college-educated and having the occasional heartfelt opinion needs to come across as shallowly as possible for the sake of his job, sanity, and keeping up appearances. In "Definitely Miami", he immediately backtracks on realizing that he's referenced Samuel Beckett's ''Theatre/WaitingForGodot'', to Tubbs' surprise.
232* HighHeelHurt: In one episode, Gina wears high heels that cause her so much pain, she can barely stand. Trudy has to support her as she walks.
233* HookerWithAHeartOfGold: If the crew isn't bringing down drug dealers, they're investigating sex crimes usually involving prostitutes. Some of their informants on the drug cases are call girls and streetwalkers.
234* HospitalVisitHesitation: Both Gina and Switek have this in "A Bullet For Crockett". Whereas the former is a wreck since the last time she and Crockett spoke was a silly argument over paperwork, the I.V. in Crockett's arm reminds latter of when he found poor Zito dead a year earlier under similar circumstances. Gina ultimately stays, but Switek is rattled enough to quickly depart only moments later.
235* HostageSituation: Season one's "The Maze" sees criminals hold a group of homeless people -- including an undercover Tubbs -- hostage in a rundown hotel.
236* HouseboatHero: Crockett lives on the ''St. Vitus Dance'' with his pet alligator.
237* HowUnscientific: In the infamous episode "Missing Hours," the otherwise normal TV series sees a lot of weirdness, including Trudy getting abducted by an alien (played by Music/JamesBrown) and Crockett and Tubbs later seeing a UFO.
238* IdenticalGrandson: Saundra Santiago plays both Gina and her mother Elena in "Heroes of the Revolution."
239* IfYoureSoEvilEatThisKitten: In "Give a Little, Take a Little", Detective Gina Calabrese is attempting to infiltrate a crime lord's organization by going undercover as a prostitute. The crime lord insists she has sex with him. To protect her cover, Gina agrees.
240* ImperiledInPregnancy: Crockett's second wife Caitlin is six weeks pregnant at the time of her murder. Crockett doesn't find out about the pregnancy until her autopsy.
241* ImpracticallyFancyOutfit: Two of the most iconic long-sleeved blazers on television are worn by characters who run around in high-stress situations in South Florida's legendarily sweltering climate.
242* ImprobableAimingSkills: What Crockett and Tubbs can do with pistols is simply amazing.
243* IncrediblyObviousBug: In "Heart of Darkness," the wire Tubbs is wearing is accidentally miswired so that it picks up FM radio. This nearly gets Tubbs killed when it starts playing loud rock music in the middle of a meeting with armed criminals.
244* INeedAFreakingDrink: "Golden Triangle Part II" ends with Castillo putting his former lover and her family on a plane. Crockett suggests they go for a drink. Castillo reminds him that in all the months they have known each other, he has never once implied he needs a drink, before asking them to take him to a bar.
245* INeverSaidItWasPoison: In "Everybody's in Showbiz," Crockett is questioning a suspect about a stolen briefcase, without mentioning that it was stolen from a limousine. The suspect says that he "ain't been in no limo," to which Crockett replies, "What limo?"
246* TheInformant: Crockett and Tubbs regularly called upon Izzy "The Snitch" Moreno and Neville "Noogie" Lamont to get information on whatever big plot was going down. The two cops treated the latter like some unpleasant form of fungus, while the former was treated like a favored pet. Izzy once even helped the two cops out while Izzy was in the middle of committing another crime (the crime was straight burglary... they're Vice cops... they cut him a break).
247* InstantConvertible: Happens in "Stone's War" to a car driven by the CIA which is chasing Crockett and Stone.
248* InstrumentalThemeTune: "Crockett's Theme".
249* InterpolSpecialAgent: More or less averted by the Interpol agent in "French Twist." She flies to Miami, hot on the trail of an international criminal... and gives the detectives advice. [[spoiler:At least until she turns out to be a French government assassin sent because HeKnowsTooMuch.]]
250* IntimateLotionApplication: In "Golden Triangle Part 1", Crockett is trying to find one of the hookers that are suckering male guests in a hotel, so he dresses up as a naive StereotypicalNerd and hangs around at the pool. The moment a pretty woman comes up to him and asks him to rub lotion on her back, he knows he's found his target.
251* InvulnerableKnuckles: {{Averted}} in "Theresa." After Crockett punches a dealer, his knuckles are bloody.
252* JurisdictionFriction: The series did this often with the standard local vs. Feds variety. Sometimes averted when the Feds specifically asked for Vice assistance. Notably, sometimes the Vice squad bumped heads with detectives in other Miami police divisions like homicide or theft.
253* KarmaHoudini:
254** Some villains (and some heroes) never answer for the crimes they commit.
255** William Maynard (played by G. Gordon Liddy) kills [[spoiler:Ira Stone]] and flees Miami - despite Crockett pledging to stop him, he never appears again.
256* KarmaHoudiniWarranty: This happens to a few of the recurring villains.
257** Esteban Calderone escapes in the pilot movie but meets his end in the appropriately titled, "Calderone's Demise."
258** Lombard eventually is taken down by his own people in TheMafia.
259* KubrickStare: Lieutenant Castillo does this so frequently and well that it's been nicknamed [[http://images1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20100719175017/miamivice/images/thumb/e/e3/Castillostare.jpg/500px-Castillostare.jpg "the Castillo staredown"]].
260* LastMinuteReprieve: In "Forgive Us Our Debts," Crockett finds evidence that the man on death row for murdering his partner is actually innocent. He manages to get him pardoned less than an hour before his execution is scheduled. [[spoiler:Turns out he's actually guilty, but he goes free anyway.]]
261* LaterInstallmentWeirdness: The final seasons also included an escalation in odd episodes, such as one of the characters [[AlienAbduction being abducted by aliens]] (the leader of which was [[QuestionableCasting played by]] Music/JamesBrown), a group of drug dealers doing a ScoobyDooHoax regarding ghosts to try to keep people away from their operation (and the ghost being probably RealAfterAll), Sonny going through EasyAmnesia (and temporarily becoming a bad guy) in one episode, a couple of "comedy" episodes where the Vice detectives had to deal with borderline-murderous [[GambitPileup Gambit Pileups]] regarding the purchase of unusual items (a prize bull's semen in one, the HumanPopsicle remains of a famous singer in another) from the same ButtMonkey ConMan snitch...
