when did MV jump the shark for you?


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Crockett gets way too slap happy/violent in Season 4, it kinda works but he's way too pretty in this season - extra long bleached blonde hair, flashy clothes/shoulder pads...

its like he's Joan Johnson...

Edited by Boca Raton
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On 9/28/2017 at 8:58 PM, vicegirl85 said:

 

Although Caitlin's death made the Burnett arc possible (and I do feel that was a good story arc!), generally I felt the Caitlin storyline was weak and the relationship didn't pull me in.  I didn't really dislike Caitlin, just didn't buy Sonny Crockett in the role of Mr. Pop Star, or the sapfest that was promoted as their marital life (except when they were sad/upset with each other because their schedules didn't mesh).  Crockett's relationship with his ex, Caroline, was so much more believable.

 

I completely agree. I was able to accept many of the plot lines with a bit of patience and suspended belief over the seasons, but this was one story-line I have struggled with buying and always will. 

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Maybe that was the plan all along. They give us the Crockett marrying a pop singer storyline so that when he does become an amnesiac, it's less bizarre in comparison and people are more willing to buy it.

Those writers were ingenious.:p

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On my second go around of the series...I'm rewatching in HD on BluRay and Season 5 rules! A big step up from 4!

the fashion though is THE worst!

Season 5 is Dark and a perfect end 

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1 hour ago, Mr. Calderon said:

Now im cured from my amnesia...that Burnett´s Trilogy....heck....i hate that!

Really?!? It's way better than his dumb love affair/wedding to a pop star!

rewatched the entire series and I LOVE season 5 & HATE season 4.

I lived in Miami from 1989-2003 (visit ever other year since '03) since I was 8rs old to 22, formative years...even in Leap of Faith when Sonny is talking to the head of YCU I was transported back to Miami when Layne Staley died...(esoteric I know)

its nostalgic 

Edited by Boca Raton
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I like the fashion better in S4 to S5 but Don Johnson looks so bored and out of shape in it. He's got that same look Sean Connery got in "You Only Live Twice" where you can pretty much tell he's thinking "Ok..I'm over this crap"..

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Well..i dont like a lot of S2...its weird because...seems vice exploded on s2, instead s1, this my favourite one. Gotta try rewatch the episodes again, but my favourite ones are payback, sons and lovers, and out where the buses dont run....the rest was very disapointing for me...i remembered cool parts from not so good episodes from the 80s...that heat-french-blonde episode (sorry guys, im 48 and getting old to remember the names lol) or the intro in bushido...things changed for better on s3 or s4 and died on s5...what can i do if i have a horrible taste for vice seasons lol?

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2 hours ago, Mr. Calderon said:

Well..i dont like a lot of S2...its weird because...seems vice exploded on s2, instead s1, this my favourite one. Gotta try rewatch the episodes again, but my favourite ones are payback, sons and lovers, and out where the buses dont run....the rest was very disapointing for me...i remembered cool parts from not so good episodes from the 80s...that heat-french-blonde episode (sorry guys, im 48 and getting old to remember the names lol) or the intro in bushido...things changed for better on s3 or s4 and died on s5...what can i do if i have a horrible taste for vice seasons lol?

Yeah I remember being extremely disappointed by season 2 when first seeing it, knowing it's reputation as the best of MV. Season 1 was amazing and then you get to S2 and you have to wade through Whatever Works, Dutch Oven, Buddies, Tale of a Goat, The Fix, The one with the car racing etc just to get to the good stuff.

When you know which eps to avoid S2 is great. :p 

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Season 1 is the best!
For me: 1, 2, 3/5, 4
Season 4 everything but the kitchen sink is thrown at me! UFOs, Cow Sperm, Ghosts, Cryogenics, Amnesia, Meeting & getting married to a pop star all in the same episode-meh!
So maybe because Season 4 was sooo full of fuckery that it made Season 5 seem like a big step up- DJ & PMT do look surprisingly odd in S5 but I can't put my finger on what it is besides them just getting older looking?
Edited by Boca Raton
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Am 13.10.2017 um 04:27 schrieb Vincent Hanna:

Yeah I remember being extremely disappointed by season 2 when first seeing it, knowing it's reputation as the best of MV. Season 1 was amazing and then you get to S2 and you have to wade through Whatever Works, Dutch Oven, Buddies, Tale of a Goat, The Fix, The one with the car racing etc just to get to the good stuff.

