Retro Television Review: Crime Story 1.21 “Ground Zero”

Posted on September 28, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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 Crime Story, which ran on NBC from 1986 to 1988. The entire show can be found on Tubi!

This week, the first season comes to a close.

Episode 1.21 “Gound Zero”

(Dir by Peter Medak, originally aired on March 13th, 1987)

In Las Vegas, the media is focused on two things: the upcoming atomic bomb test at Yucca Flats and the trial of Ray Luca.

Pauli, the star witness, is being kept in an underground bunker at an Air Force base. Danny comments on the fact that, if America and Russia do go to war and an atomic missile hits Nevada, Pauli would probably be the only survivor. It would be up to Pauli to repopulate the planet. Torello eventually allows Pauli’s girlfriend, Donna (Audrey Matson), to start visiting him. Donna says she loves Pauli. Torello shrugs.

Pauli keeps his end of the deal. He testifies against Luca. However, Frank Holman gives an interview outside the courtroom and tells the press that Luca was the king of organized crime in Las Vegas. The next day, the headline of the local newspaper announces that Luca was the “king of crime.” Disguising himself as the waiter assigned to deliver room service to the sequestered jury, Holman makes sure that the jurors see the headline. The trial judge has no choice but to declare a mistrial. As he walks out of the courtroom, Luca stops in front of Pauli and tells him, “You did what you had to do,” and apologizes for raping Donna.

In Vegas, Luca is upset to discover that gangster Nat Martino (James Russo) is moving in on his territory. Luca is prepared to go to war, but Manny Weisbrod informs Luca that he is to work with Martino. Weisbrod no longer has any confidence in Luca’s abilities. At the same time, Torello learns that Martino is actually an informant. Torello arranges for that information to get leaked to Luca. When Luca heads over to Martino’s favorite brothel, Torello and the other members of the MCU are waiting for him.

Breaking into Martino’s room, Luca manages to shoot and kill Martino before taking several bullets himself. Wounded, Luca escapes through a back window. Pauli, having decided that his place is with Luca, is there to pick him up and drive him out of town.

The next day, a bandaged Luca discovers that Pauli has driven him out to his latest hideout, a seemingly abandoned house in the desert. The house is full of mannequins. Luca looks at a chair and sees that it is the property of the Atomic Energy Commission. Realizing that they’re at Yucca Flats, Pauli and Luca run out to Pauli’s car. As they drive through the desert, a mushroom cloud blossoms in the distance.

And the episode ends!

Did Luca and Pauli escape the nuclear test? Hopefully, we’ll find out next week. I hope they did because it’s hard to imagine Crime Story without them. They were a great pair of villains.

The first season was good, if uneven. The pilot was outstanding, but some of the subsequent Chicago episodes seemed to lose their focus. Torello’s domestic drama was never as interesting as the show wanted it to be, and it took me a while to really warm up to David Abrams and his abrasive idealism. The other members of the MCU often felt like ciphers. (Even after 21 episodes, I still don’t feel like I know much about any of them beyond their almost cult-like loyalty to Torello.) But when the show moved to Vegas, things improved immeasurably. The glitz of Vegas worked perfectly for the show’s hyperreal style, and Stephen Lang’s performance in the role of David Abrams improved as well.

That said, Dennis Farina was the main strength of the first season. Farina played Torello as being intense, ruthless, and maybe just a little unhinged. The only real difference between Luca and Torello is that Torello carries a badge and Luca doesn’t have the Constitution holding him back. Otherwise, Luca really does represent Torello’s own dark side. In his pursuit of Luca, Torello isn’t just trying to enforce the law. He’s also trying to destroy the man that, had Torello not joined the police force, he could have become.

Next week, we’ll start the second season!

Retro Television Review: Crime Story 1.20 “Top of the World”

Posted on September 21, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

This week, Michael Mann directs the downfall of Luca!

Episode 1.20 “Top of the World”

(Dir by Michael Mann, originally aired on March 6th, 1987)

Luca has taken control of Vegas, and now he’s out of control. He’s gambling nonstop and cheating to win. While his wife spends all of her time watching The Price Is Right, Luca is carrying on affairs with both Bambi (Debbie Harry) and Max Goldman’s wife, Joanne (Debra Stipe). Luca has everything that he’s spent this entire season saying that he wanted: money, legitimacy, and power. But at heart, he’s still the same Chicago gangster that he’s always been. As Torello deduces, he needs the risk and the danger that come with being a criminal. Without it, he doesn’t know what to do with himself.

At the beginning of this episode, Torello tells the demoralized members of the MCU that they can do one of two things. They can either track down Luca’s parents and shoot them for having him, or they can start over with their attempt to build a case against him. (Torello, as intense as ever, doesn’t seem to be joking about tracking down Luca’s parents.) Torello’s plan is to sow dissension among Luca’s troops. When dapper courier Tony Dio (Paul Anka) is spotted leaving Luca’s casino with a suitcase full of skimmed cash for Manny Weisbord, he’s stopped by Torello and essentially kidnapped. They then let Max know that Luca has been sleeping with his wife and insinuate that Luca killed Tony and took the money for himself.

