Television series

Miami Vice

Name: Miami Vice
Genre: Drama, Action, Crime
Released: 1984
Cast: Don Johnson, Philip Michael Thomas, Michael Talbott, Olivia Brown, Edward James Olmos

Other titles called Miami Vice: the 2006 film.

Miami Vice is the 1980s detective show that married style to substance: neon aesthetics, designer tailoring, and a propulsive synth-rock soundtrack wrapped around genuine crime stories. It's about two vice cops hunting dealers and mobsters in Miami's underworld, but what made it revolutionary was treating the visual language—the clothes, the color, the music—as seriously as the plot. It's for anyone who loves crime drama that refuses to look away from its own beauty.

TVMaze rating

3.7

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you love style as much as story, and want a crime show where the pastel suits, the neon nights and a carefully chosen rock track do as much of the talking as the dialogue does.

Skip it if you want tightly plotted, slow-burn mysteries; the cases here are often a loose pretext for the next chase, shootout or musical mood, so the detective work can feel thin.

What it asks of you: Each episode runs about an hour, and the rhythm is brisk and episodic, so you can dip in without tracking a long arc, though the tone stays fairly grim.

Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.

If you liked this

Hill Street Blues1981

The spiritual predecessor that proved TV crime drama could be both gritty and humanistic. Its ensemble cast and serialized storytelling paved the way for everything Vice became, with that same blend of procedural rigor and emotional depth.

But The pacing is slower and the visual language far less flashy. If you're drawn to Vice primarily for its aesthetic punch, this might feel workmanlike by comparison.

Magnum, P.I.1980

A sibling show in the 1980s action-drama landscape: charismatic lead, exotic location, sharp writing, and a willingness to be fun while staying credible. It shares Vice's sense that style and substance aren't enemies.

But It's more traditionally comedic and less visually ambitious. The tone is lighter, and if you're seeking Vice's intensity and darkness, this might feel too breezy.

Lethal Weapon1987

Captures that same late-80s energy of stylish action crime storytelling with partnered leads and relentless pacing. The chemistry between stars and the tonal balance of danger and humor feel like Vice's spiritual cousins.

But It's a film, so it's two hours instead of a series, and the action is broader. It lacks Vice's serialized depth and its investment in the Miami underworld as a character itself.

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Miami Vice

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Blade Runner1982

Both use visual design and electronic sound as the primary storytelling device; both argue that style IS substance, not decoration.

Ridley Scott's vision of a noir future uses neon, synth, and visual style as language—the same idea Vice pursued in contemporary Miami. Both treat aesthetic as philosophy: the world you inhabit is who you become. Stunning and moody where Vice is propulsive, but the DNA is identical.

But It's science fiction and visually dense to the point of abstraction. If you want the emotional clarity and plot momentum of Vice, this meditative neo-noir might feel glacial and oblique.

L.A. Confidential1997

A lean, brilliant crime thriller about corruption and style in a corrupt city. It has Vice's DNA—the period setting, the morally compromised cops, the understanding that a suit and a gun are equally important tools.

But It's substantially denser and darker, with less humor and none of Vice's pop-music energy. The pacing is more deliberate, and the moral questions cut deeper.

The Rockford Files1974

The granddaddy of TV detective work: smart, funny, with a protagonist who's clever rather than tough. It proved that episodic crime TV could have real character and wit alongside the cases.

But It's 1970s television through and through—slower, less visually stylized, and completely lacking Vice's contemporary energy and urgency.

Thief1981

Michael Mann directing James Caan in a crime film about a professional thief. It's the film that most directly inspired Vice's visual language and its philosophical interest in criminals as professionals with their own codes.

But It's a heist film, not a detective story, and considerably more melancholic. The pacing is patient, and there's no procedural element to anchor the narrative.

Scarface1983

Set in Miami, released the year before Vice debuted, this is the dark mirror to the show's universe. De Palma's maximalist direction and that cocaine-soaked underworld provided the cultural landscape Vice would explore from the cops' side.

But It's brutal and operatic in ways Vice never is. If you're looking for the show's sense of professional competence and control, this descent into chaos will feel like a different animal.

21 Jump Street1987

Undercover cops posing as high school students: style-forward, action-packed, and built on the chemistry between leads. It captured the late-80s zeitgeist Vice helped create, with strong episodic storytelling.

But The premise is inherently lighter, and the show never reached the same dramatic stakes or visual sophistication. It feels like Vice's younger, sunnier cousin.

In the Mood for Love2000

Both understand that a character's interior life can be expressed through production design, color, and camera movement rather than exposition.

Wong Kar-wai's Hong Kong melodrama is shot in a riot of color and composition that makes fashion and framing the entire emotional language. Like Vice, it insists that how you look and move through space is how you feel. A film about longing rendered as pure cinema.

But There is no plot, no action, and almost no dialogue. It's entirely mood and visual poetry. If you're watching Vice for the crime stories, this will feel like watching someone else's dream.

Miami Connection1987

Same era, same city, same aesthetic ambitions, infinitely less resources: a parallel universe version of Vice made by people who loved the look but had no budget for the craft.

A bizarre, sincere 1980s action film about biker gangs and a rock band, shot in Miami with all the neon and synth-score ambition of Vice but with the budget of a lemonade stand. It's genuinely entertaining trash that somehow captures Vice's spirit of style-first crime storytelling.

But It's badly made and occasionally incomprehensible. The acting is wooden and the logic is nonsensical. You will be watching it precisely because it's trying and failing, not succeeding.