Episode #106 "Victims Of Circumstance"


Ferrariman

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  • 2 years later...

I can go as high as 6 for this episode. But overall, it was a mixture of peril, mixed with a tad of slapstick, such as the brawl that broke out with Crockett, Tubbs and Switek's cover at the meeting hall, lol.

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  • 2 years later...

I know many don't care for this episode...but I actually like it!The plot is not something you'd think of with "MV", but it was still a realistic and tragic one. It dealt with racial hatred, Nazi criminals, and old war crimes. It was somewhat bizarre and very "dark"...but it was also intriguing and one you understood--unlike other bizarre ones like "Everybody's In Showbiz" and "The Cell Within"...which were off the radar :radar: and left you going huh?? :confused:The acting was awesome in this one, and I thought all did a fantastic job! :clap: Karen Black, especially, was outstanding as mentally deranged psycho Helen Jackson, trying to avenge the accusations against her father. :eek: Paul Guilfoyle was once again awesome as racial maniac John Baker (however, he'll always be Capt. Jim Brass on CSI to me ;) ), and William Hickey was the perfect character actor for the aging, mentally disturbed Nazi war criminal Hans Kozak. Along with Xander Berkeley and Herb Goldstein...this one had an amazing cast! :done:However, I will admit there were some unrealistic or over-the-top parts to this one...such as when Crockett and Switek try to make John Baker and his commune dudes think they were on their side but shooting & blowing up some Jewish and/or other race/religious buildings. Okay, they were obliterating these buildings with machine guns and some kind of homemade maltov cocktails all they while you can see cars/people going by literally right behind them. :) I think in reality they would have chosen a much later time when less people would have been around. But, the music was interesting and I especially love Misguided Angel, by Cowboy Junkies, at the very end...very touching and heart-felt...it fit perfectly! :radio: We also got to see some pretty awesome shots of both Crockett and Tubbs' cars...I LOVE the beautiful shots of Tubb's Caddy (both interior and out--and it's my favorite Caddy used...the aqua green one with the white steering wheel) at the beginning when the drug dealers get whacked at Sy's restaurant! Later there's some superb scenes with Sonny's Testarosa! :DBut, probably my favorite aspects to this episode were the colors and fashion--they were phenomenal!! :glossy: I love the old trademark teal and pink pastel color scheme once again throughout--from the buildings, interiors, even the clothes! I love Crockett's shirts and jackets at the beginning...with the off-white or pale pink (couldn't quite tell which it was?) linen jacket with the teal shirt and white pants--I felt like we were back in season 2 again! :thumbsup: Tubbs' clothes were superb as well! Really I felt this one was pretty decent. It's still pretty "dark" and tragic, I know...but with the acting, colors, action, even suspense...I still give it a 7. :cool:

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  • 1 year later...

It was an episode that emphasized the overreaching and retaliatory effect of violence, revenge, and the heated passion of hatred.  In everyone's quest to "get back" at the other, the mess of violence and death kept on expanding, and becoming more complicated and vengeful.  By the end of the episode, the audience could grasp how Tubbs and Crockett had become more like referees in this criminal underworld rather than enforcing the law.

 

Although it was a nihilistic episode, it was good in effectively conveying the emotional experiences Tubbs and Crockett are facing.

Edited by Vice Immersion
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  • 1 year later...

i thought it was a pretty decent episode. Strangely also feature 3 supporting actors feature in MV before. the end was pretty dumb with Alvarez on the scene when kozak's daughter is arrested. How would he know what was going on?! stupid.

 

8/10

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  • 1 month later...
On 8/6/2016 at 4:53 PM, AzVice said:

i thought it was a pretty decent episode. Strangely also feature 3 supporting actors feature in MV before. the end was pretty dumb with Alvarez on the scene when kozak's daughter is arrested. How would he know what was going on?! stupid.

 

8/10

Although not a classic - I enjoyed the early 1989 feel of this episode directed by Season 4 director Colin Bucksey ("Death and the Lady", "Like a Hurricane" and "Rock and a Hard Place" ):D:D

A nice episode. 8.5/10

Edited by Matt5
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I saw this one for the first time not long ago, funnily enough. One of the better S5 episodes. I'm not sure what Nazis and facist sympathisers has to do with a vice unit though, but then again it does give Crockett and Switek a reason to go undercover as white supremacists so..:done: We give them a lot of stick for re-hashing plots from the early seasons so it's refreshing to have a unique story. The massive brawl with C&Ts punching each other was great. (PMT sold a punch from Don like a champ and flew across the room). The scene where they blow up the abandoned building to prove their "faith" was pretty cool. It kind of reminded me of "Thief" when James Caan blows up his diner in the way it was shot.


