Love it or loathe it, ridicule it, or (like me) be a lifelong fan of "Miami Vice"... this is the show which defined the 80s like few other cultural phenomena of its time.
I am currently in the process of, well, binge-watching as they now call it, the five-season complete box set, from beginning to end. And I have to say that "Vice", even if you've seen practically every episode, is still always a time capsule of the good old days that is without comparison. Even after the tenth time that you've watched certain episodes, even if you've memorized most of the dialogues, you can't escape the pull of Miami Vice. It draws you in, into the world of 80s cool and chic, with all the clothes, cars, music, and (on- and off screen) high rollers of the day.
The 80s never looked this sleek, this glitzy and fancy before, and certainly never again. Many crime dramas and other types of TV fiction in the 80s deserve a rightful place in the chapter of pop culture that was the decade. From Magnum P.I. to the A Team, or even Dallas, even Dynasty by some measure. But none of them quite had what "Miami Vice" so groundbreakingly exploded onto TV screens with when it first aired in 1984. I wasn't even a teenager yet at the time, but I remember from watching the first few episodes (on a black and white 12-inch TV in my bedroom, no less) that this show was just in a class of its own. Even on a dinky black and white screen. Stunning scenery, a style of filming that was just unseen and unheard of on television, and actually, pretty terrific storytelling, although that is often considered a weak point of the show.
What's true enough is that the whole package began to come apart at the seams somewhere midway into season 3. Most TV shows have inevitably, and therefore forgivably used up most of their best story lines after the first few seasons and then gradually just stay in it to milk the franchise that has been created. But Miami Vice, once the greatest thing since color TV, really started taking a nosedive from that point. The gradual departure of the show's original personnel, including most unfortunately Michael Mann, was sorely felt. Initially, the darker, grittier feel of season 3 was not such a bad thing. Even in the absence of all the lightheartedness of seasons one and two, some episodes had quite outstanding story lines and were beautifully shot. And that even though a closed-cabin sports coupé like the Ferrari Testarossa never quite felt right as a replacement for a convertible like the Daytona... in tropical southern Florida.
Missing the point that viewers weren't turning away because of the earth tones used in the visuals of season three but by a deteriorating quality of the aforementioned whole package, season four saw a return to pastels, but a departure from everything else that had made the show such a success. Desperately attempting to regain its former splendor, season five wasn't all that bad, but on the bottom line, it was a different show done by different people. The saddest part was perhaps that production values were visibly cut back. From scrimpingly outfitted action scenes to scenes supposedly shot in third world countries but which just screamed Universal Studios back lot, and for which they didn't even, like before, bother sending a camera crew to some two-shed town in rural Florida anymore. A fate which similarly befell shows like Dallas in their latter years, by the way.
Saying that all this was Dick Wolf's fault for running the show into the ground when he took over creative control of Miami Vice would be looking back in anger. What is sad though is that quite likely, Miami Vice would have just had to stick with its self-invented formula from seasons one and two and could have perpetuated that "package" well into the 1990s, after all a decade during which hedonism and conspicuous and often illicit wealth only just began to go full throttle.
The bitter irony is that a show which had clothes fashion, as well as music, car, lifestyle an even gun and power boat fashions so deeply ingrained in its own DNA ultimately proved to be a fashion fad in and of itself.
Still, if you ask anybody what they remember most vividly about 80s culture, or what their image of 80s culture is, somewhere between the mention of (literally) brick sized cell phones, hedonistic yuppies, shoulder pads and hair metal, the words "Miami Vice" will come up as one of the defining moments of 80s pop culture. And that is something that can never be taken away. Not from the creators of the show, not from its actors, and certainly not from the fans who still worship 80s culture.
I am currently in the process of, well, binge-watching as they now call it, the five-season complete box set, from beginning to end. And I have to say that "Vice", even if you've seen practically every episode, is still always a time capsule of the good old days that is without comparison. Even after the tenth time that you've watched certain episodes, even if you've memorized most of the dialogues, you can't escape the pull of Miami Vice. It draws you in, into the world of 80s cool and chic, with all the clothes, cars, music, and (on- and off screen) high rollers of the day.
The 80s never looked this sleek, this glitzy and fancy before, and certainly never again. Many crime dramas and other types of TV fiction in the 80s deserve a rightful place in the chapter of pop culture that was the decade. From Magnum P.I. to the A Team, or even Dallas, even Dynasty by some measure. But none of them quite had what "Miami Vice" so groundbreakingly exploded onto TV screens with when it first aired in 1984. I wasn't even a teenager yet at the time, but I remember from watching the first few episodes (on a black and white 12-inch TV in my bedroom, no less) that this show was just in a class of its own. Even on a dinky black and white screen. Stunning scenery, a style of filming that was just unseen and unheard of on television, and actually, pretty terrific storytelling, although that is often considered a weak point of the show.
What's true enough is that the whole package began to come apart at the seams somewhere midway into season 3. Most TV shows have inevitably, and therefore forgivably used up most of their best story lines after the first few seasons and then gradually just stay in it to milk the franchise that has been created. But Miami Vice, once the greatest thing since color TV, really started taking a nosedive from that point. The gradual departure of the show's original personnel, including most unfortunately Michael Mann, was sorely felt. Initially, the darker, grittier feel of season 3 was not such a bad thing. Even in the absence of all the lightheartedness of seasons one and two, some episodes had quite outstanding story lines and were beautifully shot. And that even though a closed-cabin sports coupé like the Ferrari Testarossa never quite felt right as a replacement for a convertible like the Daytona... in tropical southern Florida.
Missing the point that viewers weren't turning away because of the earth tones used in the visuals of season three but by a deteriorating quality of the aforementioned whole package, season four saw a return to pastels, but a departure from everything else that had made the show such a success. Desperately attempting to regain its former splendor, season five wasn't all that bad, but on the bottom line, it was a different show done by different people. The saddest part was perhaps that production values were visibly cut back. From scrimpingly outfitted action scenes to scenes supposedly shot in third world countries but which just screamed Universal Studios back lot, and for which they didn't even, like before, bother sending a camera crew to some two-shed town in rural Florida anymore. A fate which similarly befell shows like Dallas in their latter years, by the way.
Saying that all this was Dick Wolf's fault for running the show into the ground when he took over creative control of Miami Vice would be looking back in anger. What is sad though is that quite likely, Miami Vice would have just had to stick with its self-invented formula from seasons one and two and could have perpetuated that "package" well into the 1990s, after all a decade during which hedonism and conspicuous and often illicit wealth only just began to go full throttle.
The bitter irony is that a show which had clothes fashion, as well as music, car, lifestyle an even gun and power boat fashions so deeply ingrained in its own DNA ultimately proved to be a fashion fad in and of itself.
Still, if you ask anybody what they remember most vividly about 80s culture, or what their image of 80s culture is, somewhere between the mention of (literally) brick sized cell phones, hedonistic yuppies, shoulder pads and hair metal, the words "Miami Vice" will come up as one of the defining moments of 80s pop culture. And that is something that can never be taken away. Not from the creators of the show, not from its actors, and certainly not from the fans who still worship 80s culture.