Miami Vice (TV Series) Leap of Faith (1989) User Reviews

Seems like an attempt by Michael Mann to make a spin-off

[houstonwade · 6/10 · 17 May 2009]

This episode is a little half-baked with Crockett's protégé Hardin joining the "YCU" or "Young Cops Unit." This hip, young unit listens to heavy metal, respects women, says no to drugs, and catches bad guys! We see a young Laura San Giacomo in this episode as well as the good-looking science/computer lady.

All in all, the episode was nothing more than an after-thought at the end of a great series in hopes of keeping the Miami crew working on a new spin-off. It's not hard to see why a 13 episode deal wasn't ordered. What was needed was a bigger, badder bad-guy with even more explosions, gun fights and babes in bikinis. Michael Mann just needed to have his writers produce something a little more higher budget to keep the public and the execs interested.

Preparing for a spin off that never happened

[Tweekums · 6/10 · 12 June 2013]

This episode opens like many others; with Crockett and Tubbs waiting to make an undercover drugs buy; things go wrong though when Crockett is recognised and the potential sellers flee. It turns out Crockett has a young protégé, Joey Hardin, undercover, close to the target; a college professor called Baines who has had his research funding cut and is trying to develop a drug that he believes can help people enter a dream-state… he is also killing anybody who endangers his work. Since Baines has surrounded himself with college students Crockett can't get near him but Joey can. He wants to work alone but is told to cooperate with another group of young cops.

The story wasn't bad but it felt as though it was the pilot episode of a spin off series rather than an episode of Miami Vice. Crockett wasn't seen after the first ten minutes; this was clearly designed to introduce Joey and the new team of younger cops… presumably the creators thought younger cops would bring in a younger audience. The problem was they didn't really act like trained police officers they were a bunch of hotheads who acted without thinking much of the time… although this did get one of them killed so perhaps they'd have behaved more realistically had a series been commissioned.

The cheese is suffocating

[eugene_dude_4you · 4/10 · 20 December 2007]

Crockett, his protégé and a friend investigate a professor for a series of drug-related student deaths. The young professor is obsessed with dreams and develops a new designer drug while teaching at the University. His project funding is cut and... As I was channel surfing on the hour, I saw Don Johnson and thought I'd stick with watching this episode of Miami Vice, Leap of Faith, from the beginning. What a waste of time it was. I hadn't watched an episode of MV in a long while and I remember not really watching the show after season 3. The buildings and the outside shots were all good! The sets were very boring and stuffy looking with bad lighting. The first club scene in the episode was horrific, fight sequence was poorly executed and the dialog was awful. The bad acting is very distracting, especially when you're trying to follow the plot. You'd be watching it and then get momentarily confused because of the junk dialog/acting/setting, etc. I felt like I was supposed to have this feeling of tense dramatic action, but instead I was fully unconvinced and bored. The ending has to be the most clichéd BS I've seen in a cop drama. Ever see a really bad episode of Law & Order with the lame overacting? Yes you have and you know what I mean! I'm a serious fan of Mann because of his great films like Heat and Collateral, but this was drivel. Maybe I'm just spoiled by watching premium TV entertainment like The Shield. If you don't mind being suffocated by TV cop drama cheesiness, there's enough intrigue here for the die hard Miami Vice fan. Otherwise, don't bother with this crap. Note: I'd like to marry Laura San-Giacomo.

21 Jump Street meets Miami Vice!

[mm-39 · 3/10 · 22 March 2017]

Don Johnson aka Crockett and company make a cameo appearance in Leap of Faith. Why so Leap of Faith episode could be called a Miami Vice episode. Cheesy young guys running around campus trying to convict a professor! Lame with eye candy guys form a soap opera running around like a boy band. The viewer keeps waiting for Crockett to be re- introduced but unfortunately never happens. The acting is okay. Some of the Characters are interesting. The plot is lame. Leap of Faith looks like a promo for a new T V series. The promo is so bad I can see why there was no series for lame young vice cops P I. Avoid this fake episode like the plague. 3 out of 10 stars. Worst of the series.

Not Vice

[thatface3 · 4/10 · 16 October 2020]

I cant believe this actually has the name Miami Vice attached to it. It's some other cop show with a Don and Phillp cameo