When you know which eps to avoid S2 is great. :p 

 

Season 2 was when they went full throttle with many elements that viewers got a glimpse of in season one. Not every week for the better, but I think season 2 was still a positive step up from season one.

Season four was just a trainwreck. They had lost sight of MV's magic formula in season three, and with S4 they just went even deeper into the woods. And by the beginning of season five, it was clear that the show's fate was sealed. NBC originally only wanted to order a half-season of 13 episodes, but somehow they decided to do the full run of 22 episodes anyway. And from day one of shooting S5, it was clear that it was going to be the last season. Maybe if S4 hadn't been such a huge disappointment, things could have continued beyond a fifth season. But in  a way, the show was tired any way you were looking at it. It had been burning the candle at both ends during its first two or three seasons, and it was showing.

And police drama just went a different direction in the early 90s, and Miami Vice probably would have looked like a dinosaur. The drug trade in South Florida had reached its peak. Cocaine was beginning to become dirt cheap towards the mid-90s, and the entire U.S. was hit by a recession circa  1990-92. So a show about high-riding drug traffickers in designer suits throwing around briefcases full of cash probably just would have looked out of place. Miami Vice was a child of the affluent 80s with all their exuberance. It was a time of ostentation. And that was just not what the early 90s before the Internet boom were all about.

Edited by Daytona74
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Another point...maybe MV jumped to the sharks when all those south american dictators begin to appear kinda often on episode plots...reminds me those class "z"  rambo spoofs with cheap budget...

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  • 2 months later...

Definitely Missing Hours. But then the show recovered and got good again towards the end of season 4 particularly with the Burnett trilogy. And I think season 5 is great. I will always defend season 5.

 

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When Tubbs was minimized to a background character, often just standing in the frame as Crockett recited every good line (or sometimes all the lines), followed by Tubbs just following Crockett out the door, I could tell the magic was ending and never would be the same again.

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On 10/5/2017 at 10:57 AM, DeepCover333 said:

I completely agree. I was able to accept many of the plot lines with a bit of patience and suspended belief over the seasons, but this was one story-line I have struggled with buying and always will. 

I agree too!   I wish they would have had the story line that him and Caroline got back together for good and got re married...instead of him marrying Caitlin.   :thumbsup:

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22 hours ago, jenny said:

I agree too!   I wish they would have had the story line that him and Caroline got back together for good and got re married...instead of him marrying Caitlin.   :thumbsup:

That would have been fantastic! :thumbsup:

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Its a bit sad for me that Season 3 is not becoming much love here. Cause i dont understand it.
Different colors and all the different style was maybe hard to take after the first two seasons but it gave the show a fresh look and feel in my opinion. I liked it a lot. AND it was still produced very well and stylish with high production values.
And most of the story lines in the first two third of the season are between good and great. The decline starts with the last third of the season and stuff like Showbiz, Viking Bikers or the mediocre Season Finale.
And to be honest: Storywise the beloved season 2 had also bad/mediocre episodes. Examples: The vodoo stuff was even the weakest episode of the first two seasons for me, the racing stuff, French twist or The fix.
Thats one more reason i dont get the hate for season 3. If its only because the change of style thats unfair to the season.

Season 4 in terms of overall quality is the real big step down. THAT is when the show was jumping the shark for me. Yes there are still good episodes sometimes. But it is very uneven. There are several problems:
- Production values were not as stunning as before. If you compare Season 3 with Season 4 the decline is pretty obvious.
- The Change of the dynamics between Crocket/Tubbs were a bad idea. And i hate that tubbs almost doesnt feel like a main character anymore.
- So many weak storys like Missing Hours (worst episode of the whole show), Frozen rastas and all that strange stuff. And then some of the good Storylines are not executed the way they would have been in the first seasons. The Crockett Marriage story was also not the best example. Meeting and marrying in ONE (!!!) Episode??? Come on.....

