Episode #99 "Fruit Of The Poison Tree"


Ferrariman

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On 8/18/2020 at 6:13 PM, Bren10 said:

Looks to be from around this time.

 

 

Around about the time he was doing "GoodFellas" as well.

"GoodFellas" 1990

See the source image

 

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  • 1 month later...

This was a definite step-up from the previous episode & was a good, solid, enjoyable Season 5 one! The plot was something realistic and in-depth, the acting was superb by all, the action was pretty cool, and the colors & lighting used were awesome! :glossy:

The beginning was captivating and I love how Enriquez fell in the oil and was rolling around! :) The character of Lisa Madsen was perfectly played by Amanda Plummer! Not gonna lie, she has always kind of creeped me out and she looks kind of...bizarre, :eek: , but she is a very good actress! I love how she finally came-around and realized what a sleaze Sam Boyle was.

I could hardly stand Gina's air-head giggling and "babys" with Enriquez :rolleyes: --however, I know that was part of her cover. But, she totally made up for that with her superb, heart-wrenching performance when the boy was blown up with the bomb meant for her! That scene was so sad and tragic ;( , but it was also one of the best carried out in the whole episode! :clap: 

I thought Don did an outstanding job as well...and I love the scenes between him and Lisa, as he finally got her to wake up and realize what was going on. The end was fitting and appropriate...over all I really like this episode and look forward to it every time I watch Season 5! :thumbsup: I give it a 7-8.

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  • 2 months later...

I am oscilating between 9/10 and 10/10 on this one........... and as ViceFanMan said, it was good all around.

Gina's acting when the explosion hit was on point, like Gina has never done before; which is good, there was plenty of Testarossa in action, the Lisa-Crockett scenes are beautifully shot in the dark, the intro is also good, music performance fits like a glove on a hand...... and of course, there was a lot of engaging action, classic of MV; and it showed that the dark athmoshpere of S5 can really give birth to entertaining content for us to enjoy.

One thing I did not like, which keeps me from giving it a 10/10 is that Enriquez's character is way too silly, not as much as El Gato, but close........

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On 8/26/2021 at 5:11 AM, ViceFanMan said:

This was a definite step-up from the previous episode & was a good, solid, enjoyable Season 5 one! The plot was something realistic and in-depth, the acting was superb by all, the action was pretty cool, and the colors & lighting used were awesome! :glossy:

The beginning was captivating and I love how Enriquez fell in the oil and was rolling around! :) The character of Lisa Madsen was perfectly played by Amanda Plummer! Not gonna lie, she has always kind of creeped me out and she looks kind of...bizarre, :eek: , but she is a very good actress! I love how she finally came-around and realized what a sleaze Sam Boyle was.

I could hardly stand Gina's air-head giggling and "babys" with Enriquez :rolleyes: --however, I know that was part of her cover. But, she totally made up for that with her superb, heart-wrenching performance when the boy was blown up with the bomb meant for her! That scene was so sad and tragic ;( , but it was also one of the best carried out in the whole episode! :clap: 

I thought Don did an outstanding job as well...and I love the scenes between him and Lisa, as he finally got her to wake up and realize what was going on. The end was fitting and appropriate...over all I really like this episode and look forward to it every time I watch Season 5! :thumbsup: I give it a 7-8.

Only part I didn't like. That's the part I disliked too, yes she's undercover but she didn't need to act that dumb.

She could have repeated her performance "Give a Little, Take a Little" as Paula or something similar to that. 

Edited by RedDragon86
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On 11/7/2021 at 10:17 PM, RedDragon86 said:

That's the part I disliked too, yes she's undercover but she didn't need to act that dumb.

She could have repeated her performance "Give a Little, Take a Little" as Paula or something similar to that. 

It was kinda cringe...... but it didn't ruin the episode at all........ it just made it less good overall; and one of the reasons it is not a 10/10

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 9/12/2020 at 11:44 AM, Jack Gretsky said:

Definitely.  Seasons 1 & 2-level of engagement and style, but still a integral part of S5 - Switeck probably would have cracked a joke at Enriquez' slipping and sliding during the teaser ("Gotcha, slick!" or something like that) in earlier times.  Here he's not so wacky. 

