Fans used to scene by scene action or shoot em-up fare would have been turned off by this episode. But "Back In The World" showed just how much Miami Vice was about more than just guns, fast cars and women, flashy clothes, and flashy story ideas.
TV is already a time consuming business and just imagine what Don Johnson had to go through during the taping of this episode, as he was the director of this episode and he had to remember and act his lines that he was given for this episode. That's a lot of work, especially for a big TV star who had so much people and responsibilities tugging at him for his time back then.
"Back In The World" was about a man named Ira Stone (Bob Balaban) who was adamant about writing a story about dead Vietnam soldiers and the heroin that was smuggled with their bodies back to the states where they were to be buried or cremated. But in the midst of trying to write this story, it was found that he was a drug user himself, a liar, a bad husband, and a nutcase.
One of the best lines I've ever heard in my life was uttered in this episode by Johnson, "Selling out, it's the American dream Tubbs." People (Americans and immigrants) sell out in this country every day, for money, to fit in, for acceptance, for show business, the opposite sex, friends, and jobs.
G. Gordon Liddy, who was big in American history for his role in the Watergate Scandal, made a interesting villain in this episode. And Miss Patti D'Arbanville, always a welcome sight for me, was a trip as the angry wife of Stone.
I've seen this episode a million times and it always intrigues me to see D'Arbanville and Johnson in that hotel scene together (as she's packing up her stuff and leaving Miami after being wronged too many times by Stone), seeing as how those two were an item around the time this episode aired.
The last scene accompanied by The Doors' "My Eyes Have Seen You" was a classic event in this show's history. I loved it how Crockett and Tubbs were quietly and stealthily trying to eliminate or bring to justice Maynard and that Laotian goon of his. The camera close-ups of Crockett and Tubbs' eyes and the synchronization of that Doors song with their every movement was just beautiful for me. One of my favorite scenes in the show's 5 year run.