Miami Vice: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.0
Overall		2.5

Miami Vice: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Martin Liebman November 3, 2016

Mill Creek's highly anticipated Blu-ray release of 'Miami Vice' has been besieged by controversy, centered primarily around faulty audio tracks across a handful of episodes. Mill Creek has identified and addressed these, and other, concerns. Quotes from the studio press release will be included in the relevant positions throughout this review. The studio has implemented a replacement program for the discs with identified problems. Read more about how to get replacements in the 'Final Words' section below.

The 1950s may have been television's "Golden Age," but there's something about the 1980s that seemed to redefine television watching from "fun diversion" to "experience." The 80s, in many ways, ushered in the modern medium era. Shows got bigger, bolder, and pushed boundaries in narrative and technical structures and laid the groundwork for the groundswell of entertainment that so many enjoy today, in what some are calling television's second "Golden Age." It's hard to look at the 80s without giving it serious consideration as the true second "Golden Age." TV expanded in choices and spawned any number of fond-memory classics that remain today bonafide landmarks in the industry. Star Trek: The Next Generation reinvented a favorite from the 1960s and became, arguably, the quintessential Sci-Fi show of all time. Cheers dominated the ratings and redefined the Sitcom. Action saw a boom with programs like The A-Team and Magnum, P.I. Married with Children, Family Ties, and The Wonder Years tickled the funny bone and reflected then-contemporary society. The innovative MacGyver dazzled audiences on Monday Nights (and was often more fun than the football game to follow) while the forward-looking Knight Rider introduced the world to KITT and a pre-Baywatch David Hasselhoff.

"Temporary working relationship." That's how the smooth Miami-based cop Crockett (Don Johnson) describes his partnership with the gritty New York-based Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas) in Miami Vice's first episode. Of course, "temporary" would come to mean "five years." Busting bad guys, busting one another's chops, and even busting a few moves in the series' famous pastels and under the influence of some catchy 80s tunes gave shape to the show, endeared it in the hearts and minds of audiences, and popularized pretty much everything it had on offer, from clothes to cars and boats to babes (well, ok, not than any of these things weren't popular before the show, but it enhanced those things in Miami Vice style, anyway). Good thing "temporary" turned into a partnership for the cops which in turn became a passion for audiences. The show dominated ratings and was a staple on NBC's Friday night lineup and has lived on for decades since as a symbol of its era, both on the screen and in the real world, and a time machine of all things 80s and all things 80s TV goodness.

Miami Vice, probably the quintessential product of the instant-classic 1980s TV factory, embodied the decade better than any of its contemporaries and influenced the future of the Police Procedural in ways no other show before it -- not even Dragnet in any of its iterations -- had. The show isn't necessarily remarkable in what it does, but its success stems from the way it defines its time and makes use of everything in its arsenal. Beyond just the fashion and action, the show built a classic "buddy cop" narrative that, well more than any movie and most TV shows, had the opportunity to grow and explore with contrasting characters that evolved into more than their introductions and histories and into a cohesive team. With its procedural structure and more one-off stories than major arcs, the show's evolution remained grounded in its characters, in how they don't simply deal with bad guys but with one another and with themselves. Again, that's not breaking any new ground, but the writers hit it well and the actors sink so deeply into the parts that they feel fully inhabited to the point that the personalities, not the externalities -- the clothes, the cars, the guns -- are what really make the show.

One of the show's strengths lies in its ability to contrast the bright colors and sun-drenched Miami locations with a seriously gritty world of crime and corruption. The series actually opens in a grim nighttime New York. It's visually dark and dramatically foreboding, too. There's a lot of that paralleling in Miami as well, and beyond any physical locations, time of day, or the criminal enterprise in Crockett and Tubbs' crosshairs, it's their own contrasts that make them a good pairing. Tubbs has that experience in the shady New York street life and knows personal loss all too well. Crockett knows his way around trial and despair, too, considering his time in Vietnam and true grasp of the dark secrets Miami holds, but all of that, for both characters, is not offset but rather juxtaposed against and in some ways complimented by the flash and cheer that surrounds them in Miami, at least flash and cheer in the general externalities of their daily lives. The show pours over Miami with a fine tooth comb and uses both its best and brightest and worst and darkest to equally good effect. The former gets all the glory -- people understandably remember the show for the hot cars and colorful clothes -- but the latter is what really makes it tick.

