Season 5: Overall Assessment


rodriguezisdead

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My rating for the entire Season is 6.62. Season 3 & 4 both scored higher than this in my book, so that says it all really! I also gave the first 2 eps (the end of the Burnett trilogy) 10 out of 10 each, raising my overall score for the Season, so without them this Season would've scored unbelievably low. The Burnett trilogy is probably the best of MV in my book. But following the return of Sonny's memory he is a changed man, and is never fully accepted back into the OCB fold IMO. He is sulky and cynical for most of the eps in which we see him after this and although this is necessary to convince us that his time (and hence the show's time) is over, it just doesn't make for particularly entertaining viewing. It doesn't help that we see so little of so many of the cast for most of the Season either eg. Castillo, Rico at times. The one thing that Season 5 has to do, and it does it well in my book, is show us how Sonny's total disenchantment with the System must logically end. Top 5 Eps:1 - Redemption in Blood - 10/10 - Conclusion of the Burnett trilogy. Sonny's memory finally returns after wondering in to OCB during one of the most memorable scenes that MV ever gave us. One or two other scenes also showcase some of DJ's acting ability. Sonny still looks superb in this one.2 - Hostile Takeover - 10/10 - Weakest of the Burnett trilogy but still packing a heck of a punch. Sonny looks superb once again.3 - World of Trouble - 8.5/10 - Glorious throwback to early Seasons of Vice in terms of characters and style. Lombard is a great character who always makes a welcome return.4 - Fruit of the Poison Tree - 8.5/10 - Very clever plot and twists, great acting, very dark - classic Season 5. Great Vice style in some of the scenery.5 - Line of Fire - 8/10 - Great intro for Joey, classic late plot twists and revelations. Super face-off scene for Sonny. Other eps worth a mention and equally scoring 8/10 in my book: Miami Squeeze, and Freefall - although both of these only score so highly for a few ideas or strong scenes rather than the whole ep. 3 Weakest Eps:1 - Leap of Faith - 2/10 - Hope I never have to watch this again. Labelled as MV but it really is not. Awful ep.2 - Miracle Man - 3/10 - Popular opinion is that this is the worst ever MV ep. IMO it had potential to be very dark and much better, but abysmal execution let it down.3 - Bad Timing - 5/10 - The thugs are terrible, guitar is awful, poor acting. Only Sonny's excellent therapy scenes raise this to a score of 5. Top 16/Most memorable Scenes/Moments from Season 5: 1) Redemption in Blood - Return to OCB scene is perhaps in my top 3 scenes for the entire show. Beautifully melancholic piece of music accompanies Sonny's very private journey of self re-discovery, which it is simply an honour to share in. 2) Redemption in Blood - The scene where the bandage is taken off Burnett's eyes and he subsequently almost shoots Celeste at point-blank range is absolutely compelling viewing and is as good a showcase of DJ's superb range of acting ability as we get throughout the whole of MV and, dare I say it, probably throughout DJ's entire career. He is almost as psychotic as Pacino in Scent of a Woman. I also love how much of that scene is shot as a reflection of mirrors - heavy symbolism with what is going on inside Sonny's head.3) Hostile Takeover - Sonny steps off his jet and strides over to meet the Commandante with his shades and amazing suit and ponytail - looks so cool and self-assured - the epitomy of a supremely successful and ambitious head of a drug empire - it's another of those scenes that has stuck in my head for 20 years. 4) Line of Fire - Had they ended the ep with the excellent 'It ain't over til it's over' face-off shot between Sonny and Quinterro, it would've been a better ending IMO. This was an excellent scene as C&T leave court - Sonny looks superb - almost as good as Burnett with shades on again. 5) World of Trouble - loved the final scene with the spanish guitar, merging the scenes where Lombard says farewell to his grandson, and the final showdown. 'Inspiration' by the Gipsy Kings - a truly beautiful track. Works so well here:

