Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Mondays, I will be reviewing Miami Vice, which ran on NBC from 1984 to 1989.  The entire show can be purchased on Prime!

This week, the Miracle Man arrives in Miami!

Episode 5.19 “Miracle Man”

(Dir by Alan Myerson, originally aired on June 21st, 1989)

Who is the Miracle Man?

The Miracle Man (played by Jose Perez) is an overweight, middle-aged man who sometimes wears an eye mask and a t-shirt with a big M on it.  He rallies the good people of Miami to take back their neighborhoods from the drug dealers.  He thwarts drug deals, even the ones that are actually a part of an undercover operation.  He’s something of a pest.  The cops wants to stop him.  The criminals want to kill him.  A news reporter (Zach Grenier) wants to make him a star.

In real life, he’s actually Gregory Esteban and he is Izzy’s cousin.  A former junkie, he blames himself for the overdose death of his daughter and he’s now determined to launch a one-man war against crime.  He’s also bipolar and running low on his meds, which makes him unpredictable.  Switek and Tubbs eventually catch the Miracle Man but he still manages to escape from the safehouse.  His actions lead to the death of this week’s drug dealers but they also lead to him getting killed as well.  That’s not really a surprise.  Guest stars almost always died on Miami Vice.

This episode didn’t work for me.  The Miracle Man character was too over-the-top to be taken seriously and, as a result, his story and his death didn’t have the emotional impact that it should have.  As well, the villains were forgettable and generic.  Considering how surreal Miami Vice could be, one would be justified in expecting this episode to be much more stylized than it was.  Unfortunately, it was just dull.  The Miracle Man could not save it.

Don Johnson is only in this episode for the first two minutes.  Edward James Olmos isn’t in it at all.  (Crockett and Castillo are described as being absent to prepare for a trial.)  The whole episode feels like filler.  I can kind of understand why it wasn’t aired during season 5’s original run.

Sorry, Miracle Man.