The BEST Episodes of Miami Vice

Miami Vice centers around the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett (Don Johnson) and Ricardo Tubbs (Philip Michael Thomas), two undercover detectives from the Miami Police Department’s vice squad battling against drug trafficking and prostitution in the city’s seamy underworld. Its use of New Wave music and colorful Italian men’s fashion was groundbreaking and the series had a defining influence on the popular culture of the 1980s.

#1 - Mirror Image (2)

Season 4 - Episode 22 - Aired May 6, 1988

A concussion leaves Crockett thinking he is his drug dealer alter-ego Burnett and goes to work for a Colombian crime boss.

9.31

77 votes

Directors: Daniel Sackheim, Nelson Oramas, Richard Compton

Writers: Daniel Sackheim

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#2 - Deliver Us from Evil (1)

Season 4 - Episode 21 - Aired Apr 29, 1988

A murder case that hits close to home reunites Crockett with the man who used him to trick his way off Death Row.

9.27

85 votes

Directors: Dick Wolf, George Mendeluk

Writers: David Black, Michael Duggan

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#3 - God's Work

Season 4 - Episode 6 - Aired Nov 6, 1987

The return of a kingpin's financial wizard son sets off speculations in the Miami underworld.

9.21

112 votes

Directors: Jan Eliasberg

Writers: Edward Tivnan

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#4 - Freefall

Season 5 - Episode 17 - Aired May 21, 1989

Crockett & Tubbs embark on what they see as a suicide mission. They are recruited by a Special Drug Taskforce to escort the corrupt dictator of Costa Morada, a fictional Revolution ravaged Latin American country. Gen. Manuel Borbon has promised to reveal the members of the most powerful South American drug cartel. Crockett & Tubbs are faced with what might be their final showdown.

9.04

151 votes

Directors: Russ Mayberry

Writers: Frank Holman, William T. Conway

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#5 - Over the Line

Season 5 - Episode 15 - Aired Apr 28, 1989

In the midst of working an undercover assignment, Crockett and Tubbs come across a clandestine vigilante group of frustrated law enforcement officers working within the department. Aware of Sonny and Rico's own frustration with how easily the bad guys seem to circumvent the law, the vigilante organization offers them an opportunity to join in. Lieutenant Castillo encourages them to accept the offer and work undercover in ferreting out the identities of everyone involved and to make sure that no one gets hurt. Unfortunately, that is too tall an order for his detectives to accomplish successfully.

9.01

154 votes

Directors: Robert Ward, Russ Mayberry

Writers: Scott Shepherd, Terry McDonnell

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#6 - The Lost Madonna

Season 5 - Episode 14 - Aired Mar 17, 1989

Crockett & Tubbs help an NYPD detective retrieve a stolen 15th century Madonna statue in the possession of a mob family.

9.01

157 votes

Directors: Chip Chalmers

Writers: Robert Goethals

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#7 - Line of Fire

Season 5 - Episode 6 - Aired Dec 16, 1988

Crockett & Tubbs reluctantly comply with an FBI request to guard their key witness in a drug overlord's trial.

8.99

161 votes

Directors: Richard Compton

Writers: Raymond Hartung

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#8 - Victims of Circumstance

Season 5 - Episode 16 - Aired May 5, 1989

Holocaust survivors are being murdered in Miami. Crockett and Switek infiltrate a White-supremacist group that might be responsible.

8.97

155 votes

Directors: Colin Bucksey

Writers: Richard Lourie

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#9 - Redemption in Blood (4)

Season 5 - Episode 2 - Aired Nov 11, 1988

As now drug-lord Crockett's memory returns, Tubbs feels his partner has gone bad and must be destroyed.

8.92

71 votes

Directors: Paul Krasny, Robert Ward

Writers: Ken Solarz, Scott Shepherd

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#10 - Bad Timing

Season 5 - Episode 4 - Aired Dec 2, 1988

Ordered to take time off, Crockett's vacation is cut short when he is kidnapped by 3 homicidal prison escapees.

8.80

161 votes

Directors: Virgil Vogel

Writers: Scott Shepherd

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#11 - Child's Play

Season 4 - Episode 5 - Aired Oct 30, 1987

Crockett agonizes about shooting a child during a weapons investigation.

8.73

67 votes

Directors: Priscilla Turner, Vern Gillum

Writers: Michael Piller

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#12 - To Have and to Hold (a.k.a. Second Chance)

Season 5 - Episode 10 - Aired Feb 10, 1989

While undercover, Tubbs falls for the widow of a slain drug kingpin. Crockett must leave to help his son deal with the pregnancy of his remarried mother.