262* LeeroyJenkins: Detective Tim Duryea from "The Maze". He and his partner Dickey Hawkins notice the Escobar brothers causing trouble and charge down the street after them, "Creator/JohnWayne" style, when Raul Escobar shoots, killing Hawkins and letting the brothers get away. Crockett blames Duyrea's tactics for Hawkins' death, and Castillo reluctantly allows Duryea to be part of the operation against the Escobars at the Maze hotel. But again, Duryea's impatience and thirst for revenge got the best of him, and he began another "John Wayne" charge at the Maze, which causes the operation to become a hostage situation. Castillo wants to send Duryea home after that, but due to manpower needs he allows Duryea to stay (but not to leave the command center until the final assault). When the final assault occurs, Duryea nearly guns down Jaime Escobar and Tubbs, but is stopped by Tubbs, who dresses Duryea down:
263-->You're ''trigger-happy'', man! You don't ''deserve'' to be a cop!
264* {{Leitmotif}}: "Crockett's Theme" and "Rico's Blues."
265* LimitedWardrobe: Castillo almost always wore a slim black tie, white shirt, and an inexpensive black wash-and-wear suit, in stark contrast to Crockett's and Tubbs' fancy attire. He very rarely ware anything else; examples include "Indian Wars", where he goes undercover himself and dons a white blazer, or "Duty and Honor", where he is in shorts and a T-shirt at the end of the episode while recovering from a stab wound.
266* LovelyAngels: Gina and Trudy.
267* MagicalComputer: The crazed ex-cop Hank in "Out Where The Buses Don't Run" works with a computer to track the "missing" drug lord that Hank is obsessed with catching. The computer "Lorraine" (named for Hank's ex-wife) operates with a mind and personality of its own, and does things that computers in 1985 really didn't do.
268* TheMainCharactersDoEverything: Natch. Tubbs and Crockett investigate murders, sex-crimes, bust drug-rings and provide airport-security.
269* ManlyTears: On several occasions, but prominently shown in 'Smuggler's Blues' when Crockett ponders over the Vietnam War with a hired veteran pilot.
270* ManOnFire: In one episode, a man is set on fire when his truck explodes. He runs around screaming until Crockett tackles him and smothers the fire with a blanket.
271* MarriedToTheJob: Crockett's first marriage fails for this reason.
272* MenOfSherwood: Late in the episode "Glades", the cops join forces with several local small-time drug smugglers for an EnemyMine rescue mission against TheCartel. Only one or two of them get any notable dialogue or quirks, but all of them survive.
273* TheMerch: In-universe example. Izzy capitalizes on the Miracle Man's success by selling items such as hats, guitars, and baseball bats with his logo on them.
274* MindScrew: The fourth-season episode "Missing Hours", which has Trudy trying to figure out if she's hallucinating UFO's and aliens in the guise of humans.
275* MissingBackblast: Averted in one episode in which a criminal is seen visibly recoiling from a stinger missile. The backblast can be seen from it, and others present have already moved a safe distance away.
276* ModelPlanning: In "Glades", Crockett uses a model house to go through the plan to raid the villains' hideout.
277* MomentKiller: In a deleted scene from the pilot, Gina tells Crockett that he whispered "Caroline" (his soon-to-be-ex-wife's name) into her ear during their night together on the boat.
278* MultiPartEpisode: "Calderone's Return Part 1/2", "Golden Triangle Part 1/2" and "Down For The Count Part 1/2". 2 of the 3 two-parters ("Calderone's Return" and "Down For The Count") feature the death of the series' BigBad (up to that point in the story) and a major supporting character, respectively.
279* MurderSuicide: Season two's "The Fix" ends with a judge murdering the rackteer he's in debt to onboard his yacht and then killing himself in front of Crockett, who tries to talk him down.
280* MusicVideoSyndrome: The series was pitched as "MTV Cops", and turned this into an art form, with two similar sequences in the Pilot - one in the first half and one in the second half.
281* NecessaryFail: Crockett and Tubbs come together over the loss of their partner/brother.
282* NewscasterCameo: Bob Mayer, a Miami news anchor at the time appears as himself in the news report about Tico at the end of "Killshot".
283* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Crockett's investigation of the circumstances behind the death of his former partner in "Forgive Us Our Debts" results in a convicted and scheduled-for-execution killer to be mistakenly freed from Death Row. This comes back to bite him a season later when the killer comes back and [[spoiler:shoots Crockett's wife, Caitlin]], leading to Crockett's breakdown and slide into his alter ego, Burnett.
284* NotNowKiddo: In "By Hooker By Crook", Crockett won't let Trudy interrupt the program he's watching so she can tell him his new girlfriend is a madam... and has to find out from the program, instead.
285--> '''Trudy: (soberly)''' That's what I was trying to tell you.
286* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The "Golden Triangle" episodes provide insight into Castillo's character, which up to that point had been very mysterious. Notably, Edward James Olmos does not speak in Castillo's normal mumbling voice, expresses anger when he tries to choke Menton, and even goes so far as to SuddenlyShouting (albeit just a single word, "Wrong!") at Menton after the final confrontation.
287* OneDialogueTwoConversations: In "The Prodigal Son, Part 2", when he's in New York with Margaret, Sonny tries to be honest about himself and what he does without revealing that he's a cop (also dropping some {{Foreshadowing}} for the final season). Margaret still thinks he's a criminal.
288--> '''Crockett:''' I don't like to think of myself as one of your "dangerous dudes". I don't do this sort of thing for kicks. It's just a job. I don't get off on it, and when it's over I try not to think about it. Be nice if... one part of my life was real.
289--> '''Margaret:''' Is your name really Burnett?
290--> '''Crockett:''' My first name is Sonny.
