User Reviews

What does it take to make a great MV episode? Solid, complex writing and tight direction are two obvious steps in the right direction. Over the 4 seasons I've watched, another trend of variables seems to keep popping up: a plot involving drug traffickers, effective use of real locations, and no love story.

"Badge of Dishonor" meets all of the required criteria and, if it wasn't for one poorly written scene and a sloppily directed climax, this would be a great episode. The bad scene in question involves a (reluctantly) crooked female cop up on her soapbox, yammering on about the value of her charity work as her excuse for being on the take. Not only was her speech nothing more than heavy-handed moralizing, her performance was so over the top the double barreled excessiveness could have only been appropriately accompanied by weeping violins.

First of all, this scene should have never taken place. In the previous scene this crooked cop is behind bars after being booked for countless crimes including accessory to the murder of a police officer. Prompted by Tubbs' question of "why" she would do what she did, she offers not an explanation, but instead asks for the opportunity to show him. Then we cut to the scene in question, with her uncuffed, in civilian clothes and up on her soapbox at her dirty money financed homeless shelter.

Take a second and imagine a guy in jail for attempting to kill his wife. Then the same guy is freed so that he can take the arresting officer to show him how much of a hag his wife was and how her being a hag justified his attempt to murder her. Yes, it's completely ridiculous and it's an insult for the writers of MV to think we might buy it.

When a drug buy is ambushed by another group of dressed as cops the vice team suspect a leak from the South Beach Special Ops unit but their commander is adamant that none of his people were involved; he suspects it was a rival gang using equipment recently stolen from a police depot. Crockett and Tubbs don't buy that though; surely any gang breaking into the depot would have stolen more than a few uniforms and four rifles. As they dig deeper Tubbs finds a witness... an undercover cop who claims to have filed a report confirming that the attackers were indeed from the Special Ops unit; she should know as she is part of it herself. Crockett and Tubbs go to the commanding officers home to question him and are surprised to discover he lives on the sort of luxury boat one would expect to find moored in Monte Carlo... certainly not something a cop could afford.

This was another solid episode of Miami Vice that hooks the viewer in the opening scene leaving one wondering whether of not the attackers really were cops and if they were just how many are involved. The story develops nicely with one or two leads to point the viewer and the vice cops in the wrong direction. There is a decent amount of action; two shootouts, the shooting dead of a dealer and an off screen killing of a policeman. The episode isn't without is faults though; as the previous reviewer mentioned the speech about funding the soup kitchen for the homeless was very heavy handed and felt like the producers tagged on an 'issue of the week' without doing much to justify its presence. This is a pity as previous episodes have shown that Miami Vice was quite capable of running issue led stories. Still that was just one scene in an otherwise decent episode.

Badge of Dishonor better than the average episode! What worked: Great supporting cast. The bad cops where believable, macho, and evil enough too pull the story off. The action scenes where slick and fast. The progression of the story from drug deal robbery, to who knew, to inter departmental investigation evolves to a compelling conclusion. Crockett, Tubbs, and rest of the cast have believable performances. What did not work: The side homeless story I felt was a bit sappy. There was a need to have a human side to the characters. I guess Badge of Dishonor wanted to end on less of a despairing ending. 7 out of 10 stars. Worth watching.