Line #1 YMMV/MiamiVice


1	!! The series:
2
3	* AlasPoorScrappy: Fans in general didn't care about Caitlin Davies or her rushed marriage to Crockett, but her [[spoiler:tragic death of being shot and killed in his arms,]] was pretty sad, especially when he learns that [[spoiler:she was pregnant]] and what it did to him.
4	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
5	** Artist songs include "In the Air Tonight", "Long Long Way To Go", "Voices" and "Brothers In Arms". And then there's Jan Hammer's original music, including "Evan" and "Crockett's Theme". The soundtrack for the entire series remains one of the most memorable aspects of the show to this day.
6	** [[Music/{{Eagles}} Glenn Frey's]] single "Smuggler's Blues" became a first-season episode hit.
7	** What other show could use Music/KateBush's "Hello Earth" and make it work?
8	** The first episode's iconic use of the aforementioned "[[Music/FaceValue In the Air Tonight]]" by Music/PhilCollins as Crockett and Tubbs drive to a deal and the former stops to call his ex-wife. This was the first time pop music had been used on television.
9	** Tommy Shaw's "Girls with Guns" during the episode "Glades" is particularly fantastic.
10	** Godley & Creme's "Cry" underlies a singular ending montage in "Definitely Miami."
11	* BizarroEpisode: "Missing Hours," in which Trudy is abducted by an alien played by Music/JamesBrown while two government agents try to cover up his existence.
12	* BrokenBase: Season five saw Tim Truman replace Jan Hammer as the series' background music producer. This brought about a significant change in the show's sound, with Truman's harder-edged drum- and guitar-driven score replacing the smooth synth vibes of the previous four seasons. The change divided viewers -- some compare Truman's work unfavorably to Hammer's, while others feel it fits the darker tone of the season.
13	* CompleteMonster: See [[Monster/MiamiVice here]].
14	* [[DirectorDisplacement Creator Displacement]]: Many fans, particularly younger ones who may be more familiar with [[Film/MiamiVice the 2006 movie]], incorrectly believe that Creator/MichaelMann created the show. While he is a huge factor in its production, he's the executive producer; Anthony Yerkovich is its creator.
15	* EnsembleDarkhorse: Castillo. Being played by Creator/EdwardJamesOlmos helped. Henry Jenkins, in the book ''Textual Poachers'' wrote at length about how strange it was that the character got so much attention from fan commentators and fanfic writers.
16	* FairForItsDay: The episode "Evan" deals with Crockett's ex-academy buddy having committed SuicideByCop (or crook in this case) due to the harassment he received as a gay police officer. Crockett is devastated by this fact and wishes he'd supported the man more even if it indulges in BuryYourGays and has no living ones in the episode. [[https://miamivice.fandom.com/wiki/God%27s_Work "God's Work"]] is a similarly fair for the time story involving AIDS and homophobic murder.
17	* HilariousInHindsight: A young undercover agent in "Miami Squeeze" uses the name Joey Chandler, a full five years before ''Series/{{Friends}}''. The response from his dealer contact is just as drink-spittingly funny.
18	--> '''Ricky [=DeMaria=]:''' That name supposed to mean something to me?
19	* HoYay:
20	** Crockett and Tubbs. There's a sizeable amount of slash about them.
21	** Crockett and Castillo, too.
22	** Switek and Zito. Even though they had plenty of relationships with women (including a hilarious storyline where the latter's girlfriend left him for the former), their strongest chemistry was with each other to the point where they were joined at the hip.
23	* JustHereForGodzilla: The show had some really interesting comments about the criminal justice system in 1980s America. It also had Creator/DonJohnson, the sleekest clothes and cars, and copious car chases and shootouts.
24	* MemeticMutation: "[[https://youtu.be/fjDpRmOxVEw?t=5 EDDIE]]" from "Milk Run" went on to have a meme life of its own.
25	%% * {{Narm}}: In the season 3 episode "The Good Collar," Crockett has a PG-rated [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2EqpZatEyM&t=3m06s freakout]] when [[spoiler:the informant he's trying to help is killed]].
26	%% * NightmareFuel: The start of the episode "Honor amongst Thieves" (Season 5 episode 16) is horrifying.
27	%% ** The HalloweenEpisode "Shadow in the Dark" is pure nightmare fuel, as Crockett descends into madness trying to catch a cat burglar. In the end, it turns out ItWasAllADream...[[spoiler: or was it]]?
28	* OnceOriginalNowCommon: It's hard for a younger audience to appreciate just how much [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1o-NWNmQLM one scene]] in the pilot episode said this show was going to be different from anything that had come before. The film-like editing and camera work, all set to a hit pop song, was completely unlike what ''anybody'' had seen in a television show at that point. Now it is common for shows to use full-length versions of contemporary pop songs, and edit and compose their shots more like cinema.