Colin Bucksey's a good director man. Some guys have an eye for visuals and can do a lot of fancy camera work, so that's much appreciated. I was expecting the epsiode to be kind of crappy and was surprised it wasn't so 7/10

Edited by Vincent Hanna
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27 minutes ago, Vincent Hanna said:

I saw this one for the first time not long ago, funnily enough. One of the better S5 episodes. I'm not sure what Nazis and facist sympathisers has to do with a vice unit though, but then again it does give Crockett and Switek a reason to go undercover as white supremacists so..:done: We give them a lot of stick for re-hashing plots from the early seasons so it's refreshing to have a unique story. The massive brawl with C&Ts punching each other was great. (PMT sold a punch from Don like a champ and flew across the room). The scene where they blow up the abandoned building to prove their "faith" was pretty cool. It kind of reminded me of "Thief" when James Caan blows up his diner in the way it was shot.


Colin Bucksey's a good director man. Some guys have an eye for visuals and can do a lot of fancy camera work, so that's much appreciated. I was expecting the epsiode to be kind of crappy and was surprised it wasn't so 7/10

Yes i agree about Colin Bucksey I enjoyed the four episodes he directed for Miami Vice - quite stylish!

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  • 3 weeks later...

I do like this episode very much. What I do regret is only a single detail that appears 2 or 3 times I guess. I'm talking about that fake car vision that implies, sometimes, that someone is watching Crockett and Tubbs... Who after all was watching them? And why using such a cheap effect?

I was even naive enough to forget about Alvarez. So I was truly surprised when he shots Kozak's daughter in the end!

I always like to watch that episode again!

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19 hours ago, ivoryjones said:

I do like this episode very much. What I do regret is only a single detail that appears 2 or 3 times I guess. I'm talking about that fake car vision that implies, sometimes, that someone is watching Crockett and Tubbs... Who after all was watching them? And why using such a cheap effect?

I was even naive enough to forget about Alvarez. So I was truly surprised when he shots Kozak's daughter in the end!

I always like to watch that episode again!

Nice review - I also love this episode - Crockett and Tubbs burnt out and coming to an end. Also this episode feels like 1989 somehow !

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  • 5 months later...
  • 1 month later...

I've only watched this episode once. So this is mostly by memory.

Love seeing the actor who played Glanz again. Especially his line "Outstanding".

This was definitely one of the more violent episodes.

William Hickey was great. So was the actress who played his daughter.

Need to watch it again.

This is kind of the last official episodes. After this we got the lost episodes and Freefall. Damn I wasn't even alive yet but I miss the 80s. Cheers.

7/10

Edited by Remington
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  • 2 years later...

Muh evil nazis. A shame that this low effort propaganda trash is sandwiched between the very good "Over The Line" and "Freefall".

Edited by JoeyStockwell
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  • 4 months later...

This would've been a pretty good episode, but the laziness of the production ruined it for me.  For starters, the recasting of actors at this point in the series had become somewhat distracting.  This episode made it laughable!!  John Leguizamo AGAIN,,,,really???  He played a Calderone, probably one of the most important names in the series, and they recast him!  Paul Guilfoyle, while giving a good performance, was still too fresh on my mind from season 4.  Same with Xander Berkley.  I feel like I'm forgetting someone.  Maybe the big mustached guy that has been in countless episodes as a baddie.  Maybe watching this originally as it aired enough time had passed where viewers didn't pay that much attention.  The production could've at least attempted to give these returning actors a different look.

Secondly, what was with the shots of someone watching Sonny and Rico out of the cartoonish car window?  These shots served no purpose to the story, only showing the shoddy effects.  The scenes in Kozak's room were like something out of a bad music video.  We see DJ's double/stuntman clear as day in the jail cell scene. 

Finally, another laughable scene was when Crockett and Switek shoot and blow up a storefront.  Not that MV was ever the beacon of believable police work, but this was ridiculous.   Imagine the discussion leading up to that.  "Let's blow up a city block Lieutenant!  That will really sell our cover to the bad guys!"  Which brings me to my final gripe....Where the hell was Castillo??

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  • 1 year later...

The plot of this one is not something you'd think of with MV, but it was still a realistic and tragic episode...dealing with racial hatred, Nazi criminals, and old war crimes.

It was somewhat bizarre and very "dark"...but it was also kind of intriguing, and the acting was awesome in this one. I thought all did a fantastic job! :clap: Karen Black, especially, was outstanding as mentally deranged psycho Helen Jackson, trying to avenge the accusations against her father. :eek:

Paul Guilfoyle was once again awesome as racial maniac John Baker (however, he'll always be Capt. Jim Brass on CSI to me ;)), and William Hickey was the perfect character actor for the aging, mentally disturbed Nazi war criminal Hans Kozak. Along with Xander Berkeley and Herb Goldstein...this one had an amazing cast!

