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The Best Episodes of Miami Vice

Every episode of Miami Vice ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Miami Vice!

Binge this in 3d 18h•Peaking at 8.6/10

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs

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Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
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    Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 4 - Calderone's Return: The Hit List (1)
    8.6/10(8 votes)

    #1 - Calderone's Return: The Hit List (1)

    S1:E4

    The team moves to protect Crockett and his family from an assassin, hired by Calderone to re-empty the void he left behind.

    Director:Richard A. Colla
    Writer:Joel Surnow

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  2. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 1 - Brother's Keeper
    8.5/10(10 votes)

    #2 - Brother's Keeper

    S1:E1

    Miami detective Sonny Crockett reluctantly teams with New York cop Rico Tubbs when both of them end up pursuing a drug dealer who killed their partners.

    Director:Thomas Carter
    Writer:Anthony Yerkovich

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  3. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 21 - Evan
    8.3/10(10 votes)

    #3 - Evan

    S1:E21

    Crockett and Tubbs join forces with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ... including Crockett's old partner Evan Freed. Tubbs tries to understand their troubled relationship.

    Director:Rob Cohen
    Writer:Edward di Lorenzo

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  4. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 15 - Smuggler's Blues
    8.1/10(8 votes)

    #4 - Smuggler's Blues

    S1:E15

    Someone in law enforcement is murdering drug dealers and their families in cold blood. To find the culprit, Crockett and Tubbs go undercover and travel to Colombia with a laid-back pilot to pose as dealers.

    Director:Paul Michael Glaser
    Writer:Miguel Piñero

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  5. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 1 - The Prodigal Son
    8.1/10(8 votes)

    #5 - The Prodigal Son

    S2:E1

    Crockett & Tubbs go to Manhattan to find a group of Colombian drug dealers who are killing federal agents.

    Director:Paul Michael Glaser
    Writer:Daniel Pyne

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  6. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 3 - Out Where the Buses Don't Run
    8.1/10(7 votes)

    #6 - Out Where the Buses Don't Run

    S2:E3

    Crockett and Tubbs question the sanity of a retired vice cop who wants them to chase after a coke dealer thought to be dead.

    Director:Jim Johnston
    Writer:Maurice Hurley

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    The 20 WORST Episodes of Miami Vice

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  7. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 13 - Down for the Count (2)
    8.1/10(7 votes)

    #7 - Down for the Count (2)

    S3:E13

    Switek is outraged by Internal Affairs' findings; Crockett and Tubbs' TV gambit may prove fatal when a mobster reclaims the action lost to Guzman.

    Director:Richard Compton
    Writer:Unknown

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  8. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 7 - No Exit
    8.0/10(12 votes)

    #8 - No Exit

    S1:E7

    Crockett and Tubbs reluctantly help government agents in their pursuit of a dangerous arms dealer.

    Director:David Soul
    Writer:Unknown

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  9. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 16 - Rites of Passage
    8.0/10(8 votes)

    #9 - Rites of Passage

    S1:E16

    Sparks fly between Tubbs and an old flame who has come to Miami to rescue her sister from a life of prostitution.

    Director:David Anspaugh
    Writer:Daniel Pyne

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  10. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 9 - Bought and Paid For
    7.9/10(7 votes)

    #10 - Bought and Paid For

    S2:E9

    Gina's cleaning woman gets raped in Gina's home by the spoiled son of a wealthy man, who thinks he's above the law. Despite evidence being circumstantial, Gina wants to have the man arrested. Izzy steals Switek and Zito's bug van.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Unknown

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  11. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 11 - Phil the Shill
    7.9/10(7 votes)

    #11 - Phil the Shill

    S2:E11

    A British television personality who has dealings with a major cocaine dealer is targeted by Crockett and Tubbs.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Paul Diamond

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  12. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 6 - Shadow in the Dark
    7.9/10(7 votes)

    #12 - Shadow in the Dark

    S3:E6

    Crockett tries to nail a psychotic murderer by thinking like his quarry, despite the fact that another cop using that tactic wound up in a psych ward.

    Director:Christopher Crowe
    Writer:Chuck Adamson

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  13. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 2 - Heart of Darkness
    7.8/10(10 votes)

    #13 - Heart of Darkness

    S1:E2

    Investigating a porn baron, Crockett and Tubbs become involved with an undercover FBI agent who may have gone native and become a criminal, and may have murdered an underage porn starlet. Meanwhile, Zito and Switek pose as fences, and Elvis the crocodile feels unloved!