291--> '''Margaret:''' What are you really like...? Flipside of Burnett?
292--> '''Crockett:''' ....That gets a little cloudy sometimes.
293--> '''Margaret:''' [[AllGirlsWantBadBoys I don't care.]]
294* OnlyInFlorida: While the series was more straight-up cop drama, some of the more bizarre stories and quirky characters had true-life antecedents that were RippedFromTheHeadlines.
295* OnlyInMiami: Some episodes were loosely based on some of the crazier things that happened in South Florida.
296* OutOfFocus: Tubbs' involvement in storylines is noticeably downscaled in season four, leading to complaints from fans and causing some people to christen it "The Don Johnson Show".
297* PaedoHunt: Season five's "Too Much, Too Late" dealt with child molestation. As a result, NBC refused to air it.
298* ParentWithNewParamour: Caroline's second husband Bob Ballard is a type 2 or 3. Billy thinks he's boring and overly strict and treats him like a baby.
299* ParentalIncest: "Junk Love" had a drug dealer killing men who were close to his daughter, because he was having an incestuous relationship with her. This made Rosella turn to doing anything to get away, even turning tricks. The episode implies that she kills him on his yacht.
300-->[[PreMortemOneLiner Goodbye, Daddy!]]
301* PermaStubble: Crockett was probably the TropeCodifier. Electric shavers didn't even ''have'' a "stubble" setting before the show aired. That was introduced as a direct response to Sonny Crockett's popularity.
302* PimpingTheOffspring: In the episode "Too Much, Too Late," AddledAddict Yvonne is desperate for a fix but can't afford to pay her crack dealer, so she lets him rape her thirteen-year-old daughter Lynette as payment.
303* PizzaBoySpecialDelivery: "Heart of Darkness" begins on the set of a porn film about a girl who can't afford to get her air conditioner fixed.
304-->'''Penny:''' Maybe you could take a personal check?\
305'''Repairman:''' Well, that depends on how personal you want to make it.
306* ThePlace: Three guesses where the setting of the show is.
307* PluckyComicRelief: Switek and Zito.
308* PoliceAreUseless: Surprisingly played straight as often as not. Crockett and Tubbs are painfully aware that they are unable to do much about the Miami drug trade. Whenever they manage to score a victory, they usually have significant collateral damage and the individuals involved are almost immediately replaced. Several times in the show, they also completely fail due to outside interference, corruption, or their opponents simply being too wealthy to prosecute.
309* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: "Leap of Faith" was a backdoor pilot for a planned spin-off focusing on a younger group of officers, but the series was not picked up. As a result, the on-screen credits after the opening sequence list three "Starring" roles ahead of the usual "Guest Stars". The series would have resembled another young police drama at the time, ''Series/TwentyOneJumpStreet'', which ironically is one of the shows credited with Vice's demise.
310* PreMortemOneLiner: Crockett has a few of these:
311** From "Glades": "Maybe...you won't even...twitch..."
312** From "Bushido": "Surf's up, pal!" [[note]]before shooting a henchman named Surf[[/note]]
313* PreviouslyOn:
314** "Down for the Count (Part II)" opens this way.
315** "Rock and a Hard Place" opens with a recap of "Like a Hurricane," three episodes ago.
316** "Deliver Us From Evil" opens with a recap of "Forgive Us Our Debts," from the previous season.
317* PrisonersLastMeal: In the episode "Forgive Us Our Debts", a prison guard brings Hackman his last meal in a holding cell before he's prepped for the electric chair. Hackman offers the guard his gold watch. [[spoiler: By the end of the episode, Crockett, who had helped put Hackman on death row in the first place for the murder of his former partner, gets him exonerated and released from prison... Only Crocket realizes shortly thereafter that Hackman really ''was'' guilty all along]].
318* ProductPlacement:
319** The cool clothes and sunglasses throughout the series.
320** The [[CoolCar Ferraris]] driven by Crockett. The black Daytona was a replica on a Corvette chassis due to being affordable; when the Ferrari company found this out, Enzo Ferrari offered to give the production real ones (the white Testarossa) if the knockoff was disposed of. It was, in a spectacular case of ExternalCombustion.
321** Also applies to Crockett's handguns in the the television series, namely the Bren Ten for the first two seasons, and the Smith & Wesson 645 (later updated to a 4506) for the rest of the series.
322** Crockett's shoulder holster, the Miami Classic rig from Galco Gunleather, became an instant sales success among gun enthusiasts.
323* ProfessionalKiller: Ludovici Armstrong, the Argentinian assassin from "Calderone's Return", sent to clean out a list of targets for mob boss Calderone. He looks like a holdover from the 70's, has a small afro, and has one of the quickest draws humanly possible (he was played by a real-life trained marksman). In fact, he fatally wounds Lou Rodriguez and kills most of the targets before being taken down, and that's only because more than five police officers (including Tubbs, Valerie and vice officers) shoot at him at the same time.
324* [[PsychoticManchild Psychotic Womanchild]]: The BigBad's wife in "Definitely Miami" is a cross between this and a ManipulativeBitch: while she initially lures men in pretending to be an abused wife, she is very much in on the con and allows her husband to murder them and bury them (while still in their cars), usually in sand. When Crockett arrests her at the end of the episode, she is building a sandcastle which in all likelihood contains another grave.
325* PutDownYourGunAndStepAway: Subverted in "The Glades". A little girl is taken hostage by a {{Mook}} as Sonny Crockett rounds a corner, pistol aimed.
326-->'''Mook''': If I so much as twitch I'll kill her!
327-->'''Crockett''': Maybe... you won't... even... Twitch. ''[BLAM]''
328* QuickDraw: From "Calderone's Return". A hitman, posing as a limo driver, decides that ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill and empties a shotgun into the limo. One of the dead man's bodyguards appears out of nowhere and makes him drop the shotgun. Holding the hitman at gunpoint, the bodyguard makes the mistake of shifting his gaze to the destroyed limo...
329** Even more noteworthy because they got an actual pistol champion to play the hitman.
