Tag Archives: Peter Gabriel

Retro Television Review: Miami Vice 3.8 “Better Living Through Chemistry”

Posted on 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, Tubbs’s cover is blown …. again.

Episode 3.8 “Better Living Through Chemistry”

(Dir by Leon Ichaso, originally aired on November 14th, 1986)

While working undercover as Ricardo Cooper (and yes, I’m pretty sure I heard the fake Caribbean accent at the start of this episode), Tubbs is stunned to discover that his former partner from New York, Clarence Batisse (Victor Love), is now working as a DJ at a club owned by a local drug lord.

Tubbs is even more shocked when Clarence announces to the entire club that “Ricardo Cooper” is actually an undercover cop.

Somehow, and it’s not really made clear how, Tubbs is able to escape the club without getting shot.  Sonny also somehow manages to convince the drug dealers that he didn’t know that Tubbs was actually a cop.  So, Sonny “Burnett” continues to play his part in the undercover operation while Tubbs tries to figure out why Clarence blew his cover.

Clarence is bitter.  His career with the NYPD came crashing down when he shot a bookie during a raid.  Clarence claimed the bookie had a gun but the gun was never found.  Tubbs didn’t see the gun and refused to lie for his partner.  However, when Tubbs realizes that Clarence has been reduce to working for a drug lord, he sets about to try to clear Clarence’s name.

Meanwhile, informant Izzy (Martin Ferrero) has been hired to babysit the drug lord’s chemist, nerdy Henry Luna (Nelson Villamor).  Luna has developed cocaine that is so pure that most people can’t even survive doing one hit.  The Vice squad know that, if the cocaine hits the streets, it will lead to a gang war.  But then Luna does a hit of his own cocaine and falls over dead.

Tubbs does manage to clear Clarence’s name but it doesn’t matter.  Clarence has gone so far over to the dark side that he sets up Tubbs and Crockett to be attacked in a surprise raid.  Tubbs and Crockett kill the bad guys and, at the end of the episode, Tubbs takes Clarence into custody.  A good cop has gone very bad….

This was a weird episode.  It was technically a Tubbs episode but it seemed like the majority of the running time was taken up with Izzy babysitting the chemist.  Izzy is one of those supporting characters who works best in small amounts.  Building almost an entire episode around him just serves to highlight that there’s really not much depth to Izzy as a character.  He’s cowardly and he talks a lot.  It’s funny until it isn’t, which is another way of saying that it gets old after ten minutes.  The comedy of Izzy and the Chermist didn’t really fit in with the scenes of Tubbs trying to clear his former partner’s name.  The tone of the episode was all over the place, making this a rare Miami Vice episode that didn’t seem to know what it wanted to be.

On the plus side, the drug lord owned a club that was full of motorcycles and where Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer was the most popular song.  There was one very exciting shoot-out at the club.  That was a good thing.  Otherwise, this was Miami Vice at its least effective.

Music Video of the Day: Steam by Peter Gabriel (1993, directed by Stephen R. Johnson)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

Steam was the second single to be released from Peter Gabriel’s sixth solo album, Us.  Buoyed with this memorable music video, Steam reached number ten in the UK and number one in the U.S.

When asked about his vision for Peter Gabriel’s video for Steam, director Stephen R. Johnson said he wanted to cram as many things in possible and he certainly did that.  Johnson also did the video’s for Gabriel’s Sledgehammer and Big Time and, as with those two videos, the special effects and visuals were so outrageous that a lot of viewers probably missed that they were very subversive and sometimes disturbing.

(As for Gabriel, he said it was simply a song about a relationship where the woman was cultured and well-educated while the man was less intellectual but was also more street smart.)

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Digging In The Dirt by Peter Gabriel (1992, directed by John Downer)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

You will probably not be surprised to learn that Peter Gabriel was dealing with some stuff when he wrote the lyrics for Digging In The Dirt.  He was in the midst of a breakup with Rosanna Arquette, he was deep into therapy, and he was studying the lives of men who were on Death Row awaiting execution.  Gabriel was also reading a book, called Why We Kill, that suggested that all murderers share certain things in common, one of those being an uncontrollable anger that, much like the wasps in song’s video, can not be swatted away.  All of this contributed to a song that was one of Gabriel’s darkest, with the “dirt” standing in as a metaphor for his own personal issues.

The video features Peter Gabriel in a number of disturbing situations.  When he’s not being buried alive, he’s either arguing with a woman in a car or he’s being attacked by wasps.  The woman in the video was played by Francesca Gonshaw, who is probably best known for playing waitress Maria Recamier on the popular BBC sitcom ‘Allo ‘Allo!  

The video features a return to the claymation and the stop motion animation that was used in the video for Gabriel’s Sledgehammer.  What was used to lighthearted effect in Gabriel’s previous videos  is used to tell a much darker story in Digging in the Dirt.

Music Video of the Day: Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush (1987, dir. Jim Blashfield)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLiie7VKCuo

Now we get to the other version of Don’t Give Up. Or as I like to call it, the literal interpretation of the song Don’t Give Up. I don’t know why this version was made, but if you have only seen the beautiful version directed by Godley & Creme, then this is worth watching. It focuses on the sad meaning of the lyrics. Gabriel and Bush barely make an appearance in the music video. We instead follow the people the song is singing about.

While I don’t know for sure why this music video was made, I have a theory. I think it’s a pretty good one too. So far I have only written about three music videos directed by Godley & Creme: Don’t Give Up, Rockit, and Two Tribes. They also directed Every Breath You Take by The Police. That’s the gorgeous music video that has an interesting behind-the-scenes story. Every Breath You Take is also one of the most notoriously misinterpreted songs. So misinterpreted that people have gotten married to it and even couples sent Sting letters saying it was their song. The music video only reinforces that by not looking like anything that resembles the meaning of the song. Something tells me that while I’m sure that Gabriel thought Godley & Creme made a wonderful video, he was probably well aware of what happened to Every Breath You Take. It is very easy to watch the music video and misread what the song is about because you are overcome by the single take, the eclipse, and the deeply touching constant embrace between Gabriel and Bush. I did. I didn’t know the meaning of the song till I sat down to write these two posts.

That’s my best guess as to why this music video was commissioned. It is nowhere near as good as the original. However, it does get the meaning of the song across better. You can read more about the origin of the song over on Songfacts.

Jim Blashfield seems to have directed about 10 music videos and produced a couple of them for Sesame Street. He is still around today. You can find more information on him at his website.

Missy Stewart was the production designer on this music video. In particular, some of her last ones were for director Gus Van Sant. It should come as no surprise that she would go on to work as a production designer on a couple of Gus Van Sant films such as Good Will Hunting (1997). She is still around too, having worked on Mother’s Day this year. You can also find more information on her website.

Enjoy!

Music Video of the Day: Don’t Give Up by Peter Gabriel & Kate Bush (1986, dir. Godley & Creme)

Posted on by Valerie Troutman

I don’t care that the YouTube video says “ft. Kate Bush”. It’s a duet–plain and simple.

Peter Gabriel sings the depressing parts and Kate Bush sings the uplifting parts. The music video reflects that beautifully. When it’s his turn, then they spin to reveal Gabriel. When it’s her turn, then they spin to reveal Bush. This goes on while the moon crosses the sun to reach eclipse at the mid-point of the song. It was done in a single take. Nice and simple for what is a no-frills song.

That’s it! I am not sure why they felt the need to film another music video for this song, but they did. Maybe they felt people wouldn’t listen to the lyrics and just focus on Gabriel and Bush in a six-and-a-half minute embrace.

Enjoy!