However, I will admit there were some unrealistic or over-the-top parts to this one...such as when Crockett and Switek try to make John Baker and his commune dudes think they were on their side but shooting & blowing up some Jewish and/or other race/religious buildings. Okay, they were obliterating these buildings with machine guns and some kind of homemade maltov cocktails, all the while you can see cars/people going by literally right behind them. :rolleyes: I think in reality they would have chosen a much later time when less people would have been around.

But, the music was interesting and I especially love Misguided Angel, by Cowboy Junkies, at the very end...very touching and heart-felt...it fit perfectly! :radio: We also got to see some pretty awesome shots of both Crockett and Tubbs' cars...I LOVE the beautiful shots of Tubb's Caddy (both interior and out--and it's my favorite Caddy used...the aqua green one with the white steering wheel) at the beginning when the drug dealers get whacked at Sy's restaurant!

Later there's some superb scenes with Sonny's Testarossa! But, probably my favorite aspects to this episode were the colors and fashion--they were phenomenal!! :glossy: I love the old trademark teal and pink pastel color scheme once again throughout--from the buildings, interiors, even the clothes! I love Crockett's shirts and jackets at the beginning...with the off-white or pale pink (couldn't quite tell which it was?) linen jacket with the teal shirt and white pants--I felt like we were back in season 2 again! :dance2: 

Tubbs' clothes were superb as well! Really I felt this one was pretty decent. It's kind of out-there & still pretty "dark" and tragic, I know...but with the acting, colors, action, even suspense...I still give it a 6-7. :cool:

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  • 1 month later...
On 9/30/2016 at 7:16 PM, ivoryjones said:

I do like this episode very much. What I do regret is only a single detail that appears 2 or 3 times I guess. I'm talking about that fake car vision that implies, sometimes, that someone is watching Crockett and Tubbs... Who after all was watching them? And why using such a cheap effect?

I was even naive enough to forget about Alvarez. So I was truly surprised when he shots Kozak's daughter in the end!

I always like to watch that episode again!

I agree, that "view from the car window" effect looked as though it was thrown on AFTER principle filming had been completed.  

I think (I THINK), the mystery person who was watching them was supposed to be Alvarez.  He'd made a promise he would see the murder pay for killing his brothers.... following Sonny and Tubbs around town, letting them find the killer, would be the inexpensive technique a hoodlum would use.  

What I don't accept, is that the shotgun murderer we see in the opening scene,... is KAREN BLACK that we see later on?  Karen has put on a few cute pounds, which is fine for a gal in dresses and outfits---but there's no way she is the athletic quick stealthy killer in black splattering the diner.

Why not add an "assistant", her fellow accomplice who does some of the killings on her orders?  That way, we accept what we saw at the diner killing, get to see the cops lasso the accomplice in addition to arresting Karen Black, and we get to see that any number of people can be roped into the Nazi-denial mindset.

 

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Not my favorite episode, or Season.  The premise of "traveling Nazi hunter is in town, and needs our help" has been pushed on so many tv shows, and almost never explored in new potentially more meaningful ways... and when they decide to include that premise in a Miami Vice episode, they play it just as unimaginatively as all the other times someone does it.  It's painful to hear sanctimonious moral of the story lines come out of Sonny and Rico (the two damn coolest police on screen shouldn't have to recite the obvious wrongs of Nazis trying to justify their pasts), John Legunzamo is just too artificial in his lines and display of emotions.  And there is no way they can convince us that the masked person who appears with a shotgun at the beginning of the episode is the famous and then pleasingly-plump Ms. Karen Black.  

But the fist few scenes, just about four minutes past the opening credits, are surprisingly well done.  

The diner-owner's line about "kibitzing" gives an early tip-off that "Jewish" is going to be a vital clue to what's happening in this episode.  

The sequential killing of each of the four victims in the shotgun scene just as Rico has made his U-turn to drive away--the way they film Rico's car from the rear as it skids (so we know that the they've heard the shots---even without the audience having to see Tubbs and Crockett's faces in the car)---Don Jonson tells his face to perform  these the genuinely shell-shocked blinks after he slumps in the diner chair, and Thomas speaks out this  really quiet "oh my god",  BOTH gestures come across as real, like the reactions that would really be felt in an actual police incident, when they could easily have been the corny or stereotyped "stunned officer" reaction we've seen a thousand times on tv shows. Tim Truman's incidental music kicking in at the start of the killing, and keeping exactly the same rhythm even as our cops arrive to intervene (signifying that the cops presence doesn't matter, cuz there's just nothing they can do this time).  I don't normally like Truman's music because it IS incidental and not more mood-setting like Hammer's, but it works in this scene (and this scene only).

