Episode #96 "Line Of Fire"


Ferrariman

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  • 2 years later...

I love Line of Fire! It's one of my top five favourite episodes. It's an awesome ep. Everything I want from a great Vice ep is here; good story, acting, action, locations, music. Everything is top notch. It's a hugely entertaining ep that I never get bored of. I can't fault this episode at all. I love it. It's one of my absolute favourites. Joey Harden got a truly excellent introduction with this episode. He and Crockett had really had great chemistry. They had a type of father/son relationship. We had an insight to Crockett's motivation as a cop when he said he does it to 'Make the world safe, for children'. I liked that. I loved all of their scenes on the St. Vitus. The big twist that Harden was working undercover for the DEA in the guise of the metalhead was a big surprise. I wasn't expecting that. Tim Truman's music is great. We hear Iron Maiden and Eric Clapton songs for about two seconds each. I had to laugh when Crockett asked "You think those boys of yours will be around in twenty years?". Er, yes they will be actually Crockett. Gorgeous scenery in this ep; the Biltmore Hotel, Ocean Drive and Jimbo's. Ocean Drive looked great in this ep. Made me wish I was there. And I loved the aerial shots when Tubbs was in the helicopter.I loved the action in this ep. Especially the sequence at the Key where they get attacked again and hit back with Molotov cocktails. The way Bates fell when he got shot was really realistic and there were actually bulletholes, unlike in the early episodes. The Testarossa appears for the first time in six episodes and there's no Gina in this ep either, which is a blessed relief. Overall, I love this ep. It delivers high on entertainment and action. A favourite of mine. 10/10

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Great episode and the first real, true Crockett show of Season 5. Bad Timing just doesn't cut it for me in the way Line of Fire shows that Sonny is back at OCB full-time. I give it an 8, and it falls short of ranking higher because I don't like the way they portrayed Hardin as the cliched metalhead that had become stereotyped even in 1988.Although, Hardin's character had this peculiar interest in always mentioning global warming and the environment that made him kind of intriguing.

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Posted: March 26 2008 at 9:15am This was a so-so episode. I liked the wise cracks about the heavy metal music from Tubbs & Crockett. Also liked the action on the St. Vitus Dance. Sonny.... nose to nose with Cantero was cool. So was Crockett fishing again with his witness. The ending had my wife & I wondering if that was the same kid who was dying in the previous scene. He recovered fast!!! I rate it a 7/10.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 weeks later...

I can rate this episode no greater than a 6. Joey Harden's cover, despite the true dedication and integrity he had as a DEA agent, was one of the most impudent ones the series has ever seen. Also, the idea of hiding a key witness on Sonny's boat, coupled with an uninspiring music score, just did not catch my fancy that much.

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  • 2 years later...

Great episode - filmed a lot on location at The Biltmore in Coral Gables. A real late 1988 film to this ep with Sonny in ripped jeans and t shirts :thumbsup::D

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  • 3 months later...

This episode is pretty good. Love the action scenes...at the Biltmore and later on the St. Vitus. :thumbsup: The Maltov Cocktails being chucked by Crockett and Joey was pretty cool! :cool: Love the intro, with Crockett now in ripped jeans and denim--there's a very late 80's / 90's feel to it. I also liked Crockett's pastel pink shirt he wore throughout...this season's kind of hit-n-miss with the pastels, so it's nice to see them here-n-there. :clap:Justin Lazzard did a descent job as a young undercover cop, Joey Harden, trying to learn the "ropes"--and the whole father/son thing played out between Crockett and Joey was an interesting touch. Harden turning out to really be an undercover DEA agent was a nice plot twist that I didn't see coming the first time I watched this one.However, the action scene that required Switek to run was pretty ridiculous. :rolleyes: You could tell it was done very slowly (almost in slow motion) but was supposed to be like a "regular" or fast chase...it was hilarious! :)Other episodes have more substance and/or "flash"...but overall this ones enjoyable and fun to watch. I gave it a 7! :clap:

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was a good episode" data-date=" and definitely had a late 80">

