In this neon dream of a police procedural, Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas took on the city’s crime problem while looking as cool as possible
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Linen suits. Boat shoes. Speedboats. Neon. Welcome to the explosively pastel world of Miami Vice, the singularly iconic cop show which took the 80s by storm. If it seems cheesy and parodic now, that’s because it spawned countless copycats that eschewed the formulaic cop procedural in favour of something cooler. Cops on TV weren’t cool before Miami Vice. They were hard-working stiffs in tatty suits. They had IBS and eyes like belt holes. There wasn’t a chiselled jawline in sight.
Miami Vice, on the other hand, was sexy as hell. It ran for five seasons, and was set on the streets of Miami, a place of stucco walls, powdery colours, bikini-clad women and drugs. Lots of drugs. Rife with cartels and gang violence, this iteration of Miami has a crime problem, a problem dealt with by a squad of police officers whose job it is to stem the tide – all the while looking effortlessly cool.
