Wow the Look of MV really took a dive

[Noggie]

I’m making my way though season four. Many episodes I missed during the original run.  The season started decent. I was surprised at how many episodes I enjoyed. Nothing great but decent.  Then …yikes.   I won’t even go into the bad stories but man visually, Miami Vice became a murky mess.   Between the bad colors & the foggy I feel like I’m watching a completely different show.  It looks like a generic 80’s show. 
 

As a total aside, credit to Phillip Michael Thomas for staying engaged in the series. Even episodes where he does nothing, he still feels like Tubbs. 
 

 

 

Edited January 6 by Noggie
Remove duplicate picture

[Dadrian]

Agreed, but ironically, I think that scene in the bathroom is the best shots of DJ in the whole season 4. He looks like his old season 1 self somehow for a minute (in darker clothes  ). 

[RedDragon86]

I personally think this is his best look in season 4.

[Noggie]

That looks nice!  The oversized clothes and the jackets with the massive shoulder pads were too much for me.   I also preferred the shorter hair of season 1 & 2.  Season 4 the hair is too stylized for a cop I think. Stylized might be the wrong word.  It just looked like it took time to maintain.  

[RedDragon86]

On 1/6/2024 at 12:54 PM, Noggie said:

That looks nice!  The oversized clothes and the jackets with the massive shoulder pads were too much for me.   I also preferred the shorter hair of season 1 & 2.  Season 4 the hair is too stylized for a cop I think. Stylized might be the wrong word.  It just looked like it took time to maintain.  

In this scene "Baseballs of Death" it's probably the only time his pastel clothes actually fit him, in "Contempt of Court" for example his clothes are at least two size too big.

If they were going to reintroduce the pastels why didn't they simply dig out the season 2 clothes.

Edited January 9 by RedDragon86

[Mr. Calderon]

S5 is worst. And those south american dictators? If its not laughable, i feel ashamed. But its okay, they were losing steam and they did what was possible.

[apocalypse]

S4 is not that bad, really.

The bad ones are Missing Hours and the Caitlin crap. Rock and a Hard Place is embarrassing. Cows of October and Big Thaw are quite bad too. Bullet for Crockett is a filler and has strange choice of clips.

But the Mosca episodes, Baseballs of Death, Mirror Image, Deliver Us From Evil... amazing. And Death And the Lady is my top-3 Miami Vice episode ever. A masterpiece.

For me it has always been quite enjoyable season. There was still the enthusiasm among the cast... you can see it. It was mostly gone in S5 and they were just going through the motions.

Asian Cut might be the best S5 episode besides despite the perverse theme.

Edited January 9 by apocalypse

[Kalci]

I've already said it enough times, but will do it once more My fav ep of S4 is Indian Wars  

S4 is the worst season overall for me(Cows of October,Missing Hours, Caitlin episodes turned me off totally) even though I liked Petersen's music.

Edited January 9 by Kalci

[Noggie]

I’m in the middle of the Caitlin saga so that’s probably part of the problem. I remember the Mosca episode!  I remember watching it when it aired & thinking the Tucci guy was great & played the best villain Vice had in a while. 

[RedDragon86]

On 1/8/2024 at 4:15 PM, apocalypse said:

S4 is not that bad, really.

The bad ones are Missing Hours and the Caitlin crap. Rock and a Hard Place is embarrassing. Cows of October and Big Thaw are quite bad too. Bullet for Crockett is a filler and has strange choice of clips.

But the Mosca episodes, Baseballs of Death, Mirror Image, Deliver Us From Evil... amazing. And Death And the Lady is my top-3 Miami Vice episode ever. A masterpiece.

For me it has always been quite enjoyable season. There was still the enthusiasm among the cast... you can see it. It was mostly gone in S5 and they were just going through the motions.

Asian Cut might be the best S5 episode besides despite the perverse theme.

I second that, for me anyway she ruins a perfectly good episode "Love at First Sight" with her shoddy acting.

Re-watch that scene in "Love at First Sight" at the 14:40 minute mark where she shakes her head as Sonny leaves, it's so bad it makes me laugh.

It's not even Days of Our Lives level of acting.  

[Mr. Calderon]

I really like the caitlin saga. And I think s4 is not soooooo bad...