In fact, I'm in the midst of a good run of S5 episodes; I'm watching the Mill Creek DVD set in which there're usually 5 episodes per disc - the first five of this season (Hostile Takeover through Borrasca) had a hard time getting me involved, but the next five (Line of Fire through To Have and to Hold) have been much better.  

A solid episode, although too much lawyer stuff for my taste.  Amanda Plummer (who certainly inherited her mom's distinctive voice) has a good, shades-of-grey character to play.  

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  • 3 months later...

I dig this episode very much! Easily a solid 9 and among my S5 favorites. Good, deep story-line and well played by DJ and Amanda Plummer. I like the actor playing Boyle, he's perfect for seedy characters (probably due to his facial features). I actually remember him from Beverly Hills Cop 3.
Gina was out undercover again and she did well. Tubbs outfits get better and better by episode. Do you think Switek went to place another phone bet after dismissing C&T early in the episode (escalator scene)?

It looks like some of the Ferrari ride footage was taken from 'Blood and roses'. 
I think i said it in a previous post but it would have been cool to see more of Tony Sirico's character (Frank Romano) coming back at some stage. He could have been an excellent main antagonist, even more sinister than Frank Mosca.

I believe MV writers disliked 'Frank', as the most despicable and sordid characters came by that name. :)

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57 minutes ago, sdiegolo78 said:

I believe MV writers disliked 'Frank', as the most despicable and sordid characters came by that name. :)

I brought this up before...there was some weird hang-up writers/producers seemed to have with the name ‘Frank’. :p There was Frank Hackman, Frank Mosca, Frank Romano, etc... ;)

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  • 5 months later...

Even Don knew this was a winner. When you see him sometimes looking disinterested in 5, almost falling a sleep in an episode like Bad Timing, which is understandable.

This is a gem, it really is a 10/10 episode.

Edited by RedDragon86
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6 hours ago, RedDragon86 said:

Even Don knew this was a winner. When you see him sometimes looking disinterested in 5, almost falling a sleep in an episode like Bad Timing, which is understandable.

This a gem, it really is a 10/10 episode.

Great episode from the fall of 1988

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I'm the outcast this time.  

This never felt like a strong episode to me.  I felt as though it was that formula again of promising episode built around a simple story that needs to be told frankly.  And Miami Vice was the show that proved good at that, telling a standard story we all know about but never have seen just put out there  on the table before (Evan or Badge of Dishonor are good examples of that).  The performers played their characters well, with just enough Vice quirkiness (which for Amanda comes naturally, Heaven bless her).  


But halfway through the episode, the formula leaves no roads to go down but the "he's going to get shot" or "she's going to roll and give up vital confidential evidence once her idol has fallen".  
The predictable road to the episode's conclusions, and the claustrophobic feeling that all Season-5  conversations between characters MUST take place in poorly-lit offices at night, made episodes like this one fail for me.

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On 8/15/2022 at 6:05 PM, Augusta said:

the claustrophobic feeling that all Season-5  conversations between characters MUST take place in poorly-lit offices at night, made episodes like this one fail for me.

I think the low key lighting was used to create a more serious and darker mood in S5.

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Am 15.8.2022 um 13:05 schrieb Augusta:


The predictable road to the episode's conclusions, and the claustrophobic feeling that all Season-5  conversations between characters MUST take place in poorly-lit offices at night, made episodes like this one fail for me.

It´s fully ok to like or dislike any episode for whatever subjective reason. But why artificially making up some "numeric" (objectively provable) claims that simply do not hold up with reality just to justify one´s opinion?

In this episode alone there are 5 office discussions, only two of them (one with Boyle and his protege and the last one where Crockett tries to get the address for the night confrontation) were at night and poorly lit. All others are in a very bright white office surrounding. The same with the previous episode (Hard Knocks) with a brightly white lit office in the same building and not a single dark night scene in an office.

