What's the most underrated episode of Vice?


Vincent Hanna

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The Pilot and episodes like Evan, Smuggler's blues, Out where the buses don't run, Payback get a lot of love and deservedly so, but what are some of the best that are sometimes over looked?

 

--Red Tape, Any great episode from season 3 onwards is always going to get looked over because it's not the classic style but this is probably one of the most complex stories they ever did. It's beautifully shot and PMT get's a lot of screen time to chew the scenery in some of the best acting he's done yet. There's a lot of season 3 eps that would go up for consideration to be honest.

 

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God's Work - the sob story is a little bit eye-rolling, but I love the way they showcase that great house.  The outdoor daytime party early on and the final scene with the glass shattering were two of the only times in S4/S5 that I felt like I was watching early-season Miami Vice.  The bar scene with Castillo is awesome.  I believe that's the only time we ever get to see Castillo kicking back.  It's one of my favorite Castillo scenes in the whole series.

Edited by airtommy
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Underrated episodes....Wow. Most of the ones I think of that come to mind, are in fact, popular amoung VICE fans.

 

SHADOW IN THE DARK

RITES OF PASSAGE

MILK RUN

 

I'm guessing I'd have to dig deep for underrated, as there are great episodes, and not so great episodes, but those that are good, but don't get too much attention generally are out there.

 

DEATH AND THE LADY (perhaps this gets enough attention)

LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT

PAYBACK

CHILD'S PLAY

BOUGHT AND PAID FOR

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I was going to say Rites of Passage myself. Pam Grier and the chick who plays her sister are fantastic. Tubbs gets a lot to do in these early eps. It's weird seeing Crockett be the passive one where he just wanders around behind tubbs.

 

God's Work - the sob story is a little bit eye-rolling, but I love the way they showcase that great house.  The outdoor daytime party early on and the final scene with the glass shattering were two of the only times in S4/S5 that I felt like I was watching early-season Miami Vice.  The bar scene with Castillo is awesome.  I believe that's the only time we ever get to see Castillo kicking back.  It's one of my favorite Castillo scenes in the whole series.

 

The boat chase in that ep is amazing. For a moment you think we've gone back to season 2.

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I was going to say Rites of Passage myself. Pam Grier and the chick who plays her sister are fantastic. Tubbs gets a lot to do in these early eps. It's weird seeing Crockett be the passive one where he just wanders around behind tubbs.

 

 

The boat chase in that ep is amazing. For a moment you think we've gone back to season 2.

 

You know I have Pam Grier's MIAMI VICE contract for her appearance in RITES OF PASSAGE, right?

 

http://miamiviceonline.com/index.php/topic/759-valeries-mv-tv-contract-rites-of-passage/

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You know I have Pam Grier's MIAMI VICE contract for her appearance in RITES OF PASSAGE, right?

 

http://miamiviceonline.com/index.php/topic/759-valeries-mv-tv-contract-rites-of-passage/

 

That's awesome, I'm always surprised how overly formal all this negotiation stuff is. The amount of paperwork needed to guest star in a tv show damn.

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"French Twist" gets my vote.  The whole episode is great but the bathtub scene with Tubbs and Danielle is out of sight.  It deserves a place among the greatest scenes in the whole series.

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That's awesome, I'm always surprised how overly formal legalistic all this negotiation stuff is. The amount of paperwork dirty stinkin' lawyers needed to guest star in a tv show damn.

 

fixed that for ya   :p

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I often go back to Lend Me An Ear.  John Glover's performance is truly noteworthy.  I love the bit where he pauses and he says something like, "No...it's paranoia..." or whatever the line is.  It gets very dark very quick.  And I love the scene where he meets Crockett and Tubbs outside on that deck for lunch.  And he picks up the tab.  

 

It's a solid episode.

 

I also love Red Tape and lately, Stone's War and the other one with G. Gordon Liddy and Bob Balaban..."Because it's guys, and guys like you..."  F'ing BRILLIANT!!!

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I'd say Heroes Of the Revolution. Great storyline and Saundra singing is a bliss. Not sure if it's underrated among vicers, but a great one for me.

 

As far as other titles, my list is real close to Coop's one ;-)

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I'd say Heroes Of the Revolution. Great storyline and Saundra singing is a bliss. Not sure if it's underrated among vicers, but a great one for me.

 

As far as other titles, my list is real close to Coop's one ;-)

 

Yeah I do like that one, I think the problem is more that it's a bit too low key for a season finale, not that it's necessarily bad just they could have gone off with a bang instead of that.

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I also agree with Milk Run, Rights of Passage and French Twist. It was nice to "(h)ave de French t(h)ing" involved with Vice.

 

You know what the Montreal Canadiens have the logo on the ice rink as "CH" It stands for "Centre Hice"

(sorry bad joke)

 

In reality Montreal had quite the underworld back in the 70's and 80's for real, and it was nice to see that MV made a connection with that. It was quite brutal and connected to the NY mofia. Then in the 90's the bikers took over mainly and did most of the drug trade.

 

I also liked the boat chase in French Twist.

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French Twist has grown on me a lot, Danielle is a little annoying though. :evil: well more than a little.