330* RacialFaceBlindness: Invoked in the pilot. An angry Tubbs throws this out at an enraged and suspicious Crockett who's got him at gunpoint for lying, saying that while he knows black men "look alike to [[{{Hypocrite}} all you crackers]]", ''looking'' at the photo of Rafael should be enough to establish Tubbs as his brother.
331* RampJump: A biker jumps his motorcycle over a police car in "Viking Bikers from Hell."
332* RapeAsDrama: Several episodes dealt with associates of the Vice team being raped by the villain(s), prompting Crockett, Tubbs, Gina and/or Trudy to go after them in revenge.
333* RealIsBrown: Averted. The producers explicitly called for "no earth tones", in order to maintain the MTV style of the show. In the words of one of the episode directors:
334-->There are certain colors you are not allowed to shoot, such as red and brown. If the script says 'A Mercedes pulls up here,' the car people will show you three or four different Mercedes. One will be white, one will be black, one will be silver. You will not get a red or brown one. Michael knows how things are going to look on camera.
335* RecoveredAddict: Zito used to be an alcoholic. As of "Down for the Count," he hadn't had a drink in five years and was implied to be attending Alcoholics Anonymous meetings.
336* RecurringExtra: A silent, bumbling background character named Manny helps Izzy sell weird stuff or acts as his driver in several episodes but is never credited.
337* RedOniBlueOni: Crockett is hot-headed and often aggravated by the day to day activities, while Tubbs is laid-back and easy-going.
338* RelationshipLabelingProblems: Crockett's inability to be more committed to Gina torpedoes their official relationship after the first season... which leaves their feelings towards each other somewhat ambiguous for the rest of the show.
339* RevolversAreJustBetter: Almost all of the pistols Castillo carried were large-calibre revolvers, including a Smith & Wesson Model 29 in .44 Magnum (as well as the stainless steel version, the 629), a Smith & Wesson Model 686 in .357 Magnum, a Colt Trooper MK V in .357 Magnum, a Smith & Wesson model 29 in .44 Magnum, and a Colt Python in .357 Magnum. He tended to prefer such weaponry over more modern semi-automatic pistols, although he did use the latter type of weapon in certain situations
340* RippedFromTheHeadlines:
341** Started being integrated into the plot more once Creator/DickWolf became executive producer. Considering the number [[OnlyInFlorida of crazy things]] that happen in Florida, it was easy.
342** Season one's "The Home Invaders" was loosely based on an actual string of home invasions perpetrated by a gang of burglars in the Miami area in the early 1980s.
343** Season two's "Free Verse" refers to the trend of "Banana Politics" in the 1980s, referring to the coups and civil wars that occurred in Central American and Caribbean countries during that time.
344** In season three's "Forgive Us Our Debts", the possibility of new evidence exonerating an executed (or near-executed) criminal is explored, which was a major news story then and now, as the debate over the death penalty continues.
345** Season four's "Badge of Dishonor" was inspired by the real issue that Miami Police had to hire cops from minorities after the 1981 riots and due to bad selection and scarcity of suitable applicants sometimes persons with serious juvenile rap sheets ended up at the police force, as well as the river cops scandal in 1986 that started in the Molino Rojo bar on SW 8 Street, where the cops hammered out their plan how to steal 350 kilos and that later inspired "Badge of dishonor".
346** The story for the finale is loosely based on the goings-on of Manuel Noriega, military leader of Panama, who was ousted by the US military in 1990 amidst charges of drug dealing and corruption.
347* RoaringRampageOfRevenge:
348** How Tubbs ends up in Miami as Crockett's partner. It pops up as motivation for some of the more AxCrazy villains that would guest-star every other week.
349** "Rites of Passage" ends with Valerie Gordon killing the pimp and dealer resposible for her sister's murder. Knowing full well she has broken the law, Valerie hands over her gun and asks Crockett to Mirandize her.
350* SacrificialLamb: The department's original boss, Lieutenant Rodriguez.
351* {{Samurai}}: Castillo. His martial arts training made him into a stealthy [[KatanasAreBetter katana-wielding]] Badass, but his code of honor was pure Bushido. Highlighted in the second season episode aptly titled "Bushido".
352* SamusIsAGirl: At the beginning of "The Fix," Switek is surprised to discover that the drug dealer Ortega is a woman.
353* SawedOffShotgun: Ricardo Tubbs made significant use of short-barreled shotguns. In the first season, he used a standard sawed-down double-barrel model; in the second, he switched out for a custom Ithaca 37 Stakeout, an already short-barreled shotgun that was cut down even shorter, and for the third and fourth seasons he used a similarly-cut down S&W Model 3000.
354* SceneryPorn: Filming on location in South Florida helps.
355* SequelEpisode: Several, which open with a PreviouslyOn segment summarizing the first part.
356** "Calderone's Return" sees Crockett and Tubbs take down drug lord Esteban Calderone, who appeared in the first episode.
357** Season five's "Heart of Night" sees the return of Castillo's ex-wife and her husband from season two's "Golden Triangle".
358** "Trust Fund Pirates" from the second season was to be a direct sequel to season one's "Smuggler's Blues", but Music/GlennFrey was unavailable to reprise his role as Jimmy. Consequently, the script was changed to feature a smuggler friend of his (Jackson Crane, played by Creator/GaryCole) who had taken over his hangar (Jimmy retired after the events of that episode) and knew all about "Burnett and Cooper".
359** In "Rock and a Hard Place," two scummy record executives who first appeared earlier in the season in "Like a Hurricane" come back to try to ruin Caitlin's career. Later in the season, in "Deliver Us From Evil," a murderer whom Crockett accidentally got off death row in the third-season episode "Forgive Us Our Debts" returns and kills Caitlin.
360** The season two finale "Sons and Lovers" and season three's "The Afternoon Plane" see Orlando Calderone attempt to get revenge on Tubbs for his father's death.
361** Season three's "Stone's War" is a sequel to season two's "Back in the World"; instead of UsefulNotes/TheVietnamWar, the main issue covered is the then-ongoing Nicaraguan Civil War between the US-backed Contras and the Sandinistas.