6) The Lost Madonna - the party scene with Burnett and the Professor with Tanita Tikaram's Twist in my Sobriety playing in the background. Wonderful tune - just seems to fit Vice so perfectly, especially S5 - so laid-back. This scene is really cool and Burnett looks ace throughout it - hair, shades, dark clothes - seems very close to Burnett in the trilogy as far as looks go. Heck even the colour contrasts are given thought in this scene with blacks and whites all over the place. Joey and Nikos in silhouette is a good example. 7) Fruit of the Poison Tree - the line at the end 'did you think it was gonna look pretty?' - or words to that effect - followed by Sonny just walking off - superbly dark - so Season 5. 8) Freefall - The final 10 mins or so are classic - the Bad Attitude shootout, the Do it if you got the stones scene, the handshake scene, and the inimitable Tell Me montage. 9) Too Much, Too Late - the scene where C&T fallout at the lockers at OCB - all it needed was a dirty fist-fight to really clear the air! But again it's a sign of just how burnt-out Sonny is that he just doesn't even get riled enough to raise his fists. Never have these guys seemed so far apart. 10) World of Trouble - the scene where Lombard comes to his son's house and meets his grandson and pushes him on the swing - those trees the swing is hanging from look so aged and beautiful. They even manage to capture the sound of the wind blowing through the leaves of the trees - wonderful detail. 11) World of Trouble - scenes at OCB are cool - Sonny and Lombard in particular seem to be so light about it all - it's like a re-union of old adversaries - not too dissimilar to De Niro and Pacino in Heat actually - there's respect there on both sides, but both of them also know clearly where the line is drawn: Sonny says "Don't even J-walk" and Lombard retorts with a smile "I wouldn't have it any other way". Great stuff. 12) Miami Squeeze - specialist's office Sonny goes to see is superb - wow, what a stunner. Wouldn't you love to have an office like that? Well, maybe at least sometimes, sure would miss a window or two eventually... Sonny is also excellent in these scenes - I don't think we ever see him in Season 5 being this introspective for this length of time. 13) Miami Squeeze - Castillo and Sonny in the final scene are excellent. Castillo worried about how it all looked to the team, but Sonny just supports him 100% and calls him the 'glue man', binding the team together. The music in the background is good. As is the sun shining through the rain on the window onto Sonny and Castillo - odd, but seems to work.14) To Have and to Hold - final scene on the boat - great sunset - C&T musing over how tired they are of losing people - now that's what Season 5 is all about.15) Bad Timing - DJ's acting outside the police hearing room is excellent. 16) Borrasca - Worth watching for Castillo and Reese scenes alone. It's not often that Castillo comes up against such a chilling adversary. There's obviously history between these two and it's a shame we don't see Reese again - or before this ep for that matter.
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  • 1 year later...
  • 4 weeks later...

"I love season 5" could kill me....but...if we use a not very polite local slang, seems the producers "lost the lust" doing the show on season 5. Repeating actors, main actors absent, ridiculous and streotyped characters, not so important guest stars, ppl seems were just spending the time to make another episode just because Vice would end in few episodes. I dont know exactly when MV jumped to the sharks but if theres a moment when the shark bite MV, was with "Leap of Faith". Miracle Man is another piece of crap. I just hope "Freefall" can be a great episode. But before we have "Too much, too late". I started to watch but i slept.I would like to know how Philip and Don feel watching "Miracle Man" or "Leap". Ashamed for sure, but we cant blame them.

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Most of S5 is a blur to me, after the Burnett Saga was over.At that point I only tuned in occasionally, it was clear that the end was near. :cry:

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The "Lombard Finale" til what i watched now was the best episode. Im not amazed by "Too much too late', lets see if 'Freefall" ends Vice with some honor.

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The Burnett trilogy are my favorite three episodes. I really liked season 5 as a whole though, other than the few silly episodes like miracle man.

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  • 1 year later...

Episode order on DVDNot sure if It has been mentioned elswhere but Season5 DVD, in Australia anyway, is out of sequence. The final episode, "Freefall", is on disc5 between "Victims of circumstance" an "world of trouble". Then disc6 has "miracle man, leep of faith and too much too late":birdie:

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Not sure if It has been mentioned elswhere but Season5 DVD' date=' in Australia anyway, is out of sequence. The final episode, "Freefall", is on disc5 between "Victims of circumstance" an "world of trouble". Then disc6 has "miracle man, leep of faith and too much too late":birdie:[/quote']Disc 6????????????????I only got five discs in my season five!I guess I'll have to turn the box set upside down and shake it to see if another disc appears?:thumbsup:
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Disc 6????????????????I only got five discs in my season five!I guess I'll have to turn the box set upside down and shake it to see if another disc appears?:thumbsup:

Must be something to do with the different regions. Let me know if something comes out of that box with all the shaking of it.:D:)You would think they would all be the same. But then again you would think they would get the episodes in order, no matter where they are sold:birdie:
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  • 1 year later...