The cast is superb. Johnson and Thomas demonstrate a sharp acumen for the roles well beyond, again, all of that external flash that makes the show, but doesn't define it. They wear the clothes, drive the cars, and wield the guns with enough believable polish, but it's in their innate ability to understand their environment beyond the slickness and one another beyond the façades that drives the show, that propels it from colorful Cop drama to classic television. Maybe it would've worked with others in the lead roles, maybe not, but the leads' ability to mix swagger, serious insight, drama, and still pull off that all-important look is what makes the show what it was and what it has evolved into today. The show was further packed with a stellar ensemble of support actors and guest stars that today make Miami Vice a treasure trove of celebrity seek and find. Names like Jimmy Smits (NYPD Blue), Bruce Willis (Moonlighting), Michael Madsen (Reservoir Dogs), Terry O'Quinn (Lost), Richard Jenkins (The Visitor), Joe Morton (Terminator 2), Ving Rhames (Dawn of the Dead), John Leguizano (Land of the Dead), and Ron Perlman (Hellboy) all make an appearance, and the list goes on. Part of the fun in watching, in retrospect decades after its conclusion, is seeing so many of today's stars as young pups in some role or another on the show.

Most of all, though, Miami Vice is flat-out entertaining. Watching it in hindsight is sort of like a mini time travel adventure, one in which everything is more or less familiar in structure but that are hardly as things are today. Across five seasons, the show has its fair share of ups and downs, as does almost any TV show, but the better ones -- and the greater Miami Vice arc -- far outweigh the duds. Terrific characterization, fantastic camaraderie between the leads, well staged gunplay, hip and happening music, and plenty of eye candy in all forms and fashions, not to mention dramatic subtleties and story nuance, overwhelm any shortcomings in terms of core repetitions that could devalue a lesser show that doesn't have the foundational infrastructure to keep it going. A trendsetter and a time capsule both, Miami Vice reigns as one of the quintessential 80s TV shows and one that put its city, its stars, and its style on the map forever.

Miami Vice: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

As it pertains to the video presentation, Mill Creek had this to say in its statement:

It has always been our intention to release the series in its original, full screen aspect ratio which is how the HD masters were provided to us.

As it should be. The show originally aired in the 4x3 format, and IMDB lists 4x3 as the native aspect ratio. As the screenshots indicate, this presentation will yield vertical "black bars" on either side of the standard HD 1.78:1 frame, preserving original airing parameters. As for the video quality itself, it's something of a mixed bag, favoring the better end of the scale. Originally photographed on 35mm film, it's clear that the Blu-ray presentation doesn't live up to that format's full inherent qualities, but makes an honest effort to do so. It's a fairly decent to good image in most every way, enjoying a boost in raw clarity and resolution thanks to the 1080p muscle, but even then there's room for improvement. Grain structure can be uneven. The show can appear ultra-smooth in some shots and, particularly in darker corners, it can come alive with buzzing thick grain in others. Grain intensity further fluctuates throughout the series, with various shots, scenes, and sequences home to a sharp grain structure that often contrasts with the aforementioned smoothness. Generally, though, there's a nice, subtle layer that presents with a naturally organic, filmic appearance. It's not perfect, but it's not bad, either.

Details are fairly steady, though not exactly to the level of excellence found in other 80s TV shows that have enjoyed a thorough restoration, like the aforementioned Star Trek: The Next Generation. As a general rule, faces are fairly smooth, managing to reveal enough in the way of stubble, pores, and lines to please, but hardly enough to really get a sense of the finest intimate character qualities and skin textures. Clothing is likewise rather flat and stilted. Even more dense and texture-friendly sports coats don't have much to display, never mind casual attire like t-shirts. Environmental details around Miami fare well enough. Pavement finds decent, but not robust, texturing. Building façades show a bit of natural weathering and wear and imperfections in various surface layers. Cars can reveal some broader dirt and dents but don't expect the Blu-ray to show them off in any meaningfully tactile or intimate manner.

Probably more than any other visual element in the show, it's colors that play critical to truly enjoying the series' style. The 1080p Blu-ray doesn't make a highlight reel of the showy attire and pastel Miami locations, but the palette fairs well enough. There's not much nuance, leaving bright blues, greens, pink, and other assorted shades feeling more monochromatic and flat than vibrant and buoyant. Colors aren't punchy or purposeful, but they're presented with just enough jazz and juice to carry every episode. Flesh tones can push a little pasty, and black levels are wildly uneven. Prone to crush in some places and struggling to hold more than dark shade of gray or infused with bright highlights elsewhere, the series' darker, bleaker, more shadowy locations usually suffer the most, and tend to reveal the most significant spikes in grain, too.