362** Season four's "Deliver Us from Evil" is a sequel to season three's "Forgive Us Our Debts", seeing the return of career criminal Frank Hackman.
363* SeriesContinuityError:
364** Due to the network switching up the order of certain episodes throughout the series, characters and/or props change their appearance radically from one episode to another.
365** Infamously, Crockett is driving around in his Ferrari Daytona (and using it for cover in a shootout) in the third-season episode "El Viejo", seven episodes after it was destroyed by an arms dealer and replaced with the Testarossa. This was due to the fact that "El Viejo" was originally planned to be the third-season premiere, but was pushed farther into the season and replaced with a more action-packed opener.
366** Zito's beard disappears and reappears at random throughout the second season, due to the running order of the episodes being changed.
367* SeriesFauxnale: When the show first aired, it faced dismal ratings and was in danger of being cancelled. To that end, the producers {{Retool}}ed the series with a two-parter that also served as a finale if the show was canned. "Calderone's Return" killed off Crockett and Tubbs' commanding officer, resolved Crockett's relationship with his ex-wife, and completed Tubbs' quest for vengeance against the man who killed his brother.
368* SexForSolace: After [[spoiler:Zito's death]] in "Down for the Count," Trudy has sex with a man she hasn't seen in five years because she doesn't want to be alone. It doesn't make her feel any better.
369* ShootEverythingThatMoves: In several episodes, perhaps most notably "Freefall," the series finale. When faced with the fact that General Borbon [[spoiler:may walk without testifying about the cartel due to political corruption,]] Crockett and Tubbs confront the dictator [[spoiler:in a running firefight, killing his guards to a man and blowing up Borbon's departing seaplane.]]
370* ShootTheHostageTaker: In "Glades", TheDragon is holding a shotgun to a little girl's head as Crockett approaches with this pistol drawn and aimed. TheDragon begins threatening to shoot the girl if he's not let go, saying "If I so much as twitch, she's go--" '''''BLAM''''' Sonny shoots him right between the eyes, with the PostMortemOneLiner, "Maybe you won't even twitch."
371* ShootTheTelevision: Switek does this at the end of "Phil the Shill" when he sees the titular con man (played by Music/PhilCollins) posing as a faith healer on TV. He even shouts "This one's for you, Elvis!"
372* ShootYourMate: Tubbs was deep undercover and ordered to kill Sonny to prove his loyalty, so he walks up to Sonny and, without a word or hesitation, shoots him point-blank. Awesome scene. (Naturally, Sonny was wearing a BulletproofVest.)
373* ShoutOut: In Season 2's "Out Where the Buses Don't Run", Weldon's computer is named after his ex-wife, Lorraine. It also happened to be the name of the Amiga prototype that appeared at the 1984 Consumer Electronics Show. The Amiga prototype took its name from the motherboard, which was named Lorraine, after the company president's wife.
374* ShownTheirWork: Crockett's offhandedly-mentioned July 29 birthday (from "By Hooker By Crook") could have ''definitely'' earned him his first tour of Vietnam -- assuming he was born in 1951, [[https://www.vietnamlotteryfate.com/getting-out-of-the-draft his draft lottery number from July 1, 1970]] would have been ''4'' [[note]]out of 365, and the highest number called from that year was 125; aka, he was right at the top[[/note]]. This is much simpler to check now than it would have been when the show was being made.
375* SiblingMurder: In season two's "Definitely Miami", a woman stabs her drug lord brother to death before being killed by a sniper. She'd previously testified against him when he killed her husband.
376* SlidingScaleOfSillinessVsSeriousness: The series started out in the first two seasons by being a fairly serious cop show but with 80's glamor and pastel colors. Then it got darker around the third season and had some pretty ridiculous plots during the fourth and fifth season but eventually tried to get back to how it was at the beginning in the fifth season.
377* {{Slimeball}}: Tubbs in the pilot basically drools and makes really perverted sounds when a pretty lady walks past him. Thankfully, this was dialed ''way'' back as the series progressed.
378* SmokingIsCool: Crockett smokes like a chimney throughout the first season, although he quietly drops the habit early in the second.
379* SnowGlobeOfInnocence: After [[spoiler: Zito's]] death and the [=OCB=] enter his apartment to gather evidence against those who killed him and prove him innocent of a self-induced overdose to the skeptical Internal Affairs, they learn that he has a collection of snowglobes. In the last aired episode of the series, "Too Much, Too Late", the still-grieving [[spoiler: Switek, who in addition to failing to cope with the loss of his best friend and is also battling a crippling gambling addiction]] that has ruined his life, is seen playing with one of his snowglobes and thinking of him.
380* SnuffFilm: In "Death and the Lady", Crockett comes to believe that an acclaimed and award winning director has produced one of these, where the victim agreed because she was already terminally ill. As it turns out the director [[KarmaHoudini can't be charged]] and Crockett has to be satisfied with roughing him up a little.
381* SoftGlass: Generally played straight, but averted in "Missing Hours," in which a man smashes through a plate glass window, cuts his jugular on one of the shards, and dies.
382* SomethingBlues: "Rico's Blues," Tubbs' unofficial theme song.
383* SorrowfulStutter: When [[spoiler:Switek]] is giving [[spoiler:Zito's]] eulogy in "Down for the Count," he begins with "[[spoiler:Lar]] was my partner..." He pauses for almost twenty seconds before continuing, "...but to me, he was more like a brother." He then stops, overcome by emotion.
384* SoundtrackDissonance: While the show's soundtrack and MusicVideoSyndrome style are among its main draws, the series is rife with out-of-place examples that can actually be pretty jarring: such as cheery pop music playing as the theme to a violent murder, or an angsty ballad playing during a mellow driving scene.
385* SpecialGuest:
386** Many actors, actresses, musicians, comedians, athletes, and celebrities appeared throughout the show's five-season run. They played many different roles from drug dealers to undercover cops to madams.
