Just picked up Wiseguy and Crime Story


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First let me say, Crime Story is top notch I really enjoyed it! I just completed watching the series and it very solid, I got the 25th anniversary edition. Second, Wiseguy, specifically the first 2 season are fantastic, the story arc's are incredible.The remaining 2 seasons are very good as well. Season 3 is filmed in Miami and there are some good shots of the city throughout, very interesting to see. I highly recommend picking up these two series and I imagine the prices will be reasonable with the holiday seasons in full swing.I purchased mine through amazon.com.

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I haven't seen Crime Story yet. Theres nowhere to watch it online and I don't want to get the DVD sight unseen.I actually bought the first season of Wiseguy solely to see Vice alumni Joe Dellesandro as Pat the Cat Patrice. He's one of my favourite actors and he was fantastic in this role. It was his best role after Alfredo Guillini in Down For The Count Part 2. He's so menacing, charismatic and indescribably cool. He should have been a star.Otherwise, I watched some of the episodes and Wiseguy didn't really grab me I have to say. It has two strong leads in Wahl and Sharkey as Sonny Steelgrave. Those two actors really messed up their lives. I haven't seen any of the episodes with Kevin Spacey. I also heard that Steven Bauer (Manny from Scarface) took over from Wahl in the later seasons.It's interesting how Crime Story started the concept of the episode arcs which was also done on Wiseguy and then it was done on Vice with the Burnett trilogy.

Edited by Tommy Vercetti
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  • 1 year later...

Just thought I'd revive this thread to say that Crime Story and Wiseguy were great shows that really are great to watch.

 

The first season of Crime Story is great and is one of the best things of Mann's career. The writing is excellent thoroughout the season. Farina was great and Ray Luca is one of the coolest, most badass and ruthless screen mobsters ever. His sidekick Pauli Taglia is a great character too, as is Ted Levine's character Holman. There are amazing guest stars and it's just a very high quality season.

 

Alas, the second season is very good, including the season opener with Kevin Spacey as a sleazy senator modeled on John F. Kennedy. By the end of it's second season, Crime Story had become like MV. There were drug plots. The Golden Triangle and General Lao Li got mentioned and there was an Ira Stone -type journalist character. The last three episodes are set in Mexico, which I did like as I think Mexico is cool to see on film. 

 

Wiseguy is also a great show. The Steelgrave arc is superb. Ken Wahl is very strong in the role of Vinnie Terranova and Jonathan Banks is very good too. As for Ray Sharkey. Despite his character flaws in real life, he was fantastic as Sonny Steelgrave. He really set the screen on fire in the episodes. There's also a great role for Joe Dellesandro as 'Pat the Cat' Patrice. He radiates coolness and badassness and he's brilliant in the role. Ray Sharkey and Joe Dellesandro really do make two of th most compelling screen mobsters I've ever seen.

 

The Mel Profitt arc is also excellent and very enjoyable. It was an early career break for Kevin Spacey and he was excellent as Mel Profitt. Joan Severance was also excellent and very good looking. William Russ, someone MV fans know very well, is also very good. The Steelgrave arc is the best but the Mel Profitt arc is very good too.

 

In conclusion, Crime Story and Wiseguy were great shows and are highly recommended.

Edited by Tommy Vercetti
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I remember watching both of those shows when they were originally broadcast.  Pretty sure I wasn't able to watch every week due to working night shift at the time, but enjoyed them and always tried to watch if I was home.  Sadly, too many details have faded from my memory to comment specifically, but I wanted to say something about the story arcs, which I thought were really strong components of both shows.  The arcs allowed a storyline and guest characters to develop over several episodes, preventing the too-quick relationship progress and sometimes pat, neatly wrapped up conclusions that marred potentially good episodes of Miami Vice.  Those shows owe an homage to MV, and I think lessons learned from MV helped them (in some ways) to tell better/more convincing stories.    

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Nice Vicegirl! I watched them as well during the original broadcast back when.........

 

I remember seeing the commercial for it and the cool cars so I was hooked right away.

Sadly though the show finished 52 out of 54 in the Ratings and they were going to cancel it after the second episode. There3 was a huge letter writing campaign (I also wrote a letter of appreciation) and the show re-immerged with a new plotline where Pauly (absolutely LOVED that charachter) and the group went to Vegas. The Vegas twist got lots of viewers and the show was renewed for season 2!

