The cops. The cars. The clothes.
Miami Vice: Season One is the explosive, groundbreaking detective show that
redefined the word 'cool.' Set against the seamy and steamy Miami underworld,
ride shotgun with suave Vice cops Sonny Crockett (Golden Globe winner Don
Johnson) and Rico Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) as they battle a never-ending
gallery of criminals. Set to an electrifying soundtrack of rock legends,
including Glenn Frey, Phil Collins, U2 and Peter Gabriel, every episode crackles
with excitement and stylish flair. Also starring Emmy and Golden Globe winner
Edward James Olmos.
CRITIQUE
Miami Vice is
pretty cool. In fact, it's so cool director Michael Mann (Collateral)
is shooting a feature film version right now. The show's two-hour
pilot (in actuality only about a hundred or so minutes long) sets
up the story and characters really well. The dialogue is slick and
real, not cliché as I thought it might be. Dramatically, the story
is involving and offers tension throughout as Crockett and Tubbs
start off working alone and then having to team up to catch the
notorious Calderone, a drug lord and killer. The acting is also
quite strong and never forced or over the top, except in very
small quantities perhaps (but it's not an issue that distracts
from the enjoyment of an episode or show as a whole).
Stylistically,
Miami Vice is (almost) famous for editing the action and such
to cinematic form by incorporating an original score (by Jan
Hammer) and featuring hot new songs on the soundtrack, but more
importantly it's the cinematography that gives the show its cool, cinematic look. As far as the remaining episodes go after the
pilot they present interesting stories and contain the same kind
of style as in the pilot. Granted not every story is compelling as
the next one but generally this season is pretty good.
The first season's
twenty-two episodes from the 1984-85 broadcast break down per disc
as follows:
Disc 1 A: Pilot, Heart of Darkness
Disc 1 B: Cool Runnin', Calderone's Return, Calderone's Return Part 2, One
Eyed Jack
Disc 2 A: No
Exit, The Great McCarthy, Glades, Give a Little Take a Little
Disc 2 B: Little Prince, Milk Run, Golden Triangle, Golden Triangle Part 2
Disc 3 A: Smuggler's Blues, Rites of Passage, The Maze, Made for Each Other
Disc 3 B: The
Home Invaders, Nobody Lives Forever, Evan, Lombard
THE VIDEO
Universal presents Miami
Vice
in 1.33:1 fullscreen format. The studio obviously didn't clean
up the image. Print quality is pretty weak, it looks very dated,
contains lots of grain and specks, and some compression errors
appear also. In terms of colors, the presentation is not too
bad. The show's opening theme should have been updated at least
to make it more vibrant and clean, instead there's a dark, brown
spot on top of the screen during the "over the water" scenes.
The spot gets cleaned up a couple of episodes after the pilot,
however, which is a bit strange; why wasn't it cleaned up in the
first place? Or maybe there's another reason behind it. Either
way, the overall impression of the video is disappointing but in
the end is serviceable. Optional subtitles include
English, Spanish and French.
THE AUDIO
Universal presents Miami
Vice in a remixed Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtrack. There's not
a whole lot going on except for the front speakers delivering
satisfactory audio quality. Dialogue is clear and easy to
understand for most of the time, and the music sounds pretty
good also. The presentation isn't great, but works just fine for
a show that's almost twenty years old.
THE EXTRAS
There are not a
whole lot of extras contained on this three-disc DVD set but they
are nice to watch once. A commentary on the pilot by the show's
creator, Michael Mann, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas
could've been pretty interesting, but no such luck.
The Vibe of Vice
(5:13) is an overlook of the series through interviews with
creator Anthony Yerkovich, costumer designer Jodie Tillen, and
old interviews with Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas. It
gets the job done but is nowhere near as in depth as I would
have liked, it lasts a mere five minutes.
Building the
Perfect Vice (7:52) looks more at the show's conception and
such featuring interviews with Yerkovich, Johnson, Thomas, and
casting agent Bonnie Timmermann. It's a little longer than the
previous featurette, and even though some good stuff is learned
from it, it's nothing special.
The Style of Vice
(5:59) is all about the clothes, the memorable and much emulated
style of fashion depicted in the show. Decent stuff.
The Music of Vice
(6:47) focuses on the music by composer Jan Hammer who appears
in a new interview. This featurette covers good ground and the
information is interesting, it actually didn't need to be longer
and runs at a good length.
Miami After Vice
(2:25) is just clips of Miami cut to some music and stuff.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Miami Vice is a
neat show and the stories contained in each episode are good enough to
keep the viewer interested. There was a bit of nostalgia seeing this
show on DVD (I'm not sure I ever saw it on TV), seeing as how it's
kind of a cult show. The DVD set is a bit disappointing in terms of
video/audio quality, and the extras are decent but pretty short.
Still, for fans and newcomers alike, the first season of Miami Vice
on DVD comes recommended.