Actor Xander Berkeley plays the homicide detective character beautifully--he's wearing the customary MV tie and wardrobe, but he walks across the crime scene like a dedication-worn working guy who's got the shakes from dangerously excessive coffee-caffeine, reminds me of Rodney Dangerfield's body twitches, or those super-pressure Air-traffic controllers operating on 10 packs of cigarettes a day to get their crucial job done.  He does it so subtle, you almost don't notice the behavior.  In all of the episodes of the series, this homicide cop is the only "other-Miami-department" cop I respected immediately.  Many department visitors from the other episodes were either stumbling, or arrogant, or trying to be slick. Something about his mannerisms made me I both like him and sympathize with him right off.  Got to praise an actor for being able to fit so much detail into such a short scene.  
There's a poetic exchange of words in the script:  Crockett asks "is that the restaurant owner?"---and   answers with enough words to tell you that he actually KNEW the owner.  Then HE asks back to Crockett "was the the Alvarez bothers?'--and Tubbs and Crockett answer with enough words to tell him that they KNEW these criminals well.  'You knew alot about your guy the owner---and we knew a lot about our guys the criminals'---and it feels kind of sad and poignant for minute.  The quiet things we'd actually say to each other in the wake of something violent.  
And then Crockett lifts up his gun--it's a HUGE honking big thing, I never noticed through four seasons just how massive this damn thing is. My eyes  
And he gives that gun such a scary fed-up look with his eyes, and you're not really sure what his face is expressing---is he looking at the gun that way because he's made up his mind to go get the perpetrator of this splatter-violence and condemn him to death?  Or did he look at his gun that way because carrying this big pistol reminds him that you Crockett  are PART of the violence, so maybe you should be condemning yourself for being in the profession?   
I never get tired of watching that opening act on this episode.  Watch that beginning over and over  enough times and your realize Don Johnson prepping his gun, and advancing out of the frame with Rico coming right behind him completes a deep scene.  The scene got really deep!  

The interrogation in the pool wasn't bad either, but only on a set-design level---the poses of these two men, each with very different fashion style but both fantastic against the bleached background of the pool walls---Tubbs especially BURNING UP the best camera poses any magazine cover could create----daaamn, Philip--I'll pay any amount for that exact suit you're wearing!  Girls everywhere would be running up out of nowhere to try to bite me on my bum!!!  
John Leguizamo's reactions are nowhere up to the dramatic task though...

The rest of the episode?  The rest of it just gets "schloppy" (spelling?), and it falls apart into something most suitable for an episode of Hunter, or TJ Hooker, but not Miami Vice caliber.

vergangenheit08.jpg

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  • 1 month later...

There are some good bits (I like the visual of Crockett and Tubbs questioning Leguizamo in the emptied swimming pool) and the presence of Karen Black, but, otherwise, pretty draggy and cliched.  And I can't stand William Hickey's mannerisms and voice.  No matter what I see in him, I feel the need to take a shower to wash away all of the decrepitude he leaves as a moldy residue.  

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  • 3 months later...

This was a 'meh' episode.Don't feel like giving more than a 6 overall. It was like half new for me to watch as I completely forgot the ending and who the perp. was, since the first viewing during the 90s re-run.

I liked the pool interrogation shot, the big Caddy shot during the intro, and the guest stars even-though recycled. Especially Paul Guifoyle and John Leguizamo.

As someone else pointed out in a previous post, I don't find believable that one single woman could physically carry out all those murders. She must have hired some killers for sure but this wasn't on screen.

The negatives were no Castillo and we don't see the likes of him until the finale 'Freefall'. He probably wouldn't have allowed Crockett and Switek to blow that shop front.
I hope they are insured anyway. :)

The theme and story-line were a bit too much for a show like MV in my opinion. But again C&T were led into this from the Alvarez brothers shooting.
Anyway, there's some holier than thou vibe in this episode.

And Leguizamo's character showing up right in the end to murder the perp. reminds of the final scenes from 'No exit' and 'Contempt of court'.

I think this episode would fit in S3 because of the story-line.
 

On 10/8/2021 at 1:24 PM, Augusta said:

And then Crockett lifts up his gun--it's a HUGE honking big thing, I never noticed through four seasons just how massive this damn thing is.

yeah, and Tubbs gun is really that small! I often wonder how he managed to do the job with so little fire power.
 

On 10/8/2021 at 1:24 PM, Augusta said:

And he gives that gun such a scary fed-up look with his eyes, and you're not really sure what his face is expressing---is he looking at the gun that way because he's made up his mind to go get the perpetrator of this splatter-violence and condemn him to death?  Or did he look at his gun that way because carrying this big pistol reminds him that you Crockett  are PART of the violence, so maybe you should be condemning yourself for being in the profession?

I'd go with the the latter...he'd lost faith at this stage.

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