 

Great story line and loved Farina as the cop! Uber cool!!!!

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 Wiseguy, specifically the first 2 season are fantastic, the story arc's are incredible.The remaining 2 seasons are very good as well. Season 3 is filmed in Miami and there are some good shots of the city throughout, very interesting to see.

 

I looked at the Wiki and the Miami episodes were Season 4, not Season 3.  I loved Wiseguy back in the day, but I never saw the final season.  I will definitely buy this some time and watch it!

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I've had a bit of a rethink about season 2 of Crime Story. I think it might be better than I originally thought.

It has a lot of very good episodes. There are some very weak episodes too, like the episode with the defector pilot and the transplant episode. There are some other episodes I'll have to rewatch as they might be better than I thought,

Season two is great visually, I really like the settings of Las Vegas, Arizona and Mexico and there are some great guest stars. By the last five episodes Mann had transported MV plots into Crime Story but they made for good episodes so that can only be good.

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I agree Tommy but what really urked me was the final episode as it left a door wide open!

 

For years I wondred if they would bring them back, after all if Pauly and "da boss" could survive a nuclear explosion, then the plane crash would be a walk in the park...

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  • 7 years later...

I finally watched Wiseguy Season 4. The first 6 episodes were set and filmed in Miami.  It's OK, but a definite dropoff from the earlier seasons.  Steven Bauer isn't nearly as good as Ken Wahl.

I never thought I'd see the Miami Tower looming behind Frank McPike!

vlcsnap-2023-09-17-21h16m54s636.png.79bd4c9dfb7201989e3cb14b81c95d85.png

I noticed Enrique Bravo Senior in the credits.  He was the cameraman for the early seasons of MV.

vlcsnap-2023-09-18-23h25m48s420.png.e10812fc84d73bca8caacd1e03a0afe8.png

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  • 3 months later...
On 11/22/2015 at 7:36 PM, airtommy said:

 

I looked at the Wiki and the Miami episodes were Season 4, not Season 3.  I loved Wiseguy back in the day, but I never saw the final season.  I will definitely buy this some time and watch it!

First season especially was truly brilliant!!!

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On 11/22/2015 at 2:46 PM, Tommy Vercetti said:

Just thought I'd revive this thread to say that Crime Story and Wiseguy were great shows that really are great to watch.

 

The first season of Crime Story is great and is one of the best things of Mann's career. The writing is excellent thoroughout the season. Farina was great and Ray Luca is one of the coolest, most badass and ruthless screen mobsters ever. His sidekick Pauli Taglia is a great character too, as is Ted Levine's character Holman. There are amazing guest stars and it's just a very high quality season.

 

Alas, the second season is very good, including the season opener with Kevin Spacey as a sleazy senator modeled on John F. Kennedy. By the end of it's second season, Crime Story had become like MV. There were drug plots. The Golden Triangle and General Lao Li got mentioned and there was an Ira Stone -type journalist character. The last three episodes are set in Mexico, which I did like as I think Mexico is cool to see on film. 

 

Wiseguy is also a great show. The Steelgrave arc is superb. Ken Wahl is very strong in the role of Vinnie Terranova and Jonathan Banks is very good too. As for Ray Sharkey. Despite his character flaws in real life, he was fantastic as Sonny Steelgrave. He really set the screen on fire in the episodes. There's also a great role for Joe Dellesandro as 'Pat the Cat' Patrice. He radiates coolness and badassness and he's brilliant in the role. Ray Sharkey and Joe Dellesandro really do make two of th most compelling screen mobsters I've ever seen.

 

The Mel Profitt arc is also excellent and very enjoyable. It was an early career break for Kevin Spacey and he was excellent as Mel Profitt. Joan Severance was also excellent and very good looking. William Russ, someone MV fans know very well, is also very good. The Steelgrave arc is the best but the Mel Profitt arc is very good too.

 

In conclusion, Crime Story and Wiseguy were great shows and are highly recommended.

Excellent review of Wiseguy and I agree with every word!!

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Steven Bauer was only in season 4 of Wiseguy. He was OK but season 4 proved to me that Wiseguy didn't work without Vinnie. Season 1 especially was truly brillant. The Nights in white satin scene doesn't have the original music on the dvds but someone put it on that section on youtube and I always switch to that when watching it. Very powerful scene.

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