This episode is pretty good. Love the action scenes...at the Biltmore and later on the St. Vitus. :thumbsup: The Maltov Cocktails being chucked by Crockett and Joey was pretty cool! :cool: Love the intro, with Crockett now in ripped jeans and denim--there's a very late 80's / 90's feel to it. I also liked Crockett's pastel pink shirt he wore throughout...this season's kind of hit-n-miss with the pastels, so it's nice to see them here-n-there. :clap:Justin Lazzard did a descent job as a young undercover cop, Joey Harden, trying to learn the "ropes"--and the whole father/son thing played out between Crockett and Joey was an interesting touch. Harden turning out to really be an undercover DEA agent was a nice plot twist that I didn't see coming the first time I watched this one.However, the action scene that required Switek to run was pretty ridiculous. :rolleyes: You could tell it was done very slowly (almost in slow motion) but was supposed to be like a "regular" or fast chase...it was hilarious! :)Other episodes have more substance and/or "flash"...but overall this ones enjoyable and fun to watch. I gave it a 7! :clap:

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  • 1 year later...

It was an ok episode. I got the feeling the producers were exploring a spin off of MV using these younger characters. Ok for season 5, but not so much if it had been done in the early years of MV.

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  • 5 months later...

I don't have season 5 on dvd but this is one I remember liking. My interest in Vice had faded but I like this one a lot. Truman did one piece that I like quite a bit. He used it on the boat with Sonny & a version of it when Tubbs is in the helicopter. It plays in the finale when Crockett takes his last look at the marina. A nice piece of music.

Crockett & Tubbs had gotten so burned out by this point it was nice to see them smile a bit here. One of my favorites from season 5. 7/10 maybe even 8/10. Need to watch it again.

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One of the best episodes of Season 5. You almost feel like you're watching classic Miami Vice for a second.

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  • 2 weeks later...

I loved the twists and turns of the plot in this episode regarding who the leak was, the many layers of internal surveillance, and the true identity of the witness.  It was a refreshing pace in consistently changing the viewers expectations on what would happen.

 

The most significant contribution the episode made, is that it reinforces why Crockett became a cop, and with his growing cynicism about the law, why he continues to be one as he still has some uncertainty about his own mental fortitude back in "Bad Timing" when talking with the psychiatrist.  I think this explanation was necessary after Crockett's subconscious made him to assume his Burnett cover in "Mirror Image", and the aftermath of the entire Sonny Burnett arc, because it makes the audience wonder exactly why Crockett is continuing being cop (an undercover cop at that).  His response did not disappoint as he is shown to have soft spot toward children, particularly preserving and protecting the innocence of children ("make the world safe for children"), as we've seen before in the "The Good Collar" with Archie Ellis.  This warmth and concern toward the youth is shown with interaction with the DEA undercover agent, Joey Hardin, especially as Crockett sees himself in him.

 

Although the fruitless prosecution of Carols Cantero was a typical pessimistic ending, at least the ending wasn't completely full of gloom as they saw Hardin with restored health, and the audience saw Tubbs and Crockett bond and smile with him.  Which at this point, is a small breath of fresh air after so many heavy and dreary episodes since Season 4's "Deliver Us From Evil".

 

As many have mentioned above, the episode does encapsulate a lot of the late 1988-early 1989 music scene with not only the soundtrack, but with Tim Truman's score in reflecting the harder 80s rock (and electronic) sounds when glam metal was Top 40 popular (i.e. Guns N' Roses, Poison, Def Leppard, Bon Jovi), unlike with Jan Hammer's sound in the early seasons when new wave and softer synthesizer sounds epitomized the musical landscape.

Edited by Vice Immersion
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  • 11 months later...

 

Line of Fire is a masterpiece! I've fallen in love with this episode upon my first viewing. This episode proved that the show still had juice in the tank amidst all the changes.

 

For the first time in what seems like forever, we finally get Crockett and Tubbs back to normal. It's refreshing to see Sonny and Rico making jabs and jokes at each other. This is something that was greatly missed in season 4 when Tubbs' character was downsized incredibly and the focus went completely to Sonny. 

 

Seeing and hearing Ministry's 'Stigmata' was a total blast, and right on time with a shoot out in the hotel. I love the dialogue and time spent between Crockett and Kieth on the boat. Then, there is that awesome shoot out with the helicopter but speaking of helicopter, Tim Truman's score that plays during the scene with Tubbs in the helicopter, that is something of dreams right there. It sends chills down into you, and you can feel the hopelessness of the situation but at the same time, it's so relaxing. Probably my favorite Tim Truman score of the season, not enough words to describe how awesome that one is.

