Episode #8 "The Great McCarthy"


Ferrariman

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  • 7 months later...

Here is Crockett close behind McCarthy's giant boat:

Great_Mc8.png

Then he gets a little too close and runs into McCarthy's wake and all of sudden Crockett's boat is getting knocked sideways:

Great_Mc9.png

This pic doesn't quite capture the feeling, but watching the video it looks dangerous!!!

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Yes that is for sure!!!

 

Getting in a boats "WAKE" at high speed is quite dangerous and you really have to know how to drive. I have watched that video a thousand times and never tire of it. Very cool shots of a race.

I do this for real now and can tell you it is absolutely exhilarating!!! I have learned to drive from some of the best and now do the same in my boat. The increadible power of a couple of big blocks pushing you out of the water is outstanding. Chasing other boats on the lake is fun but I always am wary of how I hit the swells and am always in careful control of my boat.

When I was in the Poker Run in Kingston we were in five groups of about 30 boats each and we took off at five minute intervals. When our group left it was exactly as depicted in TGM and those pictures above. you are following in the wake of dozens of other boats and very close for that matter.

Here is an aerial picture of our group in the Poker Run.

_IGP8453_zpsnfayfkmd.jpg

As you can see we are all separated quite a bit for safety on takeopff. this is as we are leaving Kingston and heading up the St.Lawrence towards Brockville. However, when we get into the river eastbound there are many areas where the river narrows and then we have the same situation as in the pics form TGM. We have to be careful in the other guys wake but we still keep the throttles pretty well opened with some great driving.

I am in the centre boat with the slight yellow markings. (fourth boat counting from bottom up)

Edited by Stinger390X
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  • 5 months later...
  • 8 months later...

This one is beautiful to look at. I always loved Izzy too. The boat race is good and I dig McCarthy's mansion. I would've picked a different song than Born To Be Wild though. Its a good song but overplayed to death. I so would've loved to be at that party.

9/10

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  • 1 year later...

She looked very familiar, at first I couldn't remember, where I had seen the actress, but thanks to some images posted on this site, I found it was Garcelle Beauvais. Noticed she was one of the background characters/guests making a cameo appearance uncredited in the crowd at McCarthy's big boat race. She has the same haircut as the waitress she played in the deleted scene from "Give a Little" I'm 100% sure it's her.

UnA95DT.jpg

GDgulZJ.jpg

 

Edited by summer84
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12 hours ago, summer84 said:

She looked very familiar, at first I couldn't remember, where I had seen the actress, but thanks to some images posted on this site, I found it was Garcelle Beauvais. Noticed she was one of the background characters/guests making a cameo appearance uncredited in the crowd at McCarthy's big boat race. She has the same haircut as the waitress she played in the deleted scene from "Give a Little" I'm 100% sure it's her.

UnA95DT.jpg

GDgulZJ.jpg

 

Very interesting Summer- I had no idea. 

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  • 2 months later...

It's a decent episode, nothing too special in my opinion. Loved the pool scene with Go Insane playing...only this show could've done that scene in such a stylish way.

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  • 3 months later...
On 12/15/2008 at 7:31 PM, Dadrian said:

i may have missed this in one of the posts above, but am i the only one who finds the final scene of this ep to be one of the worst endings of the entire series?"you...can't....do it""i've got to"then jan hammer's "diiiinnnngggg"wth?don't get me wrong, this is one of my favorite eps, but i always laugh at that last exchange.

It is very abrupt, I found myself laughing too. xD

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  • 2 months later...
On 2/3/2019 at 12:59 AM, summer84 said:

She looked very familiar, at first I couldn't remember, where I had seen the actress, but thanks to some images posted on this site, I found it was Garcelle Beauvais. Noticed she was one of the background characters/guests making a cameo appearance uncredited in the crowd at McCarthy's big boat race. She has the same haircut as the waitress she played in the deleted scene from "Give a Little" I'm 100% sure it's her.

