Overall Review & Rating--Season 4


ViceFanMan

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Standout episodes - "Death and the Lady" , "Like a Hurricane " , "Rock and a Hard Place" , " Mirror Image " and " Deliver us from Evil"

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  • 3 years later...

1 Death And The Lady

2 Baseball's Of Death

3 Mirror Image

4 Deliver Us From Evil

5 God's Work

6 Amen...Send Money

7 A Rock And A Hard Place

8 Honor Among Thieves?

9 Badge Of Dishonor

10 The Rising Sun Of Death

11 Indian Wars

12 Blood And Roses

13 Love At First Sight

14 Contempt Of Court

15 Child's Play

16 The Big Thaw

17 Like A Hurricane

18 A Bullet For Crockett

19 Hell Hath No Fury

20 Vote Of Confidence

21 Missing Hours

22 The Cows Of October

 

There are three things that hold this season back.

.The bottom two episodes that give the entire season a bad reputation.

.The budget cuts. This is worse in S5.

.The godawful color filters used in some scenes.

Overall, it's a very good season. For a large part it's basically a return to the original style but not as polished.

7.5-8/10

Edited by Remington
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On 7/6/2013 at 1:04 AM, ViceFanMan said:

I know there were some changes with Season 4...the plotlines or episodes seemed to take on a "darker" feel to them, but not in fashion. It seemed the pastels were back with the clothes, compared to season 3, and that was awesome! :thumbsup: I also liked it that Crockett's Wayfarers were back...however, this time black instead of tortoise shell. But, the "tone" of the show and the characters seemed to enter a darker or more depressing place than previous seasons, and that's one aspect that kind of saddened me and I didn't particularly care for. :cry:But, I still think Season 4 is awesome and enjoyable! Despite the sometimes "darker" feel, there was still plenty of action and wild, bizarre episodes to keep you captivated. We also got to see a more personable side to each character this season, whether problems or joys, and that was interesting and sometimes even heat-touching or heart-wrenching to watch! But, despite some changes the acting was still superb, the episodes/plots were for the most part still awesome, a lot of the music used was phenomenal :radio: , still loved Jan Hammer's themes used throughout (although this would be his last season), the fashion was still interesting and fun to look at, the action was still there, etc... :clap:My favorite episode of Season 4 is "Death and the Lady"! It's wild, freaky, something they'd never done before, the acting/colors/filming locations/suspense were perfect :thumbsup: , and despite the fact that it's very "dark" and tragic, it captivated and mesmerized the heck out of you! :glossy: However, "God's Work" is also superb and comes in a darn close second to being my favorite. But, there were a few other episodes that I also felt were the best or most enjoyable of the season/show, and ones I love watching...which are:"Child's Play""God's Work"-(My favorite of the season too!)"Love At First Sight"-(Love suspenseful, Hitchcockian-style episodes!)"Honor Among Thieves?""Hell Hath No Fury...""Blood and Roses""Deliver Us From Evil""Mirror Image" Some other enjoyable or watchable episodes, but not necessarily the "best" are:"Contempt of Court""The Big Thaw""Like A Hurricane""Rising Sun of Death""A Rock and a Hard Place""Baseballs of Death""Indian Wars""Badge of Dishonor""A Bullet For Crockett" Some of the bad/weak, or least enjoyable episodes are:"Amen...Send Money""Missing Hours"-(The absolute WORST EPISODE IN TV HISTORY!! :thumbsdown: )"The Cows of October"-(The 2nd worst episode of the series!)"Vote of Confidence" Overall I love Season 4...and even with the few changes, I still think it's "Miami Vice"! :thumbsup:

Overall I like Season 4...there were some terrible episodes (Missing Hours being the worst episode ever created for any show & Cows of October), but there were some superb ones too--such as Death and the Lady, God's Work, Love At First Sight, He'll Hath No Fury, Child's Play, etc...! :thumbsup:

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Yeah I agree. In my current watch-through (my first with the bluray), I actually got to appreciate Season 4. I used to hate it, but now I've come around to like a good half of the episodes. There are some fantastic episodes there. 

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Remington, I have really been enjoying your concise reviews!  Wish I could say so much in so few words.  If life will just slow down a little I would enjoy getting back to re-watching and posting mine again. 

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  • 1 year later...

Here are my Review of Season 4:

Season 4 overall gets more trashed as the season deserves.
Yes..some of the worst episodes ever are in this season. Yes..one of the worst television episodes of all time is also in it.
But this stinkers excluded there are still some very good Episodes. Some people tend to forget that because of the really bad stuff. Season 4 ist just very uneven and also with a lot of mediocre episodes between the bad and the real good stuff.