8.60

124 votes

Directors: Eugene Corr

Writers: William Conway

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#13 - Down for the Count (1)

Season 3 - Episode 12 - Aired Jan 9, 1987

Zito reluctantly uses a boxer as bait to help the vice squad nail a former drug kingpin involved in bookmaking; it ends in tragedy and the loss of a comrade for the vice cops.

8.57

47 votes

Directors: Dick Wolf, Richard Compton

Writers: Dick Wolf, John Schulian

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#14 - Hostile Takeover (3)

Season 5 - Episode 1 - Aired Nov 4, 1988

Still thinking he is really Sonny Burnett, Crockett starts a war between the crime family he has joined and a rival clan.

8.56

110 votes

Directors: Don Johnson

Writers: Ken Solarz

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#15 - Miami Squeeze

Season 5 - Episode 11 - Aired Feb 17, 1989

The irresponsible son of a fierce, anti-drug-minded Congresswoman jeopardizes his mother's political career when he incurs the wrath of a British drug lord by stealing his shipment of drugs.

8.56

102 votes

Directors: Michelle Manning, Peter McCabe, Robert Ward, Ted Mann (I)

Writers: Peter McCabe, Ted Mann (I)

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#16 - Heart of Night

Season 5 - Episode 3 - Aired Nov 18, 1988

Castillo grapples with emotions while protecting his ex-wife from a drug kingpin trying to kill her current husband.

8.38

145 votes

Directors: Paul Krasny

Writers: James Becket

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#17 - Theresa

Season 3 - Episode 16 - Aired Feb 13, 1987

Crockett's romantic entanglement with a heroin-addicted doctor jeopardizes his case against a dealer.

8.36

39 votes

Directors: Virgil Vogel

Writers: Pamela Norris

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#18 - Badge of Dishonor

Season 4 - Episode 18 - Aired Mar 18, 1988

When a string of murders is linked to another unit, Crockett & Tubbs believe an undercover officer may be the killer.

8.35

49 votes

Directors: Dick Wolf, Virgil Vogel

Writers: Michael Duggan

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#19 - One Way Ticket

Season 2 - Episode 15 - Aired Jan 24, 1986

Efforts to convict a drug dealer who murdered a deputy DA are hampered by a lack of evidence and by a defense attorney disliked by Crockett.

8.34

142 votes

Directors: Craig Bolotin

Writers: Craig Bolotin

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#20 - By Hooker by Crook

Season 3 - Episode 20 - Aired Mar 20, 1987

Crockett & Tubbs seek a murder witness, unaware that she works for a madame who is Sonny's lover.

8.31

51 votes

Directors: Dick Wolf, Don Johnson

Writers: John Schulian

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#21 - Hard Knocks

Season 5 - Episode 8 - Aired Jan 20, 1989

Switek sinks into drinking and gambling when thugs convince him to talk a friend's son, a major college quarterback, into throwing a game.

8.28

97 votes

Directors: Ken Solarz, Robert Ward, Vern Gillum

Writers: Ken Solarz, Scott Shepherd

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#22 - Out Where the Buses Don't Run

Season 2 - Episode 4 - Aired Oct 18, 1985

Crockett and Tubbs question the sanity of a retired vice cop who wants them to chase after a coke dealer thought to be dead.

8.28

162 votes

Directors: Douglas Lloyd McIntosh, Jim Johnston, Joel Surnow

Writers: Douglas Lloyd McIntosh, John Mankiewicz

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#23 - Evan

Season 1 - Episode 22 - Aired May 3, 1985

A former Vice member, Evan Freed, is now working undercover with ATF to bring down an arms dealer. Sonny and Evan have a mysterious past that Tubbs is determined to learn. They must reconcile long enough to calibrate efforts in the weapons sting.

8.23

127 votes

Directors: Rob Cohen

Writers: Paul Diamond

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#24 - Red Tape

Season 3 - Episode 19 - Aired Mar 13, 1987

Tubbs searches desperately for the source of information leaks about future busts.

8.13

39 votes

Directors: Dick Wolf, James Quinn

Writers: Michael Duggan

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#25 - The Rising Sun of Death

Season 4 - Episode 9 - Aired Dec 4, 1987

An executive's murder alerts Castillo to Yakuza presence in Miami, but the arrival of a Japanese investigator is no help.

8.02

44 votes

Directors: Leon Ichaso

Writers: Peter Lance

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