I honestly can't stand S5, Everything I love about my favourite show has dissipated.The actors are bored out of their minds, the stories are either generic, repeats of earlier classics or just flat out suck balls. There's hardly any testerossa action and you only get to the Scarrab tied up. They didn't even have the budget to take it for a spin. The bad guys have turned into caricatures out of some awful b movie.Don johsnon isn't even in half of the episodes and when he is, he looks like he wants to get back onto the set of dead bang and what other bad tv movies he was doing at the time.The music is mostly terrible and they couldn't afford all the big names. So you got a bunch of early 90s insipid stuff.Alright as you read this you must be thinking, they can't be ALL bad right? Well no, Actually there are good episodes stuck in there, though few and far between.The end of the burnett saga, Hostile takeover & Redemption in Blood are actually fantastic compared to the stuff we had seen in S4. It's quite amazing they pulled something like those out of the bag. A last ditch effort to get views and it worked for me.The next few eps are filler whilst DJ takes a break doing lines of coke off naked girls. When he decides to come back, we have Line of Fire which is a really good episode, suprisingly funny, plenty of action and we finally get to the testerossa back. I love that car.

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I honestly can't stand S5' date=' Everything I love about my favourite show has dissipated.The actors are bored out of their minds, the stories are either generic, repeats of earlier classics or just flat out suck balls. There's hardly any testerossa action and you only get to the Scarrab tied up. They didn't even have the budget to take it for a spin. The bad guys have turned into caricatures out of some awful b movie.Don johsnon isn't even in half of the episodes and when he is, he looks like he wants to get back onto the set of dead bang and what other bad tv movies he was doing at the time.The music is mostly terrible and they couldn't afford all the big names. So you got a bunch of early 90s insipid stuff.Alright as you read this you must be thinking, they can't be ALL bad right? Well no, Actually there are good episodes stuck in there, though few and far between.The end of the burnett saga, Hostile takeover & Redemption in Blood are actually fantastic compared to the stuff we had seen in S4. It's quite amazing they pulled something like those out of the bag. A last ditch effort to get views and it worked for me.The next few eps are filler whilst DJ takes a break doing lines of coke off naked girls. When he decides to come back, we have Line of Fire which is a really good episode, suprisingly funny, plenty of action and we finally get to the testerossa back. I love that car.[/quote']Your assessment is negative and ridiculous - Don is only absent in a couple of episodes . Season 5 is great :shout::D:thumbsup:
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Your assessment is negative and ridiculous - Don is only absent in a couple of episodes . Season 5 is great :shout::D:thumbsup:

Maybe I got a little carried away:)But I'm most definitely right in pretty much every point I made.
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Maybe I got a little carried away:)But I'm most definitely right in pretty much every point I made.

Sorry thedeparted94 - I sometimes respect your posts but sometimes they are negative and unnecessary. I love Season 5 and MV comes a 5 Season package - embrace it my friend :shout::thumbsup::D
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Sorry thedeparted94 - I sometimes respect your posts but sometimes they are negative and unnecessary. I love Season 5 and MV comes a 5 Season package - embrace it my friend :shout::thumbsup::D

Yeh well sometimes you gotta speak the truth, If I passionately despise an episode then thats what comes out of my reviews, I'm more enthusiastic when I get to the good stuff.and alright..I may have sided swiped DJ a little bit in the last one. But if he's not going to bother, should I be happy about it? :p
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I have to go along more with Matt on this one...while Season 5 was not the best of the series and it was a little more out-there than the past seasons, it still is not as horrible as some make it out to be. ;) That's all I'm going to say for now...I'll state more on my views of Season 5 later. :cool:

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I have to go along more with Matt on this one...while Season 5 was not the best of the series and it was a little more out-there than the past seasons' date=' it still is not as horrible as some make it out to be. ;) That's all I'm going to say for now...I'll state more on my views of Season 5 later. :cool:[/quote']Good points :cool::thumbsup::D
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Good points :cool::thumbsup::D

Nope, sorry guys but it's awful.It almost makes me cry watching stuff like miracle man and leap of faith..Those alone put the season rating to 2/10..That's without all the other abysmal crap we have to put up with.Seriously you guys don't have to like it at as fans. I'm pretty sure michael mann finds most of it cow dung too.
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So negative thedeparted94 :DSeason 5 is a valid season of MV it shows the journey - the burnt out approach - DJ acted finely in many episodes. The harder rock soundtrack was very accurate for late 1988 and 1989 - the fluffiness of Season 1 was good and this was a dark ride Great Season :shout::thumbsup::D