387** Musicians include [[Music/DuranDuran John Taylor, Andy Taylor]], Music/WillieNelson, [[Music/{{KISS}} Gene Simmons]], and Music/TedNugent. Additionally [[Music/TheEagles Glenn Frey]], Music/FrankZappa, Music/PhilCollins, Music/MilesDavis, Music/LittleRichard, Music/JamesBrown, Music/LeonardCohen and Creator/EarthaKitt.
388** Other personalities included auto executive Lee Iacocca and Watergate conspirator G. Gordon Liddy. Athletes included Boston Celtics center Bill Russell, Bernard King, racecar driver Danny Sullivan and boxers Roberto Durán, and Randall "Tex" Cobb.
389** Creator/PamGrier deserves a special mention as Valerie... Tubbs' on again, off again true love. One of the few guests to reappear in several episodes, including a feature length.
390* SpiesInAVan: The Bug Van, complete with enormous model roach on top, for extra inconspicuousness.
391* SpiritualSuccessor:''VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoViceCity'' might as well be this show's video game adaptation.
392* SpitefulSpit: In "Sons and Lovers," as Angelina is [[spoiler:tied up in an explosion-wired car and left to die by her brother]], he tells her good riddance and spits in her face.
393* SportsHeroBackstory: In his youth, Crockett was a "golden boy," a University of Florida Gators football star, once catching a 92 yard touchdown pass with six seconds remaining in a game against Alabama, and catching the winning pass in the Gator Bowl, an act that found him being awarded the game ball. He later sustained a knee injury on the field which put an end to his sports career.
394* StarCrossedLovers: Practically anyone who hopes to have a romance with any member of the squad, but particularly Tubbs and Valerie. The final episode, "Too Much, Too Late", largely focuses on their tenuous relationship and how they will never be together.
395* StatusQuoGameShow: In "Phil the Shill," Switek calls in sick so he can appear on a game show, but the crooked host (Music/PhilCollins, of all people) prevents him from winning.
396* TheStoic: Lieutenant Castillo.
397-->(at the end of "Bushido", when Castillo refuses to show any emotional compromise)
398-->'''Tubbs''': Castillo doesn't give an inch.
399-->'''Crockett''' (beat): He can't.
400* StrangeCopInAStrangeLand:
401** Tubbs was originally a New York City armed robbery detective. When his quest to avenge the death of his brother brought him into conflict and grudging partnership with Crockett (as well as essentially torpedoing his career back in New York), he decided to relocate to Miami and work vice.
402** A later episode reverses this when they have to travel to New York to stop some Colombian drug dealers. Now Tubbs is back on his home turf and Crockett is the fish out of water.
403** Several episodes feature Crockett and/or Tubbs having to leave Miami and go to some exotic, dangerous location to pursue criminals. The above-mentioned New York episode begins with a ColdOpen in Bogota.
404* StrappedToABomb: The villain of "Smuggler's Blues" ties people to anti-motion tremblers, causing a bomb to go off if anyone tries to cut them loose.
405* SuicideByCop: Pulled by some of the bad guys when they lose someone/something precious and decide to go out in a blaze of glory.
406** In "Bushido" [[spoiler:Castillo's old [=CIA=] friend Jack from his [=DEA=] days in Southeast Asia turns up on the run from the Soviets and his own government. When they meet up, Jack opens fire with an Uzi to force Castillo to shoot back. He does so both because Jack was dying from cancer and because he knew his best friend would protect his Russian wife and their son.]]
407* SunshineNoir: Pastel colors combined with neon, 80's music, cool cars, and the perpetual sunny Miami weather is juxtaposed over episodes focused on drug dealers, murderers, and gangs.
408* SuperWindowJump: In "Baby Blues," Crockett and Tubbs dive out of the windows of a building as it explodes behind them.
409* TakeMyHand: In the Burnett arc, Sonny redeems himself to Tubbs by showing up in time to do this.
410* TakingTheBullet: Rodriguez dies taking a bullet for Crockett.
411* TheTeaser: Every episode opens with one, ranging in length from about two to eight minutes.
412* TerribleTrio: Season one's "Nobody Lives Forever" sees three crazed punks go on a joy-riding and armed robbery spree.
413* TitledAfterTheSong: In the middle of the show's first season, former Music/{{Eagles}} guitarist Glenn Frey released [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d7uKjo_URBo "Smuggler's Blues"]], a song about cocaine trafficking. The producers of the show immediately jumped on it, and not only titled the resultant episode "Smuggler's Blues", but they based the storyline on the lyrics of the song and cast Glenn Frey as Jimmy the Bush Pilot.
414* TitleIn: "Forgive Us Our Debts" opens with a flashback, with a caption that says "Miami, 1980." Crockett spends the scene wearing a hat to hide his mid-'80s haircut. After the flashback ends, another caption says "Miami, 1986."
415* ToneShift: The first two seasons had a predominantly light-hearted tone (even in episodes with otherwise bleak storylines). Later seasons would depart from this in favour of a darker feel in keeping with the often sinister plots.
416* TooDumbToLive: While there are a number of candidates, [[spoiler: Nico Arroyo from season two "Bought and Paid For" has to be up there, although his death is richly deserved. After repeatedly assaulting Gina's friend Odette, pushing her to the point she commits suicide because she can't inform Gina and the cops. When Gina goes to his house afterwards and tells Nico Odette is dead, he not only doesn't care, he turns his lustful preferences on GINA HERSELF, despite the fact that she doesn't even hide her contempt for him whenever she sees him. Since he can't be convicted with Odette deceased, Gina basically goads him to come after her, when he does, he knows she's holding a gun on him and he approaches her bed even after she repeatedly tells him to stop. The entire encounter turns out about as well for him as you would expect, and predicibly, she dusts his ass at the earliest opportunity. By breaking into her apartment, he's given her probable cause to shoot him, to boot.]]
417* TrackingDevice: In "Tale of the Goat," Tubbs attaches one to the underside of a truck he's riding in. It falls off, and when Crockett tries to follow him, he finds the device lying in the road.
