I watched a few of these and wasn't too impressed. I get that this is mostly about some mythical 80s miami wildcatter drug scene where tons of drugs were dumped on the streets and the modern wave of drugs everywhere was probably in prototype phase for the big time of today by the cartel which includes plenty of banks, pols, celebs and more. I doubt this is anything but a tv show with lots of pure fantasy though, almost pushing the idea that this dope inc industry is glamorous and desirable as they rarely took a hard look at what this level of organized dope inc does to individuals but focused on the luxuries that come from it.
The show is more of like a music video than anything with the 80s music blended in which isn't really something I like. It's like how the movie armageddon was one big music video to hide anything of real substance in the material. Or the music video genre of the 90s and 00s mostly about selling cliches and products. Some of the music was ok but mostly bad stuff that took over and was blaring constantly. The one piece of consistently good music here was the classic opening credits instrumental and imagery.
As to the actual stories they're pretty inane purile stuff with little to no plausibility to it. Somehow wildcatter dealers and pushers seem to be very very bad shots with all sorts of weapons lol while the stars are laser accurate. They also never heard of wounding shots I guess, always in for the kill. And have no problem firing indiscriminently in public and at people running away in the back, very noble. Your typical idiot level bad guys doesn't help. I was embarrased a lot watching this show tbh.
The so called women that were presented as some really hot items were consistently the most nasty looking things. Huge upper bodies no hips manly faces to boot, oof Like a drag queens convention level. The prettiest persons in the show are the two leads by far.
I also wasn't a fan of the politics shown either and the obvious propaganda based show themes in many of them. The so called death camps one was pretty egregious in its fraudulent nature. I thankfully only watched later in the series like some seasons 3 and 5 where the kinks of the formula were worked out and the characters were grown into their roles.
The idea of vice undercover is of course nonsense. The idea that operatives need to essentially cooperate in criminal activity in order to bring it down just reeks of double think. If you're helping crime you're a criminal but somehow the police get away with it. Thankfully police don't do that the vast majority of the time as who has the resources to even have dedicated undercovers, they'd be used better being a part of and in the community. We only ever got some clown informers side characters that were just an extension of the show. This was a major point of the Wire which is better but just as fantasy based in most aspects.
So apart from the flash and mythical 80s Miami wildcatter drug scene there's not too much here that recommends watching. Similar to the video game Vice City which took so much inspiration from this, it's mostly the music and ambiance that people are attracted to which overlooks the innate inanity and just thin ness of it. Like some passing shiny thing which fades quickly.
I suppose if you're doing a film studies paper on it it would be worthwhile but otherwise hard pass on this.
The show is more of like a music video than anything with the 80s music blended in which isn't really something I like. It's like how the movie armageddon was one big music video to hide anything of real substance in the material. Or the music video genre of the 90s and 00s mostly about selling cliches and products. Some of the music was ok but mostly bad stuff that took over and was blaring constantly. The one piece of consistently good music here was the classic opening credits instrumental and imagery.
As to the actual stories they're pretty inane purile stuff with little to no plausibility to it. Somehow wildcatter dealers and pushers seem to be very very bad shots with all sorts of weapons lol while the stars are laser accurate. They also never heard of wounding shots I guess, always in for the kill. And have no problem firing indiscriminently in public and at people running away in the back, very noble. Your typical idiot level bad guys doesn't help. I was embarrased a lot watching this show tbh.
The so called women that were presented as some really hot items were consistently the most nasty looking things. Huge upper bodies no hips manly faces to boot, oof Like a drag queens convention level. The prettiest persons in the show are the two leads by far.
I also wasn't a fan of the politics shown either and the obvious propaganda based show themes in many of them. The so called death camps one was pretty egregious in its fraudulent nature. I thankfully only watched later in the series like some seasons 3 and 5 where the kinks of the formula were worked out and the characters were grown into their roles.
The idea of vice undercover is of course nonsense. The idea that operatives need to essentially cooperate in criminal activity in order to bring it down just reeks of double think. If you're helping crime you're a criminal but somehow the police get away with it. Thankfully police don't do that the vast majority of the time as who has the resources to even have dedicated undercovers, they'd be used better being a part of and in the community. We only ever got some clown informers side characters that were just an extension of the show. This was a major point of the Wire which is better but just as fantasy based in most aspects.
So apart from the flash and mythical 80s Miami wildcatter drug scene there's not too much here that recommends watching. Similar to the video game Vice City which took so much inspiration from this, it's mostly the music and ambiance that people are attracted to which overlooks the innate inanity and just thin ness of it. Like some passing shiny thing which fades quickly.
I suppose if you're doing a film studies paper on it it would be worthwhile but otherwise hard pass on this.