Season 4 for me is therefore clearly WAY behind 1-3. Thats for sure. The return to the pastell's feels forced and not really fleshed out. The Style of the show is somehow cheaper. Maybe the budget cuts. Dont know. It just doesnt look that polished anymore. Even the very good Episodes.
I also dont like that the show changes to the "Don Johnson Show". I LOVE DJ and his Crockett Character. I absolutely do! But one of the things i also loved was that Crockett and Tubbs was that dynamic duo in Seasons 1-3.
Tubbs is almost reduced to a sidekick sometimes in Season 4 and Crockett is much more important for the Scripts. I dont like that and miss the real duo days.
Something is just off starting with Season 4. Sometimes i dont know what it is exactly but its just not that Feeling anymore. Even Season 3 with all the changes still has the MV Feeling if you have no problem with the new Storytelling and all that stuff.
But Season 4 except 2 or 3 Episodes has lost a bit of that Feeling.

The Uneven quality of the Season makes binge watching impossible. I admit: I always skip some episodes. And never in my life will i watch missing hours again. Thats just a goddamn awful episode and for me the worst of the whole show. By far!

Highlights:
Death and the lady
Baseballs of death
Deliver us from evil
Mirror Image (although the amnesia plot is kind of silly but very well executed)

Lowlights:
Missing Hours
Cows of october
The Big Thaw

And a lot of other Episodes are just mediocre.

Overall Season 4 gets a 6/10 Rating from me

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18 hours ago, SwissTubbs said:

Here are my Review of Season 4:

Season 4 overall gets more trashed as the season deserves.
Yes..some of the worst episodes ever are in this season. Yes..one of the worst television episodes of all time is also in it.
But this stinkers excluded there are still some very good Episodes. Some people tend to forget that because of the really bad stuff. Season 4 ist just very uneven and also with a lot of mediocre episodes between the bad and the real good stuff.

Season 4 for me is therefore clearly WAY behind 1-3. Thats for sure. The return to the pastell's feels forced and not really fleshed out. The Style of the show is somehow cheaper. Maybe the budget cuts. Dont know. It just doesnt look that polished anymore. Even the very good Episodes.
I also dont like that the show changes to the "Don Johnson Show". I LOVE DJ and his Crockett Character. I absolutely do! But one of the things i also loved was that Crockett and Tubbs was that dynamic duo in Seasons 1-3.
Tubbs is almost reduced to a sidekick sometimes in Season 4 and Crockett is much more important for the Scripts. I dont like that and miss the real duo days.
Something is just off starting with Season 4. Sometimes i dont know what it is exactly but its just not that Feeling anymore. Even Season 3 with all the changes still has the MV Feeling if you have no problem with the new Storytelling and all that stuff.
But Season 4 except 2 or 3 Episodes has lost a bit of that Feeling.

The Uneven quality of the Season makes binge watching impossible. I admit: I always skip some episodes. And never in my life will i watch missing hours again. Thats just a goddamn awful episode and for me the worst of the whole show. By far!

Highlights:
Death and the lady
Baseballs of death
Deliver us from evil
Mirror Image (although the amnesia plot is kind of silly but very well executed)

Lowlights:
Missing Hours
Cows of october
The Big Thaw

And a lot of other Episodes are just mediocre.

Overall Season 4 gets a 6/10 Rating from me

You raise some good points and with falling ratings Im sure budgets were reduced by mid to late Season. Its a real mixed bag - production was certainly less polished and lower key we saw this on the Season opener, which I like, "Contempt of Court". But there were some great episodes "Death and the Lady", "Child's Play", "Baseballs of Death" and several more. The fashion I agree was odd - white and pastels one scene then dark the next - Crockett wore a lot of grey jackets and light grey pants in many episodes particularly mid to late season. Music budget Im sure was cut ( with no song appearing at all "Hell Hath No Fury"). However the last two episodes were very strong. I generally prefer Season 5 over 4.

Season rating 8.5/10

Edited by Matt5
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  • 2 years later...

I've been on a Vice high the past few weeks during my Epic Rewatch, but I'm afraid that Season 4 brought me down somewhat.  Season 3 was mixed compared to the great first two seasons, but at least 3 had a good handful of excellent episodes.  I'm having a tough time picking my five best of S4, whereas I had a tough time narrowing down my faves of seasons 1-3.  The Caitlin runner was clearly there for her murder to push Sonny over the edge.  Sheena Easton was charming, but it all seemed so forced. I'd rather they had tried to copy the formula of the first two seasons rather than experiment since the end results were so ho-hum.  