418* TranquilFury: Castillo never raised his voice, instead displaying anger in a cold, taciturn manner. Failing that, a simple DeathGlare from him spoke a thousand words.
419* TrappedByGamblingDebts:
420** In "Hard Knocks", Switek has to convince an aspiring football player to throw the Big Game to cover his massive debts.
421** Season two's "The Fix" focuses on a judge who racks up gambling debts from a racketeer. While the judge has been paying his debt (by collecting money from a crooked lawyer in exchange for setting low bonds, ROR, or dismiss cases against known drug dealers and homicide suspects), the racketeer loses patience with the judge and demands he make his son throw his upcoming playoff game to pay off his debt.
422* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Crockett loses his memory after an explosion. Probably compounded by HeroicBSOD.
423* TrueCompanions: One of the reasons why none of the Miami Vice crew turn corrupt [[spoiler:except for when Crockett loses his identity. And even then, the bond of friendship is what brings him back into the fold.]]
424-->"He was my partner, you understand? [[IronicEcho You understand]]?"
425-->"...Yeah."
426* TruthInTelevision; 'Amen...Send Money' about a pair of feuding "televangelists" preceded a host of scandals involving numerous Christian television preachers.
427** Astonishingly 'Missing Hours' was based in reality, on the Gulf Breeze UFO sightings which swept Florida in the late 1980s
428** Whilst some critics thought the level of violence on the show was unrealistic Miami in the period saw the bloodiest shootout in FBI history, later portrayed in the TV movie 'The FBI Murders'.
429* {{Tsundere}}: Margaret in "The Prodigal Son" has a very distinctive on-off way of getting and keeping Crockett's attention, to the point where he calls her out as "a nutcase with an attitude problem"[[note]] ...which makes much more sense when you realize she's an information broker in corporate espionage and seducing people isn't usually how she operates, so she's either going outside the job, mixing business with pleasure, actually has some genuine attraction to and feelings for Crockett and feels guilty, or all of the above[[/note]].
430--> '''Crockett:''' I wasn't expecting a hit-and-run.
431--> '''Margaret:''' How 'bout you buy yourself a drink and just try to get over me...?
432* TurnInYourBadge: In "Freefall," federal agent Andrew Baker threatens to get Crockett and Tubbs kicked off the force for killing the deposed dictator of a BananaRepublic who was in league with corrupt government officials. The two respond by throwing their badges on the ground, completely burned out from the job and disgusted by the corruption that they've seen, despite Castillo's pleas for them to reconsider.
433* TwoGirlsToATeam: Gina and Trudy are this for the vice department.
434* TwoPartEpisode: "Brother's Keeper" (the pilot), "Calderone's Revenge", "The Prodigal Son", "Golden Triangle", and "Down for the Count".
435* UndercoverAsLovers: While Tubbs is undercover as a convict in "Walk-Alone," he and Trudy share a "conjugal visit". Tubbs leans in for a very awkward kiss but can't bring himself to do it, so he yells at her for cheating on him instead.
436* UndercoverCopReveal: Crockett and Tubbs are both undercover when they first meet. They don't realize they're both cops until Crockett tries to arrest Tubbs.
437* UnwillingSuspension: In "Bad Timing," robbers string Crockett up by his wrists and take potshots at him.
438* VaporWear:
439** Many of the women in the show are obviously braless and we see a lot of bouncy breasts and nipples showing through T-shirts.
440** Trudy in particular usually wears thin and clingy tops without a bra, even in the office.
441** Gina sometimes sports the same look, especially when doing a DirtyHarriet, though she usually wears a bra and generally dresses a bit more modestly than her colleague.
442* VillainousIncest: In "Junk Love," [[spoiler:the villain Silva is in a long-term, frequently nonconsensual relationship with his daughter Rosella.]]
443* VillainsOutShopping: In the early seasons, it's common to see the week's given drug dealer/pimp/gun-runner doing the most diabolical things, like...hanging out at the beach, dancing at the club, and trying on new clothes in some trendy Miami shop.
444* TheVoiceless: Izzy's dimwitted assistant Manny never had any lines, although he could occasionally be seen talking in the background.
445* WaterTorture: In "Forgive Us Our Debts," Crockett urgently needs information from a gangster, who tells him, "I'm just a pre-Miranda kind of guy. Back then there was a definite possibility that cops could get a guy to talk. Not now." Crockett responds by dragging the guy into his swimming pool and forcing his head underwater, which does the trick.
446* WeaponSpecialization:
447** Crockett's signature weapon was the high-tech, stainless steel pistol he carried as his primary sidearm, and he carried three such weapons during the course of the series, mainly the then-state-of-the-art Dornaus & Dixon Bren Ten chambered in 10mm Auto.
448** Unlike Crockett, who utilized high-tech handguns as his primary weapons, Tubbs' choice of firearms more strongly reflected his "from the streets" origins and consisted of cheaper, more readily available weapons. His primary sidearm throughout all five seasons of the show was a Smith & Wesson Model 38 "Bodyguard" revolver with a 2 inch barrel and custom Pachmyr grips, chambered in .38 Special.
449* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: Crockett has a pet ''alligator'', Elvis.
450* WhamEpisode:
451** "Golden Triangle, Part 1": What starts out as a typical episode involving a jewellery theft takes a sharp turn and becomes a showcase for Castillo's HiddenDepths, culminating in the most cinematic fight of the series (between Castillo and a suspect) up to that point.
452** "Sons And Lovers": Tubbs' former love interest, Angelina Calderone, returns - with a baby in tow, and one she says belongs to him. Angelica's brother, also of the Calderone family, comes to Miami looking for revenge...[[spoiler:and ends up rigging Angelina to a car bomb that kills her and makes Tubbs think his child has died as well]].
453** "Down For The Count, Part 1": An undercover operation involving a corrupt boxing manager turns horribly tragic when [[spoiler:Zito is killed and made to look like he overdosed on drugs]].
454** "Mirror Image", Sonny is caught in a massive explosion that leads to him developing amnesia and slipping into the role of his alter-ego, Sonny Burnett. He turns traitor on the Vice team and begins working for a drug cartel, finally culminating in him shooting Tubbs after the latter tries to reason with him.
455* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
456** Tubbs's baby son is shown to the audience [[spoiler:to have been taken away and not killed together with his mother Angelina, but Tubbs doesn't know this and neither does anyone else on the relevant side, and there's no sight or word of little Ricardo ever again]].
457** Elvis the alligator stops appearing by the fourth season, and is never referenced or seen again, with his fate left unanswered after Crockett quits the force at the end of the series.
458** Zito's goldfish disappears from the series [[spoiler:after his death in "Down for the Count"]] and never reappears again, despite [[spoiler:Crockett and others searching his apartment for clues in the episode after his death occurs]].
459* WholePlotReference:
460** Season one's "Heart of Darkness" is arguably a loose interpretation of [[Literature/HeartOfDarkness the novella from which it takes its name]]. In both cases, the principle supporting character (Kurtz in the novel and Artie in the episode) has used questionable methods to accomplish the aims of a large organization that employed them, and has rooted himself successfully in a new culture, before ultimately being killed. The novella was famously adapted as ''Film/ApocalypseNow''. Artie's angry rebuke to Crockett in the episode, "Don't question my methods!" parallels Kurtz' questioning, "Are my methods unsound?" in the book and film.
461** Season three's "Shadow in the Dark" shares many similarities with Creator/MichaelMann's ''Film/{{Manhunter}}'', which has an almost identical plot (an investigator struggling to retain his own sanity whilst delving into the mind of a disturbed criminal, who is breaking into people's houses, in order to catch him).
462** Season three's "The Afternoon Plane" is reminiscent of ''Film/HighNoon'', with Tubbs awaiting a showdown with some thugs.
463** Season three's "Lend Me an Ear", which dealt with surveilance, was loosely based on ''Film/TheConversation'', in which the character Harry Caul meets the same fate as Duddy.
464** Season four's "Honor Among Thieves?" borrows heavily from ''Film/{{M}}''. Both involve murders by pedophiles. Delgado is clearly a nod to Hans Beckert. Likewise, the underground jury of criminals at the episode's conclusion resembles the kangaroo court at the end of the movie.
465** Season four's "Love at First Sight" bears similarities with ''Film/SeaOfLove'', with Crockett going undercover on multiple dates to discover the killer.
466** Season five's "Over the Line" is similar to ''Film/MagnumForce'', in which a group of motorcycle cops take the law into their own hands and begin executing criminals, and also attempt to recruit Harry Callahan to their cause.
467** Season five's "Victims of Circumstance" bears a resemblance to the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "[[Recap/StarTrekS1E13TheConscienceOfTheKing The Conscience of the King]]", which also features a daughter who is the unlikely killer of those who witnessed her father's war crimes.
468* WifeBasherBasher: Crockett has a strong need to protect women. This was particularly seen in "Death and the Lady," when Glantz's sadism towards women enraged him, first into saying, "You know what really turns me on? The idea of you in a room with all the fathers of all the girls you've turned out." By the end of the episode, he was so eaten up by knowing that Glantz had gotten away with murder that he crossed the line and beat Glantz, saying, "Is that sexy? Do you like that?" Similarly, in "Junk Love", he didn't even try to stop Rosella from shooting her abusive father and showed more sympathy for her than Tubbs even before he knew what her true situation was.
469* WhiteBreadAndBlackBrotha: Crockett is a white GoodOlBoy and ByTheBookCop, while Tubbs is a black New York CowboyCop who comes to Miami on a RoaringRampageOfRevenge.
470* WorkoutFanservice: "Heart of Darkness" opens on the set of a porno, with a sweaty girl working out to music while she waits for the air conditioner repairman to arrive.
471* WorthyOpponent: General Lao Li in "Golden Triangle" views Castillo as this:
472-->'''Lao Li''': Old enemies come to know one another very well over the years, and there comes regard even for an adversary.
473-->'''Castillo''': Really?
474-->'''Lao Li''': Yes. Maybe our relationship will continue.
475-->'''Castillo''': The adversarial part?
476* WrenchWench: Crockett's mechanic, [[TomboyishName Tommy]].
477* WrittenInAbsence:
478** At the beginning of the first-season episode "The Home Invaders," Crockett mentions that Tubbs is visiting his girlfriend in New York. Philip Michael Thomas was actually injured during a stunt in the previous episode, "Made For Each Other".
479** Castillo's absence in season five's "Miracle Man" is explained by his being in Orlando testifying in a case with Crockett.
480** Crockett is only missing in one episode in the series, season five's "Borrasca", where he is said to be testifying against a mob dealer (alongside Castillo, who is similarly absent) in a neighboring county.
481* YouHaveFailedMe: The second part of "Golden Triangle" has a particularly nasty example. The gangster Lao Li's goons snatch his newly released grandsons and take them to a warehouse, where he is waiting to hear an explanation for their actions. When they instead show defiance and demand to know why they cannot start their own drug dealing dynasty, Li orders them killed. Thankfully, the cops intervene.
482* YouKilledMyFather: Subverted. Gina is not willing to help the German spy Herzog kill the drug dealer Pedrosa simply because Pedrosa murdered her mother twenty-six years ago, saying [[WhatYouAreInTheDark she can't]]; although she is willing to hope he gets killed somehow, lure him into a trap, and shoot him down to protect Herzog, there is never a single [[TheReveal reveal]] moment to Pedrosa of who she actually is.
483* YouUsedToBeBetterSpeech: In "Buddies," Crockett finds out that his old friend Robbie Cann is the son of a mobster, that he borrowed money from his father to start his business, and that he's willing to let a woman get murdered to protect himself. Crockett gives him a speech about their time serving in Vietnam: "The man I knew always did what it took and it hurt sometimes, but he did it... We refused to throw those [=POWs=] out of the choppers. No matter what the rest of the world was saying, we did the right thing." It works, and Robbie ends up sacrificing himself to protect the woman.
484* ZippingUpTheBodybag: Happens in many episodes.

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