So not "ALL Season-5 conversations...take place in poorly-lit offices".

Again, you can dislike this episode even for no understandable reason, no problem. I also have no problem if you contend that the episode was predictable (although it was not, as Madsen was too Boyle friendly and career driven to cut Enriquez free AND be expelled by the law board for giving away priviliged client information through this. So she lost her beloved mentor AND her beloved career with this decision and thus was so smashed in the end at the airport as she thought she could at least save his life over her lost career). But you can simply stand by it without any fantasy number arguments.

Edited by Tom
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On 8/15/2022 at 12:05 PM, Augusta said:


I'm the outcast this time.  

This never felt like a strong episode to me.  I felt as though it was that formula again of promising episode built around a simple story that needs to be told frankly.  And Miami Vice was the show that proved good at that, telling a standard story we all know about but never have seen just put out there  on the table before (Evan or Badge of Dishonor are good examples of that).  The performers played their characters well, with just enough Vice quirkiness (which for Amanda comes naturally, Heaven bless her).  


But halfway through the episode, the formula leaves no roads to go down but the "he's going to get shot" or "she's going to roll and give up vital confidential evidence once her idol has fallen".  
The predictable road to the episode's conclusions, and the claustrophobic feeling that all Season-5  conversations between characters MUST take place in poorly-lit offices at night, made episodes like this one fail for me.

It’s not necessarily a famous episode, but for the season it was a decent one...good characters & acting! :thumbsup: 

I don’t know if there were lots of dark or poorly lit scenes throughout the final season...but I do agree there was a “darker” feel (sometimes in a literal sense with a dimly lit set, or sometimes figuratively speaking with plot and acting). I think they were trying to re-invent the show, but overall they went too bizarre & dark, and it failed.

However, even though I do like this episode (especially for Season 5 ;)), I agree that the plot & circumstances were predictable. We all knew from the beginning that Boyle was “dirty” & was a fake. We just had to wait on Lisa to finally realize & acknowledge it—as I think she started to realize it partway into the episode, but didn’t want to admit to herself that her idol was as “plastic” & hollow as a Ken-doll. 

But, I like the very end...very good acting, as even though Lisa wanted revenge for her father’s death at first, she suddenly realized it was futile & not worth it...but, it was too late. 

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  • 6 months later...

One of my favourite Season 5 episodes (mainly due to the music), but what kills the mood slightly for me is the last line from Crockett, which closes the story (he asks Lisa if she thought it was going to look pretty - RE: revenge on Boyle). It just felt a little too cruel. Then again, this is older-and-burned-out Crockett, so it's kind of understandable.

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1 hour ago, Swevicus said:

One of my favourite Season 5 episodes (mainly due to the music), but what kills the mood slightly for me is the last line from Crockett, which closes the story (he asks Lisa if she thought it was going to look pretty - RE: revenge on Boyle). It just felt a little too cruel. Then again, this is older-and-burned-out Crockett, so it's kind of understandable.

It might have seemed cruel, but to me it was needed...to finally get through to the pompous & egotistical, "I'm better/above everyone else" mentality of Lisa. She thought she knew better than the lowly cops, in her mind, but ultimately she got to see what they went through & had to witness on a regular basis while she was usually sitting in a posh office hobnobbing with white collar criminals. ;) This was a very good Season 5 one, which by that time was definitely on the rare side. :funky:

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  • 4 months later...

A fine episode - although the ending fell a little flat and was predictable. 
The teaser shot at the Downtown Government Centre Metrorail complex was very well done, good dialogue and perfect music involving all the Vice team.

Great direction too (her first episode) by Michelle Manning who had started as a producer on The Breakfast Club movie in 1985 and then after Miami Vice went onto become President of Production of Paramount Pictures and Disney.

Stephen McHattie as Sam Boyle stole the show.

10/10.

Edited by Matt5
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