Meanwhile, Luca is temporarily barred from working at his casino by the Nevada Gaming Commission. He can’t even step into any of the places that he owns. Stuck at home with his wife, Luca starts to go stir-crazy. When Steve Kordo tells Luca that Weisbord is asking where his money is, Luca decides that Max is trying to stab him in the back. Luca has Frank Holman plant a car bomb in Max’s car. Though the bomb goes off, Max survives. At the hospital, a severely burned Max tells Torello that he has no intention of being a rat.

However, someone else is, and it’s exactly who you would least expect. Luca, high on pills and self-pity, rapes Pauli’s girlfriend, Donna (Audrey Matson). Pauli grabs a shotgun and starts wandering around Vegas, searching for Luca. Torello is able to arrest Pauli in a diner. Pauli tells Torello the details of every murder that Luca committed over the season, including the murder of David Abrams’s father.

After a shoot-out with Luca’s bodyguards at the casino, Torello, Abrams, and the MCU track Luca down to a restaurant where he’s having dinner with Bambi. (They’re celebrating because an appellate court has stayed the order keeping Luca out of his casinos.) At first, Luca is smug. But when he hears that Pauli is the one who betrayed him, his smile disappears. The episode ends as Luca is taken into custody.

This episode was directed by the show’s executive producer, Michael Mann. Mann does a great job keeping the action moving and showing both Luca’s rapid rise and his just-as-rapid descent. Visually, Mann plays up the darkness in which all the characters live. Nearly every scene takes place at night. When we see Torello sitting in his office, the shadows are so heavy that they almost seem to be swallowing him. This episode reminds us that, just as Luca will always be a Chicago gangster, Torello will always be a Chicago cop. Luca and Torello live in the same darkness, and it’s threatening to devour them both.

Next week, the first season concludes!

Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 2.14 “Yankee Dollar”

Posted on May 13, 2024 by Lisa Marie Bowman

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, Sonny’s latest girlfriend gets involved in the drug trade.

Episode 2.14 “Yankee Dollar”

(Dir by Aaron Lipstadt, originally aired on January 17th, 1986)

It’s another night in Miami. Sonny Crockett is looking forward to driving out to the airport and picking up his latest girlfriend, a flight attendant named Sarah (Audrey Matson). For two years, Sarah has been working the Miami to Bogota to Paris and back route. She doesn’t make a lot of money but, as is typical for this show, she lives in a small but very nicely furnished house.

Unfortunately, Sarah dies shortly after Sonny picks her up. She goes into cardiac arrest, the result of a balloon of cocaine bursting inside of her. It turns out that Sarah was working as a drug mule, all so she could make a quick five grand and buy a used BMW.

Seriously, what are the chances that Sonny Crockett’s girlfriend would turn out to be a drug smuggler? Maybe she thought she was dating Sonny Burnett. Or maybe, like so many others on this show, she allowed her desire for the finer things in life — like a BMW — to lead her astray. This is one of the major themes of Miami Vice. In a society where conspicuous consumption rules, people will do anything to appear richer than they actually are.

When Sonny and Rico arrest Sarah’s brother, Tim (Clayton Rohner), they discover that he works for a wealthy businessman named Charlie Glide (Ned Eisenberg). Everyone knows that Charlie Glide (a great name, by the way) is involved in the drug trade but no one has ever been able to pin anything on him. In the past, Charlie avoided cocaine but he’s now looking to branch out. Sonny and Rico go undercover to try to bring Charlie down.

Of course, it doesn’t work. Charlie is smart enough to figure out that Sonny and Rico are trying to set him up. Even after Crockett and Tubbs drag him down to the police station and Charlie makes a deal for immunity in return for setting up two other drug dealers (Anne Carlisle and Pepe Serna), he still tries to double cross the cops. And even though the double cross doesn’t quite work, Charlie remains smug in his knowledge that he has immunity.

Except, of course, he doesn’t have immunity from all crimes. Earlier in the episode, Charlie’s executive assistant, Max Rogo (Austin Pendleton), used Charlie’s gun to execute Tim. Even though Crockett and Tubbs know that Max is the one who pulled the trigger and that Max is the one who decided to kill Tim, they still arrest Charlie for the murder. (Max was apparently killed in an earlier shootout so it’s not like he’s around to tell the truth.) “You changed the rules!” Charlie shouts as he’s dragged away.

This episode is Miami Vice at its most cynical. Crockett and Tubbs can’t get Charlie for the crime he committed so, instead, they set him up for a crime he didn’t commit. They did change the rules in that they decided they no longer have to follow them. The episode is full of characters so desperate for money that they’ll do just about anything, even smuggling a lethal drug in their body. Crockett can only watch helplessly as Sarah dies and, even as Charlie is taken away, there’s never any doubt that he’ll be replaced by someone else, the drug trade will continue, and more people will die just because they wanted to be able to afford a few extra things. Crockett and Tubbs are fighting a war that can never be won. Whatever victories they get ultimately feel hollow. Arresting Charlie won’t bring Sarah back and it won’t stop more innocent people from dying. Ned Eisenberg was wonderfully smug as Charlie Glide and Austin Pendleton was appropriately creepy as the always-smiling Max Rogo. This was a good episode, one that challenged the traditional cop show narrative. How long can one fight a losing war?