And then Season 5 came...
It was much more consistent than season 4 and no Missing Hours like stuff ;) but the thrill was somehow gone and it felt tired. The Season Dynamics between the lead actors was even more strange. In so many episodes we have only one of both characters and stuff like that. its just not what i want to see in MV.
And i HATE the style in Season 5. Tubbs clothes especially...good lord....that was bizzare sometimes.
But i could have lived with that if the storys and overall production would have been better that season.
What was also not that good anymore was the usage of popular music in Season 5. Much less songs. Guess it was a budget problem :(
Dont get me wrong: I have some good episodes i like to watch even in that season but the energy was not there anymore overall.

Considering all the problems in the last two seasons (especially season 4) i really dont get why season 3 is in my opinion not getting the love it overall deserves.
There are problems in Season 3. Im not blind. But there were also problems in Season 2 like i wrote.
What i dont liked was the new fuzzy cinematography starting in late Season 3. Before that all was crisp like it was before. And after that we had this soft fuzzy look all over the picture.

Miami Vice for me is Season 1-3 and then chosen Episodes of Seasons 4 and 5

 

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19 hours ago, SwissTubbs said:

Its a bit sad for me that Season 3 is not becoming much love here. Cause i dont understand it.
Different colors and all the different style was maybe hard to take after the first two seasons but it gave the show a fresh look and feel in my opinion. I liked it a lot. AND it was still produced very well and stylish with high production values.
And most of the story lines in the first two third of the season are between good and great. The decline starts with the last third of the season and stuff like Showbiz, Viking Bikers or the mediocre Season Finale.
And to be honest: Storywise the beloved season 2 had also bad/mediocre episodes. Examples: The vodoo stuff was even the weakest episode of the first two seasons for me, the racing stuff, French twist or The fix.
Thats one more reason i dont get the hate for season 3. If its only because the change of style thats unfair to the season.

Season 4 in terms of overall quality is the real big step down. THAT is when the show was jumping the shark for me. Yes there are still good episodes sometimes. But it is very uneven. There are several problems:
- Production values were not as stunning as before. If you compare Season 3 with Season 4 the decline is pretty obvious.
- The Change of the dynamics between Crocket/Tubbs were a bad idea. And i hate that tubbs almost doesnt feel like a main character anymore.
- So many weak storys like Missing Hours (worst episode of the whole show), Frozen rastas and all that strange stuff. And then some of the good Storylines are not executed the way they would have been in the first seasons. The Crockett Marriage story was also not the best example. Meeting and marrying in ONE (!!!) Episode??? Come on.....

And then Season 5 came...
It was much more consistent than season 4 and no Missing Hours like stuff ;) but the thrill was somehow gone and it felt tired. The Season Dynamics between the lead actors was even more strange. In so many episodes we have only one of both characters and stuff like that. its just not what i want to see in MV.
And i HATE the style in Season 5. Tubbs clothes especially...good lord....that was bizzare sometimes.
But i could have lived with that if the storys and overall production would have been better that season.
What was also not that good anymore was the usage of popular music in Season 5. Much less songs. Guess it was a budget problem :(
Dont get me wrong: I have some good episodes i like to watch even in that season but the energy was not there anymore overall.

Considering all the problems in the last two seasons (especially season 4) i really dont get why season 3 is in my opinion not getting the love it overall deserves.
There are problems in Season 3. Im not blind. But there were also problems in Season 2 like i wrote.
What i dont liked was the new fuzzy cinematography starting in late Season 3. Before that all was crisp like it was before. And after that we had this soft fuzzy look all over the picture.

Miami Vice for me is Season 1-3 and then chosen Episodes of Seasons 4 and 5

 

This was all very interesting to read! Great post!

For me the changes in the new third season were very drastic.

People fell in love with the shows first 2 seasons, it's where Miami Vice became popular and influential. And then came S3 with all of these big changes, which was a lot to take in. Everything the viewer had gotten to know/became familiar with was now gone. 

It's not just how the show transformed visually, like Crockett's new hair cut or the darker colors, I disliked, but what bothered me, I guess the most was how the characters personality had changed to being very serious and the tone of the show was darker. It didn't feel natural how the characters all of sudden were acting. I felt the laid back atmosphere from season 1 and 2 were gone. Also the political storylines were a bit too much. Dick Wolf was chosen to improve the show story wise, which he did accomplish bringing it to a very high level in the third season, giving the the stories much more depth and substance and that's one of the positive things I can mention. 

I read that budget's were cut for S3, but it definitely became evidentially in S4. 

I also agree with Miami Vice's best seasons being 1-3. 

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