TV detectives had a great decade in the 1980’s and one of the best and most popular was Miami Vice starring Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas.
The series follows the trials and tribulations of the Miami Vice squad and the characters and stories develop well over the seasons, especially the first three. Michael Mann was a producer on the show and you can see his influence and where he was developing as a director.
The cast are all excellent, Don Johnson is one of those actors who really should have been a bigger movie star, he had to turn down the movie The Untouchables because he was tied to this series, but he had the looks and charisma to really go higher. Music is an integral part of the series and it is served well by artists such as Phil Collins, Tina Turner, Don Henley (who actually co-stars in the episode Smugglers Blues) and many others.
The fashion really shines through with the pastel colours and some of the outrageous outfits worn by cast and crew throughout the series. It tended to fade after the 4th season but overall this is still a great and enjoyable series which has stood the test of time well.
The box set has been released in the UK by Fabulous films and uses the same masters as the USA release this year. The quality is generally very good, some episodes have very grainy segments but this is probably the source material. Colours are bright and blacks although murky occasionally are generally very solid giving the series a very filmic look.
Audio has just one option DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 and it sounds great, it’s not going to give your surround system a workout but for its time it is solid and clear. Shame the original stereo track was not included also. Please note that the review discs I got did have some sound faults on season 1, but the company know of this and said they will rectify any faults before release. (same as the US release also).
What is a disappointment is lack of extras, in fact, there are none whatsoever which is a great shame as the series could do with a retrospective documentary or at least interviews with cast or crew.
It’s great to see this classic series finally available in HD, it’s just a bit of a shame they could not have added to it in some way. If you’re a fan or want to revisit one of the great 80’s cop shows then this huge 25 disc set is recommended viewing.
PICTURE : 7.5 AUDIO: 7 EXTRAS: 0
