Episode #20 "Nobody Lives Forever"

[RedDragon86]

On 9/17/2023 at 3:00 PM, ViceFanMan said:

Yeah, I think the punks were meant to be just that…junkie punks who were fried/high and very unpredictable most of the time. This actually made them dangerous and deadly, despite their outward idiocy.

They were not meant to be intelligent, calculating, or rational…such as Lombard or Calderone. They were supposed to be spastic killers, who themselves didn’t even know when they would commit the next act of violence or kill! They just impulsively acted when they thought an opportunity presented itself, in the moment.

But the way they carried on it makes you wonder how they survived that long and what were other police departments doing about them? because you have to assume that they were wreaking havoc in Dallas or Chicago for example.

Still give this a decent score - 8/10.

 

 

Edited January 16 by RedDragon86

[Robbie C.]

33 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

But the way they carried on it makes you wonder how they survived that long and what were other police departments doing about them? because you have to assume that they were wreaking havoc in Dallas or Chicago for example.

They just don't seem plausible to me, almost cartoonish.

I do concede that Brenda's character was supposed to be cold and exasperating. I love Kim in Manhunter, Brazil and Throw Momma from the Train and she played a wonderful part in a powerful, disturbing episode in the X-Files titled "Invocation"

 

There's no real indication they came in from anywhere else, honestly. Maybe they rolled in from Tampa. Assuming we're suspending the "Miami Vice cone of improbable crimes" for a moment, forces also weren't as networked then as they are now. A BOLO might go out over the good ol' teletype, for example, but there's no guarantee another force would have picked up on it. Especially if it was coming down from out of state. And if they were doing smash and grab armed robberies under the major crimes threshold (which is pretty much what they were doing before they blundered into the bookies) they wouldn't have been a high priority.

And on the Vice scale they're just as plausible, if not more so, than a "biker gang" tooling around on Japanese bikes. Or a film maker who appears to stage a snuff flick. Or a rich guy who smuggles coke using bait and switch tricks he might have copied from Dukes of Hazzard. They existed as more of a plot element than actual characters, and they were very good for that. Expecting them to have the same on-camera stature as Calderone (and I wouldn't really call him a character, either, because he never develops any real personality traits...the Revillas brothers from Prodigal Son are actually better characters than Calderone in that sense) just isn't realistic because that's not what they're supposed to be. They're Crockett's reality check. Just like Calderone was a shared white whale he and Tubbs could find common ground over.

[ViceFanMan]

45 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

But the way they carried on it makes you wonder how they survived that long and what were other police departments doing about them? because you have to assume that they were wreaking havoc in Dallas or Chicago for example.

They just don't seem plausible to me, almost cartoonish.

I do concede that Brenda's character was supposed to be cold and exasperating. I love Kim in Manhunter, Brazil and Throw Momma from the Train and she played a wonderful part in a powerful, disturbing episode in the X-Files titled "Invocation"

 

They were so random/spur of the moment, that there was no rationality to their thinking…there was no specific plan or motive. So it was harder for law enforcement to catch them, to track them down, or to figure out where to check to see if they were going to hit somewhere next. 
 

In all honesty, the crazy spastic behavior of these idiots is probably more realistic with criminals who are junkies…than the “Godfather-ish/Al Capone-ish” type bad guy…such as Calderone or Lombard. The calm & calculating mob boss is more fun to watch, and more interesting…but a lot of the criminals in reality are not that intelligent or “classy”.

[TylerDurden389]

On 9/16/2023 at 10:07 AM, RedDragon86 said:

I have to say I am not keen on the episode, the actors who play the idiot punks ruin it for me and Brenda is cold and annoying.

Can't stand anything of Michael Carmines episodes.

Always loved that guy in "Batteries Not Included" when I was a kid. Such a shame he's gone and was so young too.

[Matt5]

Great episode. The best 10/10