[apocalypse]

Another good thing about S4 was that they changed the direction. So much more variation in topics... well some of them were silly like the bull semen and dead reggae star... but other ones worked well. The whole Caitlin story could have worked better if Sonny's wife had been a better actress and the plot wouldn't have been so cartoonishly fast. I mean meeting and getting married in the same episode. Laughable. As someone said she was quite terrible actress. She looked ok but not really not that attractive, either.

Stanley Tucci / Mosca was very believable as a wiseguy. He could have been around longer. Very good villain. Also Hackman should have been around more... why only 2 episodes? 

Lombard was my favorite villain. But I guess he was too busy with Mann's other show "Crime Story" at the same time.

Good villains are hard to find

Edited January 15 by apocalypse

[pahonu]

I would add to the discussion that by season 4, as ratings fell, the producers were continuing to look for celebrities to appear on the show to boost interest.  I was a senior in high school at the time and the show was definitely not the talk it had been a few years earlier.  I quite clearly remember the ad campaign surrounding Sheena Easton being on the show, and for multiple episodes.  It definitely got us talking about it again.  
 

She also had some chart hits around that time.  She wasn’t a great actress because she wasn’t really an actress at all.  Neither was Danny Sullivan, Bill Russell, or a host of other celebrities who appeared on the show.  Certainly some were better than others, but she wasn’t close to the worst of that group in my view.  Perhaps because it was multiple episodes, we expect more, but that wasn’t the original intent of her being cast, I think.

[apocalypse]

Was Sheena Easton really a big name in pop music at some point? Also in the U.S?

I thought she was moderately popular in the UK only.

 

[pahonu]

7 hours ago, apocalypse said:

Was Sheena Easton really a big name in pop music at some point? Also in the U.S?

I thought she was moderately popular in the UK only.

 

This came from a Billboard article:

Easton rose to fame in the early 1980s with the pop hits “9 to 5” (known as “Morning Train” in the United States), “For Your Eyes Only”, “Strut”, “Sugar Walls”, “U Got the Look” with Prince, and “The Lover in Me”. She went on to become successful in the United States and Japan, working with prominent vocalists and producers, such as Prince, Christopher Neil, Kenny Rogers, David Foster, Luis Miguel, L.A. Reid and Babyface, Patrice Rushen, and Nile Rodgers.

In the United States, Easton is a two-time Grammy Award winner with 4 additional Grammy nominations, an Oscar nomination, sold 7 Gold albums and 1 Platinum and has sold over 4 million albums in the US alone, and over 20 million records worldwide. She has recorded 16 studio albums, released 45 singles, and has 15 Top 40 hits on the US Billboard Hot 100 and 25 top 40 hits in territories around the world . Sheena Easton is the only artist in the history of the US Billboard charts to have top 5 hit on each of the Billboards key charts consecutively: Adult Contemporary, Dance, Pop, Country, and R&B. In the UK, Easton has 3 top 40 albums and 8 top 40 singles to date. Easton’s 1980 debut singles, “Modern Girl” and ” 9 to 5,” entered into the UK top ten, making her the first UK female artist to appear twice in the same top ten.

Trivia:

In the entire James Bond series, Sheena is the only artist seen performing a song in the title sequence, in “For Your Eyes Only”.

She guest starred on “Miami Vice” in 1987, portraying Caitlin Davies, Sonny Crockett’s wife.

Sheena was given a special award from “Billboard” magazine as being the first artist to crack the Top 5 on five key singles charts; Hot 100, Adult Contemporary, R&B, Dance and Country.

[BunMVO]

On 1/6/2024 at 2:54 PM, Noggie said:

That looks nice!  The oversized clothes and the jackets with the massive shoulder pads were too much for me.   I also preferred the shorter hair of season 1 & 2.  Season 4 the hair is too stylized for a cop I think. Stylized might be the wrong word.  It just looked like it took time to maintain.  

I style my hair in the S1/2 style and I can vouch that it takes time to achieve that look. I can't even imagine how much work it takes to achieve the S4 look. The S3 hair look is probably the most realistic cop haircut.

[Noggie]

Still powering my way through season 4. After some pretty bad episodes I got to “Indian Wars”. Not a classic but it held my interest. It was nice to see Castillo & Tubbs get some focus.  Solid episode. 
 

Still have to go back & watch the “The Big Thaw” & “Cows of October”. I wasn’t strong enough for those.   So far, “Child’s Play” is my highest rated season 4 episode. I like to rate shows on IMDb. I gave it an 8.