29	* OneSceneWonder: Julian Beck appears in "Prodigal Son" as a sinister crooked banker who informs Crockett and Tubbs who really has the power. Sadly, his death meant that he couldn't be used again, but good lord does he make his one scene in the show count.
30	* {{Padding}}: The episode "Florence Italy" is 48 minutes long, and about 10 of them are taken up by endless car races that don't advance the plot at all.
31	* ParanoiaFuel: "Lend Me An Ear" had a surveillance expert getting hired by the Vice crew AND a prominent drug lord the squad wanted to arrest [[ContrivedCoincidence at the same time]]. The expert proceeds to manipulate both sides by using ''his own'' eavesdropping devices, partly to keep the increasingly paranoid drug lord from killing him, and partly because he [[ForTheEvulz enjoys mocking both sides]].
32	* QuestionableCasting: There are several examples throughout the show's run, but special notice has to be given to casting Music/JamesBrown as an ''extraterrestrial alien'' during one of the show's more...bizarre episodes.
33	* RetroactiveRecognition: Along with ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' and ''Series/LawAndOrder'', it's considered one of the all-time greats:
34	** Creator/JimmySmits in the pilot "Brother's Keeper" as Crockett's doomed partner Eddie Rivera.
35	** Creator/EdONeill as a KnightTemplar FBI agent in "Heart of Darkness."
36	** Creator/MarkLinnBaker pre-''Series/PerfectStrangers'' as a fence in "Made For Each Other".
37	** Creator/MykeltiWilliamson plays a drug dealer in the pilot and a cultist in "Tale of the Goat."
38	** Creator/KimCoates plays a biker...''thirty-one years'' before he was cast as Tig Trager in ''Series/SonsOfAnarchy''.
39	** Creator/HelenaBonhamCarter (no, ''really'') appeared in two episodes as Crockett's girlfriend.
40	** Oscar-nominee Creator/DavidStrathairn in "Out Where the Buses Don't Run."
41	** Creator/JoeMorton, Creator/VingRhames, and Garcelle Beauvais in "The Maze."
42	** Creator/LiamNeeson as an IRA terrorist in "Irish Eyes Are Crying".
43	** Creator/JeroenKrabbe in "Heroes of the Revolution" the month before ''Film/TheLivingDaylights'' premiered.
44	** Creator/WesleySnipes in "Streetwise." (Creator/BillPaxton, too, but he had already been in ''Film/{{Aliens}}'' by then.)
45	** Creator/BruceWillis in “No Exit”, a full year before he would star in ''Series/{{Moonlighting}}''.
46	** Creator/MichaelMadsen as a drug dealer in "Give a Little, Take a Little".
47	** Creator/SteveBuscemi plays a drug dealer in "El Viejo."
48	** Creator/GaryCole played a smuggler in "Trust Fund Pirates," two years before starring in ''Series/MidnightCaller''.
49	** Creator/BenicioDelToro as a young thug in "Everybody's in Show Business".
50	** Creator/BenStiller as a scam artist in "Amen...Send Money".
51	** Creator/ChrisRock as a filing clerk in "Missing Hours".
52	** Creator/JohnTurturro as a pimp in "Rites of Passage".
53	** Creator/GiancarloEsposito as a junkie in "Little Prince", an enforcer in "Nobody Lives Forever" and drug dealer in "The Dutch Oven", over thirty years before his famous role on ''Series/BreakingBad''.
54	** Creator/NathanLane as a comedian in "Buddies".
55	** Creator/MichaelRichards as a racketeer in "The Fix".
56	** "Walk-Alone" has Creator/LaurenceFishburne as a prison guard and Creator/RonPerlman as the Director of Prisons.
57	** Creator/StanleyTucci as a man who adopts a smuggled baby in "Baby Blues" and a mobster in "Contempt of Court".
58	** Creator/ViggoMortensen as a young cop in "Red Tape", Creator/LouDiamondPhillips as his partner (six months before ''Film/LaBamba''), and Creator/AnnetteBening as part of the reason they both get killed.
59	** Creator/JuliaRoberts as a drug dealer's girlfriend in "Mirror Image".
60	** Creator/MelissaLeo as a waitress taken hostage in "Bad Timing".
61	** Creator/VincentDOnofrio plays a convict helping Calderone in "The Afternoon Plane".
62	** Creator/MichaelChiklis as a bent NYPD detective and art aficionado in "The Lost Madonna".
63	** Creator/LisaVidal portrayed Crockett's near-assassin in "A Bullet For Crockett".
