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They make some strange budget choices on this show. The episode starts out with some beautiful footage of the cigarette boat in the ocean. It was shot aerially, which in 1984 means by helicopter. Then they slapped together a montage of reused footage several minutes long to fill time. They figured out how to combine […]
The writing, directing, and acting are getting better. A natural bit of comedic relief, but otherwise a fully serious episode. This one revives the Calderone character from the pilot, and it also leans heavily into Crockett’s divorce situation. Gregory Sierra’s character got killed off in this episode. His was the worst acting, not to mention […]
This was the first episode that had a significant comedic deviation, mainly in the form of “Noogie”, a character with a ridiculously over-the-top persona. I don’t know if the show was trying to find itself or what. It wasn’t very amusing, and it didn’t really fit the rest of the show. Instead of car chases, […]
Another essentially serious episode. However, there seems to be some attempt to make a couple of the regular supporting characters some kind of comedic relief. It isn’t very good. The direction for the supporting characters in general is really bad, which makes the story feel disjointed. Some of the dialog was pretty bad, too. A […]
The pilot episode would have aired as two hours. There’s almost no comedy, and it was satisfyingly serious. It establishes an origin story for Ricardo Tubbs, and it characterizes “Sonny” Crockett as coming out of a failed marriage with a six-year-old son. (I didn’t recall the ex-wife and son, and I assume that means they […]
I’m not sure I would say that “Miami Vice” was formative for me during my teenage years, but it was certainly iconic. Don Johnson was for me the embodiment of cool. Jan Hammer’s synth-heavy music resonated with my soul. All those shots of cars driving down night streets were the kind of cinematic imagery I […]
When Russia invaded Ukraine, it seemed a foregone conclusion that Russia would have its way. A Goliath pushing around a little nation. However, Ukraine’s resistance has been surprisingly effective, and Russia is revealing the limits of its power. Russia rebounded after the cold war, and it again considered a “super power” in the world. Russia […]
My understanding of Taiwan has been fairly simple. My understanding was that, during China’s communist revolution, those fighting against communism were pushed back so far that they retreated to the island of Taiwan, and they have been at stalemate ever since. China claims Taiwan as part of their territory, and they coerce other nations not […]
I have written much here that is critical of the superhero genre of film. It is a formula that requires no skill, is empty of meaning, and promotes a delusional way of thinking about the world. However, my biggest complaint is just that there is far too much of it. Evidently, I am not wrong, […]
I read The Time Traveler’s Wife some years ago. Not really my thing, but I enjoyed it well enough. [No matter how it may be categorized in your book store, The Time Traveler’s Wife is not science-fiction. Yes, there is time travel, but there’s no science involved. Yes, toward the end, there is some business […]