 

The final shoot out is even better, it's like we went back to season 2 for a bit. Crockett and Tubbs both gunning Bates down like that was a perfect ending to the whole twist of that situation. The show proved it could still be surprising when we find out Kieth was really a double for the witness.

 

10 out of 10 for me, this episode is one of my all time favorites. 

 

 

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On September 19, 2010 at 1:02 PM, Tommy Vercetti said:

...and there's no Gina in this ep either, which is a blessed relief.

?(?(?(

 

I was reading thru a couple of these posts making sure I was thinking of the right episode...then I came across this. Please elaborate :) 

Edited by nofretz
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  • 4 weeks later...

im going between 8/10 and 7 on this episode. There were things i didn't like about season 5, but they actually kept recurring theme's going, more than usual. Here Sonny's amnesia is brought up at the beginning, though in the previous episode he was still on suspension and now he's just back with no further comment on that.

Also didn't make sense that the FBI doesn't want to know where they are taking the witness and then immediately go back on it. Also an actor named Michael Owens appeared. This was his fourth appearance on Miami Vice....3 in just the last two seasons , as different characters, and most recently as Sonny's doctor In Mirror Image. Strange.

Tubbs sports some great threads in the episode and even Stan wears a great suit at the Biltmore. 

Edited by AzVice
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  • 10 months later...

And 1988 comes to a close. Pretty decent episode.

I like the plot and action. Wasn't expecting Hardin to be a cop. However, due to that fact, his behavior kinda drags the episode down a bit for me.

Great scenery too. I effing hate that type of metal. Reminded me of an old friend that I increasingly got sick of.

Pretty bad helicopter explosion too.

The good outweighs the bad though. Nice to see the entire team working together. Good action. Love the late 80/90s feel as others have pointed out.

7/10

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  • 1 year later...

Watched this one again the other night and it is how I remember it: one of the better season 5 episodes with some nice--but not enough--Crockett & Tubbs camaraderie and a fairly good plot/story that might have seemed at home in season 2. The actor who plays Joey Hardin does a great job, IMO, with just the right amount of hints in his action/dialogue that make it realistic that he is an undercover cop, not really a witness needing protection ("no, Crockett, you don't understand, it wasn't supposed to be like this"--I think that's a panicked witness, but after learning the twist it comes across as a young, undercover cop who is fearing he's in over his head). 

However, Line of Fire suffers from the same lazy, lack of attention to detail as much of season 5. Take, for instance, the well-known helicopter shadow screw up. This could have taken ten seconds in the editing bay to fix or avoid--just use fly over shots without the shadow. But someone didn't care. I mean, it was so obvious the first moment I saw the episode so many years ago. A little nitpick and it certainly doesn't ruin the episode, but it's the type of thing that happened a lot in Season 5 and I feel insulted--as a viewer--that they actually thought I wouldn't notice such an obvious blooper.

Also, the whole sequence when Tubbs and Switek chase down then capture Felix and do the whole "we're letting you go free so that your boss thinks you cooperated" thing. After snatching Felix, they show an exterior of OCB then go to an interrogation room that, in seasons past, would've been at police HQ (I don't think they'd bring a suspect into the undercover operation at Gold Coast). Silly nitpick again, but also a sign of laziness IMO. Also, it has very deus ex machina  vibe, and really isn't necessary; they could've discovered Agent Bates' duplicity in an easier way, other than just hand-waving about Izzy. Furthermore, Tubbs over-explains the whole thing as if the writers are saying: "Hey, this is so clever an idea that if we don't spoon-feed you what's going on you'll never get it!" See "Brothers Keeper" on how to pull off this tactic perfectly.

The flare-gun and horrible helicopter explosion dampen what was a good sequence. Just have Crockett shoot the gunner out the door, forcing the pilot to fly off. Flare guns, by the way, aren't stinger missiles. Just sayin'.

Still, I'm banging on the episode too much. I do enjoy Line of Fire and feel like it's one of the few Season 5 episodes where things click on par with episodes from the previous seasons but then again I tend to enjoy episodes directed by Richard Compton. 

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