Francisco Padura | Through the Shattered Lens

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!

The 100th episode of Miami Vice finds Crockett and Tubbs pursuing separate stories.

Episode 5.10 “To Have And To Hold”

(Dir by Eugene Corr, originally aired on February 10th, 1989)

When Sonny learns that his now-teenage son (Clayton Barclay Jones) is acting out at school, he hops on a plane and flies to wherever it is that his ex-wife (Belinda Montgomery) and her new husband (Parris Buckner) are supposed to be living now. Sonny discovers that his ex-wife is pregnant and that his son is having a hard time adjusting to the idea of being an older brother. He also doesn’t get along with his stepfather. Sonny and his son watch the original, Boris Karloff-starring Frankenstein in a movie theater and have a discussion about family.

(Sonny’s son says that he relates to the Monster because the Monster doesn’t mean to kill people but he does. Today, that would probably lead to the kid getting suspended from school and sent to a boot camp. In 1989, though, that just meant the kid was feeling misunderstood.)

With Crockett gone, it falls to Tubbs — using his “Cooper” persona and his fake Jamaican accent — to investigate who is responsible for killing a just-married drug kingpin. Tubbs meets the kingpin’s ruthless son (Miguel Ferrer, looking intense) and he also falls in love with the kingpin’s widow (Elpidia Carrillo). Tubbs is in love and thinking of leaving Vice? Needless to say, the widow is dead by the end of the episode.

This episode concludes with Tubbs and Crockett fishing on Crockett’s boat. They’re both feeling disillusioned. Crockett is still in love with his ex-wife. Tubbs is realizing that he’ll probably never find happiness as long as he’s working undercover in Miami. It’s a bit of a bittersweet ending. Neither Crockett nor Tubbs seems to be particularly happy. Miami Vice was always at its best when it ended on a down note.

This episode managed to give Crockett and Tubbs an equal amount of screentime and both Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas gave good performances. Unfortunately, the divided format of the episode meant that both stories ended up feeling a bit rushed and incomplete. The ending was effective and Miguel Ferrer gave a typically strong performance but otherwise, this was a pretty uneven episode.

This week, Crockett and Tubbs get involved in a theft and a theatrical troupe.

Episode 3.23 “Everybody’s In Show Business”

(Dir by Richard Compton, originally aired on May 1st, 1987)

The theft of a valuable briefcase that belonged to drug lord Don Gallego (Paul Calderon) leads the Vice Squad to Mikey (Michael Carmine), an ex-con who is now a published poet and runs his own theater group specifically for people who have just gotten out of prison. Unfortunately, Mikey has once again started using drugs (“Once a junkie, always a junkie,” Tubbs scornfully says) and he desperately needs the money that he can make by selling the briefcase back to Gallego. Gallego, for his part, will do anything to get that briefcase back.

This episode had a few good things going for it. Paul Calderon gave a strong performance as Don Gallego, a ruthless drug lord who dispenses threats and violence with style. (Calderon was also in King of New York as the untrustworthy Joey D. and he played the bartender, English Bob, in Pulp Fiction. Reportedly, Calderon was the second choice for the role of Jules Winnfield.) Mikey’s young brother is played by Benicio Del Toro and, while Del Toro doesn’t really get to do much in this episode, his appearance continues Miami Vice‘s tradition of featuring future stars amongst its supporting cast.

That said, Michael Carmine’s performance as Mikey didn’t really work for me. Mikey was meant to be wild, charismatic, and touched with a hint of genius but Carmine overacts to such an extent that it becomes impossible to take Mikey seriously as any of those three things. A scene where he portrays his version of Elvis is meant to be a showstopper but it just left me cringing. Sonny, somewhat uncharacteristically, is portrayed as being an admirer of Mikey’s poetry. (I thought Tubbs was supposed to be the sensitive one.) Unfortunately, the poetry that we hear doesn’t sound that impressive. Sonny has been portrayed as being such a cynic in the past that it’s hard to buy the idea that he would be so moved by Mikey. If anything, it almost feels as if Sonny and Tubbs have switched roles in this episode. Usually, Tubbs is the one who isn’t cynical enough.

The episode ends on something of an off-note, with Mikey apparently being near death but somehow managing to escape the hospital after he’s visited by Crockett and Tubbs. This is the sort of thing that would perhaps have worked if Mikey was a recurring character. If they had brought back Noogie and had him as the poetry-writing junkie in over his head, this episode probably would have worked. But we don’t really know Mikey and, from what we see of him, he comes across as being a bit of a jerk. So, what do we care if he gets in trouble?

Next week, season 3 comes to an end!