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So negative thedeparted94 :DSeason 5 is a valid season of MV it shows the journey - the burnt out approach - DJ acted finely in many episodes. The harder rock soundtrack was very accurate for late 1988 and 1989 - the fluffiness of Season 1 was good and this was a dark ride Great Season :shout::thumbsup::D

I just find it hard to enjoy something if the people involved in making it arn't even enjoying themselves. Throughout S5 You can litterally see DJ on screen with his arms crossed and just annoyed that he still has to work on this crap. Most episodes don't even involve all the cast, It's either DJ or castillio missing. Obviously PMT didn't have any extra projects to work on so he's always there.
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Hmm not unlike Sean Connery's performance in you only live twice then.

ha, true. Sean does look a little bored walking around japan. It's weird how even success can bore you eventually.
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Nope' date=' sorry guys but it's awful.It almost makes me cry watching stuff like miracle man and leap of faith..Those alone put the season rating to 2/10..That's without all the other abysmal crap we have to put up with.Seriously you guys don't have to like it at as fans. I'm pretty sure michael mann finds most of it cow dung too.[/quote']Nope...sorry, departed, but it's not all awful. "Miracle Man" was one of the poorest episodes of the season (possibly the poorest), true...but that was just one episode. "Leap of Faith" wasn't a terrible episode...it just wasn't "MV" because it was originally a Pilot for a spin-off series. I don't really care for it, but it's no where near as horrible as say "Missing Hours" or "Cows of October"...but even "Miracle Man", as goofy as it is, isn't quite as crappy as those two. :done:Just because I'm a fan of the show doesn't mean I'll automatically love every episode...I've stated which episodes in the series I dislike many times over. If I like or dislike an episode there's a reason why and I'll state it. But, you seem to hate a good deal of the show after like the first season...so again, are you really a fan of this series? :p And I seriously doubt Michael Mann looks to one of his most famous hit shows ever as "cow dung". I've often wondered if he wished he'd of stayed with "MV" more...as he primarily left to try and produce "Crime Story"--which ended up barely lasting 2 seasons. ;)
So negative thedeparted94 :DSeason 5 is a valid season of MV it shows the journey - the burnt out approach - DJ acted finely in many episodes. The harder rock soundtrack was very accurate for late 1988 and 1989 - the fluffiness of Season 1 was good and this was a dark ride Great Season :shout::thumbsup::D
Interesting points...I prefer the earlier seasons' date=' but Season 5 does show more of the times as the 90's were approaching.
Hmm not unlike Sean Connery's performance in you only live twice then.
ha' date=' true. Sean does look a little bored walking around japan. It's weird how even success can bore you eventually.[/quote']Umm..okay. I love the James Bond movies and have them all, so even though "You Only Live Twice" was supposed to be Connery's last (which it wasn't) I didn't really see a difference in Connery's performance. I personally didn't care for the plot as much as the others, but he still gave as good of 007 as the first ones. I also thought his actual last one, "Diamonds Are Forever" was awesome and he really shined in it--although I did not care for the Bond Girl in it. :)Sean was not tired of or bored with success...he, like many actors, did not want to get type cast for the rest of his career and wanted to move on to other things. George Lazenby did not work out so they brought Connery back for one more. It was Connery that suggested his friend Roger Moore (who is my favorite Bond) take over the role.Overall I think Season 5 of "MV" is not that horrible...did it have some poor episodes? Yes! But most of the seasons included an episode or two that weren't exactly the best (except for maybe season 2). Season 5 was "darker" and there were some changes. I didn't love it compared to the rest of the series...but it still has its moments and good episodes! It's not as catastrophic as others sometimes make it out to be. :)I'm currently watching season 5...so I will reserve most of my review, feelings, rating, and thoughts about it until later, when I'm finished.
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ha come to think of it, I do hate on the show a little too much.I just get frustrated. But then you have to calm down and rationalise that this was an avant garde experimental style of show. They're not going to get it right 100% of the time. Sometimes their going to complety miss the mark.Season 5 is just Lazy, no other way round it. But there are a FEW gems that stick out. As you'd be hard pressed to produce 20 episodes and have them ALL suck. 1-2 of them has gotta be decent.

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