Miami Vice: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Concerning the audio issues with this release, Mill Creek had the following to say:

The audio throughout the series is in sync as on the masters provided. For those moments questioned, they are a result of dubbing (ADR) from the production of the show. We have been unable to identify any occurrence of asynchronous audio as a result of our authoring of the episodes. We have concluded that the issues are more noticeable now than in previous DVD releases due to the uncompressed DTS-HD Master Audio and HD video which cause these slight imperfections to become much more audible than ever before. This also affects the dynamic range in the audio during scenes where background audio may also become more noticeable. This will vary by individual home audio systems, setups, and personalized audio settings.

The studio further identified the following per-episode issues and is promising to replace the necessary discs (see "Final Words" below):

We have re-QCed each and every episode across all five seasons and have identified the following 4 episodes in Season 1 which have errors with the new 5.1 lossless audio:

• "Heart of Darkness" : The 5.1 audio track does have issues in the mix creating an echo/reverb-like effect that phases in and out periodically throughout the episode.
• "The Home Invaders" and "Nobody Lives Forever" : The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio tracks were accidentally left-off the disc after we conducted the original QC.
• "Evan": The 5.1 audio track does have issues in the mix creating an echo/reverb-like effect that phases in and out periodically throughout the episode.

Beyond these reported, and promised-to-be-fixed, problems, Miami Vice's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack fares much like the video: it's fine, but not particularly noteworthy. Audio isn't authoritative, though it does present with enough spacing and definition to please at a fundamental level. What music lacks in exactness and transparent clarity it compensates for with energy and fundamentally sound spacing across the front. Music never wants for better stretch, and while finer point instrumental and, when applicable, lyrical details aren't the height of realistic excellence, the music presents well enough to underscore, highlight, or define each scene and moment in the show. There's not an abundance of back channel activity; occasional effects find their way into the rears, but it's safe to say that Miami Vice is much more front-heavy and makes sparse, but usually necessary when engaged, surround usage. Gunfire, explosions, and other action effects are, like music, suitably delivered but don't necessarily dominate the stage as would a finely honed modern track. Again, it's good enough to get the point across and with some clarity at its base and oomph in its back pocket. Dialogue presents with strong foundational clarity and intelligibility. It's well prioritized and naturally positioned in the front-center speaker.

Miami Vice: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This Blu-ray release of the complete Miami Vice contains no supplemental content. The packaging presents all five seasons, in five Blu-ray cases, in a basic slip-box. Each season is comprised of four discs each, and they're placed in the Blu-ray case stacked two per hub, with discs one and two on one side and three and four on the other. Of the packaging, Mill Creek officially had this to say:

Based on customer feedback, we chose to package this product using standard Blu-ray cases inside a slipcase instead of packaging using cardboard sleeves. Unfortunately, we cannot control how our resellers re-package and ship direct-to-consumer, so for any consumers receiving damaged product from shipping, please notify the retailer directly.

Indeed, the packaging is very simplistic and a far cry from the more complex but standout-ish presentation the studio previously used for That '70s Show. Note that Miami Vice's sister release, Knight Rider, makes use of similar nuts-and-bolts packaging.

Miami Vice: The Complete Series Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Miami Vice's Blu-ray release was supposed to be a celebration, but it's instead turned into a disappointment for many fans. While the release is far from perfect -- picture quality is fairly good but could use a bit of a boost, packaging that's a bit on the stale side, no supplements, and some audio issues (the latter of which the studio plans to make right) -- it's nevertheless a joy to have one of the all-time classic TV shows in one convenient box, on Blu-ray and in 1080p, and for a fair price. This is hardly a definitive collection or amongst the finest TV releases on the format, but it's still nice to have, and the price is right.

How to get replacement discs, per Mill Creek:

We apologize for these errors and are fully prepared to fix the issues in Season 1 on Discs 1 and 4 of the Blu-ray Complete Series set.  We will send disc replacements out to customers who contact us and provide us with proof of purchase.  It will take several weeks for replacement discs to become available, so we appreciate your patience as we work to resolve these errors.  Please contact our Customer Service at support@millcreekent.com.