UnA95DT.jpg

GDgulZJ.jpg

 

Gabriella in "The Maze" as well!

the-maze-0106.jpg

Edited by RedDragon86
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12 minutes ago, Matt5 said:

Im looking forward to watch “Great McCarthy” tonite.

I'm going to start watching the show again soon. 

Edited by summer84
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17 minutes ago, summer84 said:

I'm going to start watching the show again soon. 

Yes great - Ive just started the blu ray again on the Show - done the first 5 episodes again from the start - great!

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  • 7 months later...

One of my favorite episodes of the first season, even though as I've heard other people say (and I agree); the boat race is too long. I think Louis McCarthy was a likable character. The scene of Tubbs trying to hit on Vanessa in her clothing store was both stylish and funny. The mood and music in this episode are top notch. The party (and house band) was really great (with a cameo of Lionel Richie). The boat race itself starts great, with Jan Hammer's score kicking in, alongside some outstanding cinematography. I would give this episode a 8/10.

Edited by Neons in Noir
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  • 2 months later...

This is an easy episode to underrate because it's so breezy and doesn't have a classic "oh crap" twist ending.  But it's a lot of fun and highlights the "high life" (no pun intended) of Miami dolce vita - house parties, boat racing, glamour (speaking of which, Maria McDonald is quite possibly the beautiful woman to ever appear in MV).  Belated thanks to Stinger390X's above informative boat insider talk. 

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  • 2 months later...
On 8/30/2020 at 9:25 PM, Jack Gretsky said:

This is an easy episode to underrate because it's so breezy and doesn't have a classic "oh crap" twist ending.  But it's a lot of fun and highlights the "high life" (no pun intended) of Miami dolce vita - house parties, boat racing, glamour.

I agree, but...

I really appreciate this episode, especially the ending.

Actually there are two endings: As soon as Sonny with Gina and Rico with Vanessa were enjoying their evening off after the bust of McCarthy, I had the sure feeling that the episode was over. But no, the real ending is yet to come, the bust of Vanessa. That was surprising for me.

My interpretation is double: even if the world seems to be okay, the world isn't okay. And: The true task in the life of a human being is more than just a job to earn money. For the true task there is no evening off, it covers the whole existence:

The episode consists of two interwoven plot lines. For McCarthy, crime is something between earning a living and playing. His bust follows the pattern of a classic cop show: Due to their investigative work, the cops solved the case and busted the villains. The cops have repaired the world. Everything is good. Happy End.

Vanessa's case is completely different: Vanessa committed the murder of Gifford out of greed and / or passion (honestly I don't really understand Vanessa and her motives). Sonny and Rico didn't really contribute anything to the solution of this case. Izzy provides them with the evidence. And Rico pays a high personal price for the bust of Vanessa. He had fallen in love with her. So case solved, villain busted  - nothing's good! A happy ending professionally, a tragedy personally.

I enjoyed a lot this twist of the 2 ends! At first disturbing, it eventually really made sense to me.

Edited by Glades
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  • 3 weeks later...

I thought this was a pretty good episode. McCarthy didn't seem that menacing, but then again he wasn't really a thug, more of a upper-echelon smuggler/party guy. His relationship with Vanessa was a bit odd though - did they just have a very open dating lifestyle or was she running a totally different game than him? He seemed quietly jealous, but never stopped her from clearly pursuing Tubbs. The boat race was good, clearly the inspiration for the opening scene from the 2006 film. One thing that bothered me though, can someone explain how the smuggling worked? The boat that started the race ducked into the hidden waterway and the boat with the drugs and McCarthy took its place and finished the race? Why the switch at all? Why not just drive the fast boat to pick up the drugs and then back when there aren't tons of people watching? I'm probably missing something in the details. The ending was also a bit abrupt - first, how does Izzy know where Crockett lives? That doesn't say much for his cover... Also, if I'm Crockett, I have serious concerns about Tubbs getting too involved with people they are investigating. Although he insists on arresting Vanessa, he clearly is not happy about it. Red flag!