1. The Rising Sun of Death: Probably the most visually stylish of the season. 

2. Mirror Image: The amnesia/turn to the dark side might be cornball, but it's done with engaging verve here.

3. Love at First Sight: I'm a sucker for DePalma-ish erotic thrillers. 

4. The Big Thaw: Yup!  I did it!  I put this in my top 5.  It's not great Vice, but it's fun screwball comedy.

5. Indian Wars: This has a unique feel to its atmosphere - good story. 

Coming close were God's Work and Deliver Us from Evil. 

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Sorry, but Mirror Image isn't as cornball as a NYPD cop who likely committed several felonies to get to Miami somehow ending up on the Miami-Dade police force...let alone in one of the specialized units (Vice then OCB once they shifted the whole thing over). Had to get that out there. Vice has its roots in cornball in many ways.

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1 hour ago, Robbie C. said:

Sorry, but Mirror Image isn't as cornball as a NYPD cop who likely committed several felonies to get to Miami somehow ending up on the Miami-Dade police force...let alone in one of the specialized units (Vice then OCB once they shifted the whole thing over). Had to get that out there. Vice has its roots in cornball in many ways.

Always thought that was funny.  I would've liked to have been a fly on the wall for Rico's interview with Metro-Dade.

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1 hour ago, Mr. Vigilante said:

Always thought that was funny.  I would've liked to have been a fly on the wall for Rico's interview with Metro-Dade.

I had my take on it in one of my stories. Lou would have had to call in all his markers to get Rico anywhere near the force in my view. One of the many untold stories in the series.

Edited by Robbie C.
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21 hours ago, Jack Gretsky said:

I've been on a Vice high the past few weeks during my Epic Rewatch, but I'm afraid that Season 4 brought me down somewhat.  Season 3 was mixed compared to the great first two seasons, but at least 3 had a good handful of excellent episodes.  I'm having a tough time picking my five best of S4, whereas I had a tough time narrowing down my faves of seasons 1-3.  The Caitlin runner was clearly there for her murder to push Sonny over the edge.  Sheena Easton was charming, but it all seemed so forced. I'd rather they had tried to copy the formula of the first two seasons rather than experiment since the end results were so ho-hum.  

1. The Rising Sun of Death: Probably the most visually stylish of the season. 

2. Mirror Image: The amnesia/turn to the dark side might be cornball, but it's done with engaging verve here.

3. Love at First Sight: I'm a sucker for DePalma-ish erotic thrillers. 

4. The Big Thaw: Yup!  I did it!  I put this in my top 5.  It's not great Vice, but it's fun screwball comedy.

5. Indian Wars: This has a unique feel to its atmosphere - good story. 

Coming close were God's Work and Deliver Us from Evil. 

Below is a post of mine regarding this, from a few years ago:

On 5/23/2017 at 12:12 AM, ViceFanMan said:

Overall I like Season 4...there were some terrible episodes (Missing Hours being the worst episode ever created for any show & Cows of October), but there were some superb ones too--such as Death and the Lady, God's Work, Love At First Sight, He'll Hath No Fury, Child's Play, etc...! :thumbsup:

 

Edited by ViceFanMan
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12 hours ago, Robbie C. said:

Sorry, but Mirror Image isn't as cornball as a NYPD cop who likely committed several felonies to get to Miami somehow ending up on the Miami-Dade police force...let alone in one of the specialized units (Vice then OCB once they shifted the whole thing over). Had to get that out there. Vice has its roots in cornball in many ways.

But was it proven? did IA investigate etc.

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One of the major problem with with season is it starts off so badly with the exception of "Death & The Lady" the tone of the start of season 4 was all over the place, it was either boring, depressing or silly. When a season begins it's suppose to grip you and keep you interested, staying consistent which we saw with season 1-2 -3 and 5.

The season premier is boring, then we have a corny episode, after DATL we went back to silly, then we had 2 although good episodes but depressing ones. The vibe was well off, then back to silly, then out of the blue Sonny is a verge of getting married.

What is also off with this season is the vice teams lives, like their day to day, week to week lives were out of sink with reality. It's was so out there Gina might as well have married Stan.

Edited by RedDragon86
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Last night on a replay of Johnny Carson, Don Johnson was the guest.  This was from 1987 and he was promoting the upcoming season 4.  They showed a clip from "Child's Play" where he's in Castillo's office.  Being such a powerful scene it would've definitely excited me for the new season.  Can't believe they started the season with "Contempt of Court"!

