History Series / MiamiVice

* CorruptBureaucrat: See DirtyCop.

* DaChief: Lieutenant Castillo.

* AFatherToHisMen: Castillo is this kind of DaChief (see above). In one episode he clearly states that he'd rather blow the investigation than lose somebody.

** From "Glades": "Maybe...you won't even...twitch..." [[note]]See under BadassBoast[[/note]]

* TraumaInducedAmnesia: Crockett loses his memory after an explosion. Probably compounded by HeroicBSOD (see above).

* CoolGuns: Given that Creator/MichaelMann was a producer, this is a given. Several weapons that would become common sights in later films and television shows, such as the Beretta 92F and Glock 17, had some of their first screen debuts here.

* YouKilledMyFather: Gina is willing to help the German spy Herzog kill the drug dealer Pedrosa because Pedrosa killed her mother twenty-six years ago.

* ShownTheirWork: Crockett's offhandedly-mentioned July 29 birthday (from "By Hooker By Crook", assuming he was born in 1951) would have ''definitely'' earned him a trip to Vietnam -- [[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.

* ShownTheirWork: Crockett's offhandedly-mentioned July 29 birthday (from "By Hooker By Crook", assuming he was born in 1951) would have ''definitely'' earned him a trip to Vietnam -- 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.

** Recurring villain William Mallard, 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.

* AdaptationExpansion: 'The Home Invaders' draws many comparisons with Michel Mann's later work 'Manhunter', an obsessive detective risks his mental health pursuing a psychotic burglar by trying to understand the way he thinks.

-->(at the end of "Bushido" when Castillo refuses to show any emotional compromise) '''Tubbs''': Castillo doesn't give an inch.
-->'''Crockett'''(beat): He can't.

* {{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 and feelings for Crockett and feels guilty, or all of the above[[/note]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''[[Music/PhilCollins "I can feel it, coming in the air tonight...Oh lord..."]]'']]

* 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.

* FriendsWithBenefits: Sonny and Gina, for a little while.

** 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."

* 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 Tubb's brother [[spoiler: as well as mother of his son]] plus causing the dissolution of Crockett's marriage.

* 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.
* 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?"

* DirtyHarriet: Practically the only thing Gina and Trudy ever seem to do is go 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.

* DressHitsFloor: A comparatively rare genderflipped version in "French Kiss". In Crockett's case, it's "jacket" and "holster" hitting the floor, before anything of the woman's he's with.

* TwoPartEpisode: "Calderone's Revenge", "Golden Triangle" and "Down for the Count".
* 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.

* WeNamedTheMonkeyJack: Crockett has a pet ''alligator'', Elvis.

* ContemplativeBoss: Peter Allen does this in his one scene when cast as (yes) the BigBad and Crockett and Tubbs walk in on him.

* 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.