How lucky can a guy get? Just a few days ago, a snazzy five-disc box set of Miami Vice: Season Three showed up, and I had a chance to revisit those heady pink and powder blue days of Crockett and Tubbs prowling around the mean streets of Miami, taking down drug dealers while always remembering that you can never wear too much silk. And now? Miami Vice: Season Four appears, and I'm knee-deep again in Ferraris, Crockett's newly feathered long hair and shaved face (where's the stubble?), Tubb's vaguely Macedonian beard, drugs, cigarette boats, and an expense account for two detectives that must run into the six figures. Now, I had a surprisingly good time watching Miami Vice: Season Three, and I wrote extensively on the appeal of the show (please click here for that review). Unfortunately, I can't say I had the same good vibe off the seriously addled Miami Vice: Season Four. Something went very wrong in this particular season, and it's not surprising that the weakening ratings from 1986-87's season three, fell even further during the 1987-88 TV season.

It didn't help that NBC refused to move Miami Vice out of the path still-strong Dallas again this season. But even more debilitating was Miami Vice's lead-in show this particular season. Something called Rags to Riches, with Joe Bologna, failed to elicit any interest in the potential Friday night audience, letting Beauty and the Beast over on CBS, and Full House, on ABC, split the remaining viewers. And as anyone knows who watches a lot of TV, a good start to a particular network's evening line-up encourages viewers to stick around for the upcoming shows - no such luck this season for Miami Vice. NBC would have been better off moving their new, stylish Private Eye series, starring Michael Woods and Josh Brolin, that came on after Miami Vice, to the head of the evening, getting viewers primed for an evening of cops and robbers.

Unfortunately, all the scheduling savvy in the world probably wouldn't have helped Miami Vice: Season Four because, quite simply, the series was clearly floundering at this point. After a clean, clear, concise opening episode (Contempt of Court), something goes disastrously wrong with the direction of the show, and we're treated to increasingly bizarre, unbelievable stories with two bored, distracted lead actors. Perhaps scrambling after seeing the ratings downturn from the prior season, the producers of Miami Vice: Season Four evidently decided to throw in everything but the kitchen sink in the hopes of attracting an audience. Unlikely Miami Vice subjects this season range from crooked televangelists, cryogenics, snuff films, American Indians, video dating, the Japanese yakuza, stolen bull semen (I kid you not), and yes, the final refugee of burnt-out ideas: U.F.O.s. I mean, what the hell is Crockett and Tubbs doing guarding a canister of precious bull semen for? The inanity never stops in Miami Vice: Season Four. Particularly hysterical is Amen...Send Money, where televangelist Brian Dennehy goes to war with another TV preacher. Hilarity ensues when the Dennehy's nemesis promises that God will strike Dennehy down at the stroke of midnight, whereupon Dennehy is promptly electrocuted at his studio set-up. Of course, they find out that someone messed with the electricals, but the director of the episode (who shall remain nameless) actually shows a bolt of lightning hitting the TV station before the rigged electrics went off. In other words, God actually struck down Brian Dennehy on Miami Vice. What the hell is that kind of scene doing on a Miami Vice episode? If possible, the series reaches an even lower point during Missing Hours, where the audience is teased with the possibility that fellow detective Trudy Joplin (Olivia Brown) was visited by aliens in the form of James Brown! Clearly, not all the crack was confiscated in Miami this season by Crockett and Tubbs; some must have made its way to Hollywood.

Also working against Miami Vice: Season Four is the rather reduced energy level of our two principle actors. It's not hard to understand why; one look at the those scripts coming in, and I'd want to stay in my trailer, too. As I said in my previous review, I didn't think Philip Michael Thomas was particularly horrible, but if the producers gave him little to do last season, he has even less to do this season. Clearly, the producers have abandoned the original premise of two sharp, young cops depending on each other to survive out on the streets, and instead went with The Don Johnson Two to Three Readily Accessible Emotions and Fashion Show. I liked Johnson in this series, and a few of his big screen performances, when he had a strong director, were well done (Frankenheimer's Dead Bang, Lumet's Guilty as Sin, and Hopper's The Hot Spot). But he's clearly on autopilot in this fourth season. With his newly-styled lion's head of hair carefully feathered back, and a more-often-than not cleanly shaven face, it seems that more thought was put into a new look for the star, rather than trying to stretch the Sonny Crockett character. Even the old saw of introducing a sacrificial wife, this time played by Sheena Easton, to give Crockett more emoting time, backfires, splitting apart the team of Crockett and Tubbs even more, and further convincing the audience that this is Johnson's show alone. A last minute save at the end of the season, with Crockett veering off into illegal activity, looks like it might get the fifth and final season back on track, but it's a case of "too little, too late," to save season four.