7/10

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6 minutes ago, GoombayPunch said:

I thought this was a pretty good episode. McCarthy didn't seem that menacing, but then again he wasn't really a thug, more of a upper-echelon smuggler/party guy. His relationship with Vanessa was a bit odd though - did they just have a very open dating lifestyle or was she running a totally different game than him? He seemed quietly jealous, but never stopped her from clearly pursuing Tubbs. The boat race was good, clearly the inspiration for the opening scene from the 2006 film. One thing that bothered me though, can someone explain how the smuggling worked? The boat that started the race ducked into the hidden waterway and the boat with the drugs and McCarthy took its place and finished the race? Why the switch at all? Why not just drive the fast boat to pick up the drugs and then back when there aren't tons of people watching? I'm probably missing something in the details. The ending was also a bit abrupt - first, how does Izzy know where Crockett lives? That doesn't say much for his cover... Also, if I'm Crockett, I have serious concerns about Tubbs getting too involved with people they are investigating. Although he insists on arresting Vanessa, he clearly is not happy about it. Red flag!

7/10

Louis was there for the drug exchange while the race was going on, it was a diversionary tactic.

It's how he smuggles.

 

 

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On 12/14/2020 at 2:57 PM, RedDragon86 said:

Louis was there for the drug exchange while the race was going on, it was a diversionary tactic.

It's how he smuggles.

 

 

Love this episode!

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Am 14.12.2020 um 15:44 schrieb GoombayPunch:

One thing that bothered me though, can someone explain how the smuggling worked? The boat that started the race ducked into the hidden waterway and the boat with the drugs and McCarthy took its place and finished the race? Why the switch at all? Why not just drive the fast boat to pick up the drugs and then back when there aren't tons of people watching? I'm probably missing something in the details. The ending was also a bit abrupt - first, how does Izzy know where Crockett lives? That doesn't say much for his cover... Also, if I'm Crockett, I have serious concerns about Tubbs getting too involved with people they are investigating. Although he insists on arresting Vanessa, he clearly is not happy about it. Red flag!

7/10

You said it right already. They switched boats secretly and the first "McCarthy" boarding the boat was false. The boat race was just a cover for smuggling drugs in. You probably have noticed in the beginning that they stated that McCarthy was suspected to smuggle drugs in but nobody knew how he did it. Of course, he could have driven his boat to a drug pick up without using a race as a cover, but that was too risky. DEA and Coast guard have partol boats and often used radar balloons. And a speedboat coming in from Bimini is more suspicious than a bunch of boats having a race.

Second, many people knew where Crockett lived but most knew him under the name Burnett.Of course, Izzy knew too. Crockett´s cover was living on a boat and being a shady party guy (like most of his neighbors in the marina).

Third, Crockett was concerned about Tubbs´ pass on Vanessa. He confronted him on the boat during the night scene remember? Tubbs responded that he would handle that professionally and in the end he did. When there was clear evidence that Vanessa killed Gifford, he arrested her. Of course he should not have hooked up with her, but Vanessa was no suspect in the beginning. For VICE she was just a rich chick girlfriend of McCarthy with a luxury shop. As soon as they found out about her she was arrested. Our heroes are human and sometimes they make mistakes, but they always fix it. That happened several times and does not leave any bad feeling with me. That´s life and cops are human too. Crockett even fell for a doctor with a drug problem and a madam later on in the series and also had to face the consequences on both cases.  

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  • 1 month later...
On 5/22/2011 at 4:52 PM, ViceFanMan said:

"The Great McCarthy" is one of my favorite episodes! It wasn't a "dark" one that had a depressing ending, or a "soap-opera" type one dealing with the love triangle between Crockett, Gina, and his ex-wife Caroline....it was soley about the case! :clap: It had superb action, :shout: witty lines and humor in the right places, fascinating and awesome fashion for everyone, :glossy: the music was outstanding, :radio: etc... I could go on and on! This episode is one I can sit down and just enjoy and let 'er rip! :thumbsup:

This was a post I made regarding The Great McCarthy back in 2011. I fully still stand by this, and although it wasn’t a “famous” or well-known one, I still really enjoy this episode! A favorite from Season 1 for me!! :thumbsup: :D

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