 

An episode I never hear being talked about that often is "One Way Ticket" which I'm going to say is one of the best in the entire series imo. I've seen people compliment the end car-boat chase but the whole thing is ridiculously good, almost magical. John Heard is fantastic as the lawyer Thurman, The guy who plays Sagot is a cool villain. I love the montage of Thurman meditating in his plane whilst Crockett is at the shooting range and they both own the same Daytona Spyder. Jan hammers score is too good and don't think they ever reused it, we get to see Tommy's garage which looks awesome with the mural on the wall and the pastel colours which is very michael mann-esque. Oh and I love that Thurman uses a voice scrambler to alter his voice to call crockett. It's so cheesy and 80s-ish that it's awesome. It has the perfect blend of action, drama and humour so I give it a 10/10

 

One of my favourite cues:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOvb1V4XtFg#t=95

Edited by thedeparted94
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I also agree with Milk Run, Rights of Passage and French Twist. It was nice to "(h)ave de French t(h)ing" involved with Vice.

 

You know what the Montreal Canadiens have the logo on the ice rink as "CH" It stands for "Centre Hice"

(sorry bad joke)

 

In reality Montreal had quite the underworld back in the 70's and 80's for real, and it was nice to see that MV made a connection with that. It was quite brutal and connected to the NY mofia. Then in the 90's the bikers took over mainly and did most of the drug trade.

 

I also liked the boat chase in French Twist.

 

My father is a big fan of Les Habitants. He grew up in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. He moved to California in 1965 and still follows them to this day.

Edited by pahonu
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"The Score" is pretty awesome, Crockett and Tubbs doing actual run of the mill police work, Crockett gets to dress up as a dork, The actress who plays Candy is really good and has a lot of chemistry with Don, too bad they didn't use her again.

 

The highlight is definitely seeing Castillio beat the crap out of Thai guy in the alley. It cemented Castillio as the legit badass you expected him to be when he was introduced on the show and the chase through the alley is very Noir-ish with the shadows going across the walls. (What's up with the white tape stuck to the back of his suit in that scene though? anyone catch that?)

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  • 3 years later...

The scene with "The Madness of It All" by Ward Brothers in Love at First Sight where Sonny is driving after a fight with Caitlin is a great and underrated moment. I think the whole episode is a great one, actually. It's too bad that the relationship between Sonny and Caitlin had no chemistry and was so forced though. Like, they meet and get married all in the SAME episode? Give me a break. They could have let their relationship simmer instead of her not being present for the majority of their marriage. They could have made it a lot sexier that way. Sheena Easton wasn't even a very good actress. Pretty to be sure, but not great at acting.

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1 hour ago, pmconroy said:

The scene with "The Madness of It All" by Ward Brothers in Love at First Sight where Sonny is driving after a fight with Caitlin is a great and underrated moment. I think the whole episode is a great one, actually. It's too bad that the relationship between Sonny and Caitlin had no chemistry and was so forced though. Like, they meet and get married all in the SAME episode? Give me a break. They could have let their relationship simmer instead of her not being present for the majority of their marriage. They could have made it a lot sexier that way. Sheena Easton wasn't even a very good actress. Pretty to be sure, but not great at acting.

Yes and don't forget the sex toy false alarm with Lori Petty.  Very risque’ at the time.  I bought the Ward bros album after seeing that scene (as I have with many).  Solid 80s rock.  It was interesting to see Sonny try to live domestically on dry land, but I knew that wouldn't last.  Sheena Easton would be very good in an episode of Highlander a few years later as a former IRA member.

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7 hours ago, Bren10 said:

Yes and don't forget the sex toy false alarm with Lori Petty.  Very risque’ at the time.  I bought the Ward bros album after seeing that scene (as I have with many).  Solid 80s rock.  It was interesting to see Sonny try to live domestically on dry land, but I knew that wouldn't last.  Sheena Easton would be very good in an episode of Highlander a few years later as a former IRA member.

Yeah, I've always found that part hilarious! He thinks it's a weapon when it's actually a vibrator. Lol.

Also, it was another Vice fan who turned me onto that song. He has an Instagram as donjohnson.fan84 but I don't know if he has an account here. It's interesting because he's about my age and I'm very young (21). Good to know there are fans my age.

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  • 4 weeks later...
On 9/29/2018 at 10:20 PM, pmconroy said:

The scene with "The Madness of It All" by Ward Brothers in Love at First Sight where Sonny is driving after a fight with Caitlin is a great and underrated moment. I think the whole episode is a great one, actually. It's too bad that the relationship between Sonny and Caitlin had no chemistry and was so forced though. Like, they meet and get married all in the SAME episode? Give me a break. They could have let their relationship simmer instead of her not being present for the majority of their marriage. They could have made it a lot sexier that way. Sheena Easton wasn't even a very good actress. Pretty to be sure, but not great at acting.

I couldn't stand Caitlin, she couldn't act and was so annoying, Lorraine Bracco from GoodFellas and The Sorpanos was supposed to play that role but she got ill, which was a real shame.

The thing is the whole marriage thing was totally forced upon him and impractical with his character, the show at this point turned into a soap opera, yippiee Sonny is getting married, wtf! who was this appealing to at the time, women who were watching Dallas? Sonny was done with the married life from the very first moment we saw him.

Edited by RedDragon86
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12 hours ago, RedDragon86 said:

I couldn't stand Caitlin, she couldn't act and was so annoying, Lorraine Bracco from GoodFellas and The Sorpanos was supposed to play that role but she got ill, which was a real shame.

The thing is the whole marriage thing was totally forced upon him and impractical with his character, the show at this point turned into a soap opera, yippiee Sonny is getting married, wtf! who was this appealing to at the time, women who were watching Dallas? Sonny was done with the married life from the very first moment we saw him.

Yeah, it wasn't like him. Not the same marina-dwelling loner we always knew. However, the same could say for the show itself as it was just an empty shell of its former glory at that point.

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