They shine before the golden cash coin diamond headlights and reflect dead slits of light razorback red in the Dexter dank murder dirt. A horsepower coke colt bullet driving through a sweaty night weaving like a water moccasin to the thundering staccato howl of Jan Hammer's synth.
It is at once the brightest picture and its negative- a place where you'll see the sunrise and sunset everyday. There is a giant eel-like thin strip of turquoise and pink light that lays slithering across the hot, briny, blue water like a glowing G-string. It doesn't matter whether this light is neon or sunset. It shines on in Miami to this day. The juice of an undying fruit. Blood-coke mud lit with gunsmoke sparks in a thousand colors of trouble flashing storms in your face all night long at the Coconut Grove on a Saturday night.
You've gotten way too close. Your cover's so deep now you can't see where the sun is coming from anymore. You just swim around, barely able to take a breath. You're Vice, motherfucker.
Crockett
No one with this much supposed combat training:
A-makes so many emotional decisions
B-does this much grandstanding.
C-complains and challenges the orders of superiors so often.
Just saying.
That being said, Don Johnson was perfectly cast as the incorruptible, volatile, boat-dwelling, gator-pet-having, single father, Det. Sonny Crockett. This character called for just the right hybrid of sleaziness and southern charm. What's the difference? Well, I dunno. I DO know that in real life, the Sonny Crocketts of the world, much like the Zack Morrises of the world and the Vance Wanker frat dudes from those frat-dudes-movies of the world are just self-glorifying, exploitive assholes. In America, especially during the 80s, we called these role models.
Guys really wore that z-cavarichi shit. It was a huge part of culture back then whether you wanted it or not. The commercial-broken sideline to a real war was entertaining for America to watch in primetime. In reality these were sad stories that ripped lots of families apart and worse. In the real Miami, police were high and corrupt, real people died and still do. Just the right amount of this melancholy seems to have been micro-dosed into the series. Its Crockett's job as our hero, to be sensitive or cold to these moments according to the sporadic moral compass all undercover motherfuckers probably end up with. Between the gun-blazin', car-chasin', stern finger-pointin', order-questionin', and outragin' it sure made for some good watchin'.
Thanks Don.
Tubbs
Besides being a both a gifted actor and athlete, Phillip Michael Thomas also recorded music. Some actors are born to play just one role. The role of a lifetime. For PMT this was the character of Det. Ricardo Tubbs. One time he wore an EGOT medallion or something. This apparently stands for Emmy, Grammy, Oscar and Tony- 4 awards that Thomas might've thought were inevitable in 1984 but that have yet to materialize in reality. I don't know about awards, but it is a great show and it wouldn't have been the same without Thomas. Here's some titles he's gets from me without even trying…
The Lando Calrissian of Miami-based TV Detectives.
The Jermaine Jackson of Prime-Time Action series.*
The Dion Sanders of Music. (LINK)
Perhaps the tubbiest thing about PMT was his ego. Or as the French say: "egot.."
(*in case you WERE wondering, I'd say Greg Morris from Mission Impossible was the Jacko of primetime action series.)
Two Badass Lieutenants: Edward James Olmos and Gregory Sierra
Like DeNiro & Pachino, it would take a some time before these two powerhouses could reunite on film. It was in The Wonderful Ice Cream Suit- a 1999 sci-fi comedy based on a story by Ray Bradbury. Rad.
Gregory Sierra- You might remember him as Julio on Sanford and Son, but he gained more fame on The Barney Miller Show as Det. Sgt. Chano Amenquale. He's made countless other TV appearances over the last 4 decades. He only got to be LT for 4 episodes on Miami Vice. At which point...
Edward James Olmos- …took the reigns. One of the top-tier, Mexican-American actors of all time. Also, one of the scariest lookin' dudes there is. Most remember him from his intense performances in Stand and Deliver or American Me. He's one of the many mega-famous pros who also did the show.
Notable guest stars:
Dennis Farina
Pam Grier
Michael Madsen
Ed O'neil
Ving Rhames
John Tuturro
Bruce Willis
Burt Young
Unsung heroes:
Giancarlo Esposito aka Gus
Keye Luke from Kung Fu and Gremlins
Jay O. Sanders aka Ziggy, Dan's friend from Roseanne:Criminal Intent.
Richard Jenkins- a fantastic actor know best as the Dead Dad from 6 Feet Under.
Joe Morton aka Cyberdyne Systems smartguy, Miles Bennett Dyson
Mark Linn Baker aka Cousin Larry
David Patrick Kelly from The Warriors came out to plaaaaay-eeee,
and Paul Calderon from everything.
…that's just season 1.
I like just about everything Michael Mann has ever created. He's a modern master of suspense and something I'd categorize as action/adventure-mood. From Manhunter, to Heat, to Collateral, and yes, especially The Keep. Dude kicks ass. With him as set-Shogun, the action scenes in Miami Vice had better production values than anything else on TV at the time. Especially the high speed chases on both land and water which were the shows signature. I like the 2005 movie version that everyone hated, too. I also like that Eric Bana Hulk movie. Whatever. When it comes to entertainment, it's whatever you feel like. For me, late Friday afternoon feels like Miami Vice. There's something about that footage mixed with what I actually now know about what was happening down in south Florida during my childhood that really cuts the through the crisp cold of a lonely Colorado afternoon. It is, at once, refreshing and disturbing. Comfortably uncomfortable.
I'd love to see a wacky, Saturday-morning cartoon (ala Bill & Ted) of Miami Vice. I'm sure they could get BOTH Don Johnson and PMT to do it. Instead of Olmos, (who might not do it) they could just have George Lopez or John Liguezamo play the LT. He'd just yell at them all the time- "CROCK-ETT!" They should keep all the sex, drugs, violence and murder IN though. Kids love that shit.
Miami Vice doesn't really teach you anything. It's a small screen reflection of Florida's sordid past. There's more to be learned, historically speaking, from documentaries like Cocaine Cowboys or Square Grouper. In real life, things weren't so pretty as in the snapshot the show provided. Fuck nostalgia. It's just that sometimes it can be fun to think about how much things have changed…and how much they haven't.
-2013 Wielgorecki
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