Miami Vice

[Alien Redrum]

I've been watching the shit out of this lately since I discovered that it came with my STARZ addon with Amazon, and that addon is going to expire in January (I have the Blu-rays too, but anyway).

I LOVED this show when it first aired. Fucking LOVED it. A HUGE part of my TV childhood. Whether you loved it or hated it, this was a game changer as far as TV.

Watching it now, though...okay, first, I still love the show. Mainly because of the nostalgia. The music still is amazing and each show is a damn near music video. Plus, Miami Vice had A LOT of stars-before-they-were-stars and regular stars showing up. Tons. John Turturro, Pam Grier, Bruce Willis, and on and on and on. Michael Mann knew his shit even back then.

But...here's the but. I'm thoroughly convinced that if I were to watch the show as an adult, I would not have been infatuated with it. I very well might not even have gotten what the big deal was. I say this because of my dad. He and I are pretty similar in taste when it comes to detective shows, movies and books and such, and I remember him thinking Miami Vice was no big deal and it bothered me. Now I get it. It's a ridiculous show. It's melodramatic, the reality is Crockett is a bit of a hypocritical asshole, Tubbs is just fucking annoying as fuck, and the remaining cool characters don't get enough screen time. Like, everything is drama with these two. Every line has to be delivered like they're a tough guy, and it's unintentionally funny. Like, a higher up found out that a bad guy had killed Tubbs' brother. He says to Tubbs, "I understand he killed your brother." Tubbs looks at him for like 5 seconds (which is a long time) before saying, "HE DID." And then he turns and storms off in a dramatic fashion. Calm down, Tubbs.

Put it this way. My dad loved Rockford Files when I was growing up, and I liked it to. But as an adult, re-watching Rockford Files, it only got fucking better. It holds up SO WELL. So I'm thinking, even though it was an amazing product of its time, Miami Vice never had a chance of holding up because of it being an amazing product of its time.

It hurts so much to say that.

I need to look into how they got all that music, though. How much they paid for it, or if it was such a new idea, they got it for super cheap.

[Alien Redrum]

This scene about made me shit my pants when I saw it as an adult. Because of his other role.

[Neon Maniac]

That's hilarious that he was put in the show.

I tried watching Miami Vice and it was way too dated. I also couldn't watch Twin Peaks again. It was way too melodramatic too.

It's funny that you brought up Rockford. It's true, that show isn't dated. Have you ever watched Maverick? I watch it Saturday mornings. I forget his name, but the creator of Maverick was the guy who Garner created Rockford with. For being a western from the 50's, it's totally not dated. Yeah, there's some annoying TV things that they used to do back then, but like Perry Mason it's still very watchable.

[Alien Redrum]

I haven't watched Maverick before, as I'm not much a fan of westerns. I take it it's good, but would a non-western fan like it?

Perry Mason I'd love to watch. I need to find out if it's streaming. I'd also like to give Quincy another go to see if it holds up. I remember watching that with my sister when I was little. She loved it.

I bet Love Boat is super awkward now.

[Neon Maniac]

I hate the old westerns. Maverick's not really a western other than that's the setting. Also, when I say Maverick's a great show, I'm talking about the Garner Maverick's when he's Bret. He was only on during the first 3 years of the show then he quit to go be a movie star because the scripts started to go downhill and get recycled.

Maverick isn't Rockford, but Maverick's about as Rockford as you can get in 1957 in a western setting. So he's a gambler who travels around to different towns and sometimes solves mysteries, sometimes helps out somebody by conning the bad guy or spotting the bad guy's con, or has some kind of adventure. You apparently didn't realize this, but Garner was a pioneer of the loner going from town to town solving mysteries and breaking hearts that almost every 70's and 80's drama did, from A Team to Sheriff Lobo, and including our pals College Boy and the asshole trucker. And that's what Maverick was. Some shows have his brother Bart, who's also pretty good, and some shows are just about Bart. I prefer episodes with Bret or Bret and Bart, but the Bart only ones are okay. After Garner left they brought in Roger Moore as a cousin, and then some other guy after Moore quit because the scripts sucked. The funny thing here is that role was initially offered to Sean Connery, seriously.

So it's really just a western setting and not so much a western if that makes sense. It's a timeless character, which I think is why it may have only lasted 5 years, but it actually has never left the air in 60 years. Maverick is very Rockford like. He's not good with a gun and gets his ass kicked by the bad guy almost every episode.

[shiki-jitsu]

Perry Mason I'd love to watch. I need to find out if it's streaming.

Perry Mason is still very much watchable. Sam is a huge fan of the show and watches it a lot so I am always getting pulled in to episodes. It is streaming but I think the bulk of it is on CBS All Access. It was on Hulu or Prime for a while, but not sure if it is still there. We have all the discs as well.

It still airs on some channels I htink as well.

Edited to add: https://www.cbs.com/shows/perry_mason/

[Alien Redrum]

Oh, I'm going to have to watch Maverick now. You definitely sold me.

I'm so fucking annoyed with CBS Access right now. Apparently that's where The Stand is going to be shown. Okay, CBS. I'm going to pay your fucking price to watch that. Sure.

[Neon Maniac]

I'll never do CBS again. I signed up when they came out and it took forever to watch a show. I'm sure it's changed, but on the Roku I had back then it would do 6+ commercials, each one would take 15-45 seconds to load, not counting play time, and so a 22 min sitcom took almost an hour to watch. I noped the fuck out of there.

Maverick and Perry Mason are both on the air. If you have a DVR they're on MeTV. MeTV is over the air in almost every market in the US and on just about every cable/satellite provider too. it's usually one of the channels nobody watches because they think they're too cool. As someone who just does over the air and streaming, they're a mainstay for me along with Comet and Antenna TV.

[Neon Maniac]

Also check Pluto, Roku, and those type of streaming services. They appear on a lot of the free streaming platforms that play old series with commercials.