    Director:John Llewellyn Moxey
    Writer:Daniel Pyne

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  14. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 22 - Sons and Lovers
    7.6/10(7 votes)

    #14 - Sons and Lovers

    S2:E22

    The son of Tubbs' arch-enemy Calderone oozes to the surface with a $1 million contract on Tubbs, while Calderone's sister Angelina says Tubbs is the father of her child.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Dennis Cooper

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  15. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 2 - Stone's War
    7.6/10(7 votes)

    #15 - Stone's War

    S3:E2

    Crockett's Vietnam journalist buddy, Ira Stone, is back--claiming to have footage of a secret U.S war in Nicaragua; the trail leads Stone, Crockett & Tubbs to Maynard a.k.a. the elusive Captain Real Estate.

    Director:David Jackson
    Writer:David Jackson

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  16. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 12 - Milk Run
    7.5/10(10 votes)

    #16 - Milk Run

    S1:E12

    Crockett and Tubbs encounter two naive young men smuggling cocaine-filled statues for a murderous criminal.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Allison Hock

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  17. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 8 - Bushido
    7.5/10(8 votes)

    #17 - Bushido

    S2:E8

    Castillo is forced to choose between friendship and duty when Jack Gretsky, his best friend from his days in Vietnam with the CIA, reemerges from the criminal underground complete with a Russian wife who is being pursued by the KGB.

    Director:Edward James Olmos
    Writer:John Leekley

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  18. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 19 - Payback
    7.5/10(8 votes)

    #18 - Payback

    S2:E19

    A reclusive drug supplier thinks Crockett has the $3 million stolen by the dealer's former employee.

    Director:Aaron Lipstadt
    Writer:Shel Willens

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  19. Miami Vice Season 4 Episode 15 - Indian Wars
    7.5/10(2 votes)

    #19 - Indian Wars

    S4:E15

    Tubbs relates to American Indians trying to save their homeland.

    Director:Leon Ichaso
    Writer:Unknown

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  20. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 22 - Lombard
    7.4/10(9 votes)

    #20 - Lombard

    S1:E22

    Crockett and Tubbs must protect a reluctant witness from his prior employers -- the Mafia family that wants to silence him.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Unknown

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  21. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 13 - Yankee Dollar
    7.4/10(8 votes)

    #21 - Yankee Dollar

    S2:E13

    When Crockett sees his stewardess girlfriend die from smuggling balloons of cocaine into the country, he and Tubbs go undercover to expose the ring.

    Director:Aaron Lipstadt
    Writers:John Mankiewicz, Daniel Pyne, Craig Bolotin

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  22. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 12 - Down for the Count (1)
    7.4/10(7 votes)

    #22 - Down for the Count (1)

    S3:E12

    Zito reluctantly uses a boxer as bait to help the vice squad nail a former drug kingpin involved in bookmaking; it ends in tragedy and the loss of a comrade for the vice cops.

    Director:Richard Compton
    Writer:Unknown

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  23. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 10 - Give a Little, Take a Little
    7.3/10(10 votes)

    #23 - Give a Little, Take a Little

    S1:E10

    In court, Crockett refuses to identify an informant and spends more time in jail than the drug dealer he is trying to bust. Gina and Trudy infiltrate a prostitution ring. Gina is placed in a compromising position when they are suspicious that she is not a hooker.

    Director:Bobby Roth
    Writer:Chuck Adamson

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  24. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 13 - Golden Triangle (1)
    7.2/10(9 votes)

    #24 - Golden Triangle (1)

    S1:E13

    Crockett and Tubbs work undercover in a hotel. They uncover criminals that are an old enemies of Lt. Castillo and have also kidnapped Castillo's long-lost wife.

    Director:Georg Stanford Brown
    Writer:Joseph Gunn

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  25. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 11 - Forgive Us Our Debts
    7.2/10(8 votes)

    #25 - Forgive Us Our Debts

    S3:E11

    New leads persuade Crockett that a man he put on death row might be innocent, but a campaign-conscious DA is reluctant to help.

    Director:Jan Eliasberg
    Writer:Gustave Reininger

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Best Episodes Summary

"Calderone's Return: The Hit List (1)" is the best rated episode of "Miami Vice". It scored 8.6/10 based on 8 votes. Directed by Richard A. Colla and written by Joel Surnow, it aired on 10/19/1984. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "Brother's Keeper".