Monday, May 27, 2013

Things should start to get interesting right about now

Miami Vice.  Season One.  Episode Six.  Everything changes.

Because let's be honest -- Episodes One through Five were a disaster.  But a month and a half into the run, everything changes.

--NBC figures out that the show is a legitimate hit and starts spending more money per episode.
--Jan Hammer finally tweaks the theme song into the magnificent final version everyone's familiar with.
--They ship Sonny's estranged wife and kid to Atlanta.
--They fire the clown who's playing the Lieutenant and replace him with Edward James Olmos (alert the Cylons).  Olmos brings a darkness to the center of the show that anchors all the strawberry-colored foolishness that revolves around it.
--Director Michael Mann (perhaps inspired by Olmos) find his mojo with a tone one might call acid-drenched nihilism.

If only they'd also fired the clown who played Rico Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas).

Wait -- maybe not.  Sometimes what sounds like a good idea ends up a bad one.  That said, Thomas may be the single worst actor to ever play a lead in a major network hit.  Possible competition is the unwatchably sanctimonious performance by Magnum P.I. on Blue Bloods.  Which is genuinely horrible.

But my money is on Thomas for worst ever.  I IMDb'd him and the only notable credit he's got, other than MV, is some voice-over work on Grand Theft Auto.  Which is a video game about the thug life in Miami.  Which makes, I suppose, a certain amount of sense.

Here's where they blow up Sonny's 365 Daytona Spyder (which was really a Corvette pimped-up to look like a Ferrari) with a stinger missile ...



It contains one of the few excellent line readings Thomas ever delivered.

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