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1 hour ago, RedDragon86 said:

But was it proven? did IA investigate etc.

So he’s operating on fake ID, with counterfeit clearance and buy money from God knows where (and that’s just what they tell us in the episode itself) and they’d let him on the force? He’d have IA from at least two departments looking hard at him, unless there was dirt like I proposed AND Lou pulled in every marker he had. 

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1 hour ago, RedDragon86 said:

What is also off with this season is the vice teams lives, like their day to day, week to week lives were out of sink with reality. It's was so out there Gina might as well have married Stan.

Actually they make a nice couple. 

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1 hour ago, Robbie C. said:

So he’s operating on fake ID, with counterfeit clearance and buy money from God knows where (and that’s just what they tell us in the episode itself) and they’d let him on the force? He’d have IA from at least two departments looking hard at him, unless there was dirt like I proposed AND Lou pulled in every marker he had. 

I think he played the sympathy card to them and it obviously worked. Lou did say to him "You moved down here because N.Y.P.D was ready to fry you for misconduct. 

At least there was some sort of explanation and it wasn't brushed off. 

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2 hours ago, RedDragon86 said:

But was it proven? did IA investigate etc.

Yeah, even though the “clearance” from NY for Tubbs was forged, the NYPD was so corrupt they probably didn’t care once it was revealed what Tubbs had done (he was out of state and not doing anything in their city or state). Plus, they’d of understood “why” he did what he did, because of his brother. He probably would’ve been fired from the NYPD, but when Miami was willing to take him & he’d be out of their hair, I doubt they really cared or questioned it much. 

As for the Vice division in Miami, you had to be crazy to join (at least back then & on the show)! :p They had their own corruption issues & were probably needing officers continually...so if NYPD was willing to allow Tubbs to transfer without too many issues or questions, they probably didn’t balk too much either.

1 hour ago, RedDragon86 said:

One of the major problem with with season is it starts off so badly with the exception of "Death & The Lady" the tone of the start of season 4 was all over the place, it was either boring, depressing or silly. When a season begins it's suppose to grip you and keep you interested, staying consistent which we saw with season 1-2 -3 and 5.

The season premier is boring, then we have a corny episode, after DATL we went back to silly, then we had 2 although good episodes but depressing ones. The vibe was well off, then back to silly, then out of the blue Sonny is a verge of getting married.

What is also off with this season is the vice teams lives, like their day to day, week to week lives were out of sink with reality. It's was so out there Gina might as well have married Stan.

Agreed, & very well stated! :thumbsup: Gina & Stan would’ve been the worst & most hilarious “couplings” ever, lol! :) But, yeah, things were going bizarre enough, that maybe Trudy & Izzy could’ve hooked up. :eek:

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5 minutes ago, ViceFanMan said:

Yeah, even though the “clearance” from NY for Tubbs was forged, the NYPD was so corrupt they probably didn’t care once it was revealed what Tubbs had done (he was out of state and not doing anything in their city or state). Plus, they’d of understood “why” he did what he did, because of his brother. He probably would’ve been fired from the NYPD, but when Miami was willing to take him & he’d be out of their hair, I doubt they really cared or questioned it much. 

As for the Vice division in Miami, you had to be crazy to join (at least back then & on the show)! :p They had their own corruption issues & were probably needing officers continually...so if NYPD was willing to allow Tubbs to transfer without too many issues or questions, they probably didn’t balk too much either.

Agreed, & very well stated! :thumbsup: Gina & Stan would’ve been the worst & most hilarious “couplings” ever, lol! :) But, yeah, things were going bizarre enough, that maybe Trudy & Izzy could’ve hooked up. :eek:

Yeah Lou did say to him "You moved down here because N.Y.P.D was ready to fry you for misconduct" 

 

Edited by RedDragon86
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8 minutes ago, RedDragon86 said:

Yeah Lou did say to him "You moved down here because N.Y.P.D was ready to fry you for misconduct. 

Exactly! 

Edited by ViceFanMan
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2 minutes ago, ViceFanMan said:

Exactly! 

Also although his NYPD bosses were aware of his bad actions I think they would have thought his intentions were good, avenging his brothers murder. I think this stopped him from going to a hearing. 

Edited by RedDragon86
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1 minute ago, RedDragon86 said:

Also although his NYPD bosses were aware of his bad actions I think they would have thought his intentions were good, avenging his brothers murder. I think this stopped him from going to a hearing. 

I agree...I think he would’ve been fired, but once they knew he was leaving they were fine for him to just get out of their hair and they didn’t have to deal with him. 

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