DISC ONE:

Contempt of Court
The partners take on organized crime and bring a mobster to trial, but it's Crockett who ends up behind bars when he refuses to reveal a source.

Amen...Send Money
A television evangelist seeks vengeance against Tubbs for arresting his wife on drug charges.

Death and the Lady
Art imitates life -- and death -- when Crockett struggles to prove that the murder depicted in a snuff film was real.

The Big Thaw
It's not a mellow scene when the partners must babysit a famous Rastafarian singer's frozen body while the widow and a cryobiologist argue over who owns the rights to the deceased.

DISC TWO:

Child's Play
Crockett is horrified when he shoots and kills a 13-year-old boy who was merely an innocent bystander -- or was he?

God's Work
When a financial wizard leaves his Wall Street job to return to his mafia family, Tubbs and Crockett work to determine whether he's back for business or personal reasons.

Missing Hours
The circumstances are extraordinary, and possibly extraterrestrial, when Trudy encounters what appears to be a U.F.O..

Like a Hurricane
Playing bodyguard to fading recording star Caitlin Davies is not Crockett's idea of the perfect assignment, but he soon finds himself singing a different tune.

Rising Sun of Death
Miami's underworld becomes even more international with the presence of the yakuza - secretive Japanese mobsters.

DISC THREE:

Love at First Sight
Dating can really be murder, especially for newlywed Crockett and his bride when he goes undercover at a video service for singles.

A Rock and a Hard Place
Caitlin's revitalized career takes her and Crockett to Los Angeles, but in addition to hundreds of fans, they are also accompanied by two unscrupulous music executives.

The Cows of October
The Miami Vice squad teams up with the Department of Agriculture to track down a missing canister of bull semen that could affect the world's supply of beef.

Vote of Confidence
Tubbs and Crockett enter the corrupt world of politics when a gubernatorial candidate is arrested as part of a prostitution ring.

DISC FOUR:

Baseballs of Death
What begins as the investigation into the murder of a hooker and her pimp leads to a ruthless Chilean involved with a drug cartel and the sale of ammunition.

Indian Wars
Two worlds collide when Lieutenant Castillo and Tubbs work together on a drug case that introduces them to the people and culture of an American Indian tribe.

Honor Among Thieves?
Embroiled in an undercover case, the partners cannot bring a serial killer to justice, as it would reveal their identities to ruthless drug lords.

Hell Hath No Fury...
Trudy does her best to help a rape victim whose attacker has been released from prison and is intent on seeing her to offer his apologies.

Badge of Dishonor
A string of murders involving drug dealers has the partners suspecting that there may be a security leak within the force.

DISC FIVE:

Blood and Roses
Gangster Frank Mosca, Crockett's nemesis, returns to town and sets his sights on Gina.

A Bullet for Crockett
Crockett is gunned down during a drug bust, and while he hallucinates on the operating table, his friends and colleagues reminisce as they worry for his life.

Deliver Us from Evil
Father-to-be Crockett obsessively goes head-to-head with the killer he once unwittingly helped get off death row.

Mirror Images
In this heart-pounding season conclusion, Crockett's personal tragedy causes him to cross the line in a high-level mob summit.

The DVD:

The Video:
The full-screen video image for Miami Vice: Season Four looks fairly good, with a bit of softness here and there, but no transfer issues I could spot.

The Audio:
Nice. The Dolby Digital English 5.1 stereo mix is a thumpin' good one. Nice speaker action during the shoot-'em-ups.

The Extras:
There are no extras for Miami Vice: Season Four.

Final Thoughts:
Clearly the nadir of the series, Miami Vice: Season Four flounders in missteps, with goofy scripts, indifferent acting, and a fundamental change in the show's concept: Crockett and Tubbs aren't together so much here. Still, fans will want to buy this to continue their collection, and you may get a kick out of a couple of the episodes, so I would recommend you rent Miami Vice: Season Four before buying.