64	* SeasonalRot: Season four is considered to be the worst season, due to the LighterAndSofter approach, with some of the lighter episodes veering wildly into science-fiction and comedy, most infamously the seventh episode "Missing Hours", which is often cited as the show's worst episode. The disparity between dark episodes and light episodes (such as the widely-reviled "The Cows of October") leads to a decidedly uneven season. There's also Tubbs being OutOfFocus and Jan Hammer's musical contribution noticeably reduced, with many of his cues from earlier seasons simply being recycled, and Crockett falling in love and marrying Caitlin Davies, played by guest star Sheena Easton.
65	* SignatureScene: Crockett and Tubbs driving through Miami at night in the pilot episode "Brother's Keeper", city street lights blaring off the hood of their [[CoolCar Daytona]], loading their guns with Music/PhilCollins' [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic "In the Air Tonight" slowly building up]].
66	* SoBadItsGood: Purely in writing terms, "Viking Bikers from Hell" ranks as one of the show's worst episodes, with Miami being terrorized by a gang that appears to consist of just three bikers, a bunch of filler scenes that go nowhere, and Tubbs being shot ''point-blank in the head'' for the CommercialBreakCliffhanger, only to be revealed immediately afterwards to have ''somehow'' survived with nothing more than a mild concussion to show for it. Finally, the episode in general shows the beginning signs of the increasingly absurd approach that the next season suffered from. However, thanks to the greater emphasis than usual on action sequences, and Creator/RebBrown's hilariously over-the-top performance as the episode's BigBad, the end result actually manages to be a lot more entertaining than it has any right to be.
67	* SpecialEffectFailure:
68	** In the pilot episode, the explosion that kills Crockett's partner has a cheesy looking ragdoll in the place of Creator/JimmySmits' character. In the shot where the car explodes, the ragdoll flies straight up in the air, as if being yanked by someone offscreen.
69	** In "Phil the Shill", an informant is seen being shot multiple times as he hangs upside down. However, since there was apparently no money in the budget for blood or gore effects, the man shakes around violently while being shot, and doesn't have any wounds or bloodstains when the gunmen leave.
70	** In "Milk Run", the final action sequence has Tubbs chase a gunman through an airport, just before taking cover behind a pillar as the villain unloads several shotgun rounds at him. Despite the gunman having just killed someone by firing through a pane of glass, no bullet holes or marks are seen on the pillar Tubbs is standing behind, and the sound of the shots is incorrectly timed.
71	** The season two premiere "The Prodigal Son" climaxes with Crockett shooting down a helicopter with his pistol. It's really obvious that they didn't have the budget to pull it off, so the crash occurs offscreen while the debris is depicted as bits of paper.
72	** When Frank Mosca is killed by Gina and falls down the conveyor chute in the fourth-season episode "Blood and Roses", it's an obvious model dummy whose head falls off in the last few frames of the shot.
73	** The final-season episode "Victims of Circumstance" has a shot seen through a car as Crockett and Tubbs investigate a murder scene. The "car" is just a cut-out photo of a car interior that has been overlaid on the shot through matte work.
74	* TearJerker:
75	** The scene in "Evan" where Crockett talks about his fellow officer who was gay and how he failed to help him.
76	** [[spoiler:The murder of Caitlin Davies. Made all the sadder when it was revealed that she was pregnant with Crockett's child]].
77	* UnintentionalPeriodPiece: The series exemplified some of the most prevalent trends of the era (and created several of them), including a heavy focus on synth-rock and popular songs of the time, the usage of pastel colors in their clothing and many instances of TechnologyMarchesOn. One could likely fill an entire page detailing all the dated examples found throughout the series.
78	** The second season opener, "The Prodigal Son", is of particular note. Among other things, it has music from Music/BillyOcean and Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews, a woman wearing a dress with massive shoulder pads and a climax that takes place at the World Trade Center.
79	** However, the tone of the show averts the trope. Most cop shows of the era had a light tone, villain of the week, flat characters, always get their guy, etc. ''Miami Vice'' had some very slow pacing for the time, story arcs which could last all or part of a season, lots of CharacterDevelopment, and often [[BittersweetEnding bittersweet]] or {{downer ending}}s. Its grim tone was much more in line with current shows like ''Series/BreakingBad'', ''Series/TheCloser'', etc.
80	* ValuesDissonance:
81	** The central element of the series is [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_forfeiture_in_the_United_States civil asset forfeiture]]; cops using stuff seized from rich criminals to justify them wearing expensive suits and driving expensive cars. This is ''extremely'' uncomfortable in TheNewTens, with cops nationwide having come under fire for seizing anything they feel like from any''one'' they feel like and telling their victims, "you'll burn up the value in attorney fees trying to get it back, so shut up and get lost." Even worse, the assets sometimes aren't even used for police work, but for luxuries like alcohol for office parties, new houses for administrators, etc.
82	** Pornography, as shown in "Heart of Darkness", is something done by sleazy exploitative companies with underage actresses and distributed through quasi-legal networks across state lines. The normalization of porn due to the internet has dramatically changed how it is produced as well as received.
83	** Crockett's on-the-job flirting with Gina would almost certainly not fly today, ex-girlfriend or not, and could land him in some serious disciplinary trouble — at best, it hasn't been considered appropriate in the workplace for a long time.
84	* ValuesResonance: Surprisingly, for a show about UsefulNotes/TheWarOnDrugs, the show consistently makes it clear that it is largely a failure and our heroes' efforts may well be meaningless. [[spoiler: The finale of the show ends with Crockett and Tubbs quitting the Miami PD in disgust at the innocents caught in the crossfire as well as the overall failure of their efforts.]]
85	* TheWoobie:
86	** Gina, in spades. Throughout the series, she either falls for men who turn out to be amoral at best, sees her friends abused or raped by villainous boyfriends, or is forced to sleep with mobsters to maintain her cover during sting operations. It's also revealed in the third season that her mother was shot to death when she was a child, and the killer tries to murder Gina 26 years later.
87	** Zito, particularly in [[spoiler: his final episode.]] His police officer father was killed in the line of duty when he was a child, his only brother struggled with addiction and then died of a heroin overdose (giving him a lasting fear of needles), he himself struggled with alcoholism until getting sober, he attempted to guide an up-and-coming boxer and solve his trainer's murder [[spoiler:and eventually paid for it with his own life, and the law enforcement higher ups initially refuses to bury him with honors or investigate his murder due to being set up to look like he overdosed himself, which caused distress to his left-behind friends and colleagues, ''especially'' Switek.]]
88	** Even Crockett himself gets this. Despite the fact that he's the main character and is often seen with a parade of women, none of his relationships work out because he's MarriedToTheJob, not to mention that several of his past/present girlfriends are either injured or killed as a result of being around him. His wife and son are almost killed in their own home by the hitman sent by Esteban Calderone to kill Crockett, and it is this incident that provides the death knell to their marriage. Several of his friends and former acquaintances come back to Miami, only to either lose their sanity as a result of his actions or die in messy ways. His plans to get out of Vice and live with his new wife Caitlin are scuttled when a villain (who he inadvertently got off Death Row) comes back and shoots her during a concert, leading Crockett to lose his sanity and resort to his alter ego. By the end of the series, he's so burned out by his work (and [[BeingGoodSucks seeing villains get away while his friends die]]) that he throws down his badge in disgust and quits the force.
89	----
90
91	!! The film
92	* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic:
93	** "Numb/Encore", the Music/JayZ and Music/LinkinPark mashup that plays during the strip club scene.
94	** Nonpoint's cover of "[[Music/PhilCollins In The Air Tonight]]", which plays during the end credits of the theatrical cut and during the final battle of the director's cut
95	* BrokenBase:
96	** The iconic Jan Hammer theme from the show does not appear in the film. Some fans were disappointed at this, believing that they sacrificed an iconic theme for contemporary music that wouldn't age well. Others were fine with this since the movie already tries to distinguish itself from the show, and felt that John Murphy's score was good enough on its own.
97	** Is the romance between Crockett and Isabela a RomanticPlotTumor, or is it the real heart of the movie?
98	** Which version is better, the theatrical cut or the Unrated Director's Edition? Some fans prefer the Unrated Director's Edition for its stronger character development, more exciting opening, and "In The Air Tonight" playing during the final battle as opposed to the end credits. But most fans believe that these changes ruin the atmosphere of the movie. (The fact that the Unrated Director's Edition was the only version on Blu-Ray in North America until 2021 caused further headaches)
99	* CultClassic: As time goes on, it's become a major cultural touchstone among Millenial and Generation Z film critics and cinephiles. Creator/HarmonyKorine cited it as a major influence on ''Film/SpringBreakers''.
100	* MemeticMutation: The phrase "I'm a fiend for mojitos" tends to show up in discussions of the film.
101	* QuestionableCasting:
102	** Creator/GongLi plays a Chinese-Cuban woman. Somehow, it works.
103	** Creator/CiaranHinds, an Irishman, plays an FBI agent with a Japanese surname.
104	* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: When the news broke that Jan Hammer's theme wasn't going to be in the movie, 1,000 fans [[SendingStuffToSaveTheShow signed a petition]] to put it back in. It didn't work, but it's still a sore spot among older fans.
105	* VindicatedByHistory: While it was successful at the box office, the response from critics and audiences was lukewarm due to its unusual style and drastic changes from the source material. As time has gone by, many have called it one of Creator/MichaelMann's best movies for its poetic visual style and atmosphere.

Context YMMV / MiamiVice