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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!

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...
Genres:CrimeDrama
Network:NBC

Best Episodes Summary

"Whatever Works" is the best rated episode of "Miami Vice". It scored 8.8/10 based on 952 votes. Directed by Jim Johnston and written by N/A, it aired on 10/4/1985. This episode scored 0.1 points higher than the second highest rated, "Phill the Shill".

  • Whatever Works
    8.8/10952 votes
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    #1 - Whatever Works

    Season 2 Episode 3 - Aired 10/4/1985

    Crockett, Tubbs & Castillo contact a Santerian priestess to help find the link between ritualistic killings of officers and a group of drug traffickers. Crockett and Izzy try to get the Ferrari back after a city accountant re-possesses it.

    Director: Jim Johnston

    Writer: N/A

  • Phill the Shill
    8.7/102,097 votes
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    #2 - Phill the Shill

    Season 2 Episode 12 - Aired 12/13/1985

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

    Director: Rob Cohen

    Writer: N/A

  • Evan
    8.6/10761 votes
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    #3 - Evan

    Season 1 Episode 21 - Aired 5/3/1985

    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: Jim Johnston, Rob Cohen

    Writer: Edward di Lorenzo

  • Calderone's Return: The Hit List - Part 1
    8.5/10968 votes
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    #4 - Calderone's Return: The Hit List - Part 1

    Season 1 Episode 4 - Aired 10/19/1984

    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

  • Forgive Us Our Debts
    8.5/10513 votes
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    #5 - Forgive Us Our Debts

    Season 3 Episode 11 - Aired 12/12/1986

    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

  • Smuggler's Blues
    8.4/10817 votes
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    #6 - Smuggler's Blues

    Season 1 Episode 15 - Aired 2/1/1985

    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

  • Trust Fund Pirates
    8.4/10513 votes
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    #7 - Trust Fund Pirates

    Season 2 Episode 22 - Aired 5/2/1986

    A Bolivian cruise ship is attacked by pirates leading Crockett and Tubbs to enlist the help of a renegade pilot in the contraband business to solve the case.

    Director: John Nicolella

    Writer: Dennis Cooper

  • Brother's Keeper
    8.3/102,459 votes
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    #8 - Brother's Keeper

    Season 1 Episode 1 - Aired 9/16/1984

    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

  • The Prodigal Son (1)
    8.3/10802 votes
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    #9 - The Prodigal Son (1)

    Season 2 Episode 1 - Aired 9/27/1985

    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

  • One Way Ticket
    8.3/10635 votes
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    #10 - One Way Ticket

    Season 2 Episode 15 - Aired 1/24/1986

    A district attorney is killed at a wedding for getting too close to a French-Canadian drug lord that's operating in Miami. Since the victim was a close friend of the criminal's lawyer, Sonny tries to make the lawyer do something about it.

    Director: Leon Ichaso

    Writer: Frank Military

  • The Fix
    8.3/10528 votes
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    #11 - The Fix

    Season 2 Episode 19 - Aired 3/7/1986

    A judge with heavy gambling debts tries to persuade his college all-star son to throw a game. Crockett suspects the judge let a drug dealer go free because of his money troubles.

    Director: Aaron Lipstadt

    Writer: Robert Crais

  • Down for the Count (1)
    8.3/10475 votes
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    #12 - Down for the Count (1)

    Season 3 Episode 12 - Aired 1/9/1987

    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: Dick Wolf, John Schulian

  • Calderone's Return: Calderone's Demise - Part 2
    8.2/10925 votes
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    #13 - Calderone's Return: Calderone's Demise - Part 2

    Season 1 Episode 5 - Aired 10/26/1984

    While on the trail of Calderone in Bimini, Tubbs falls in love with a woman who forces him to consider his loyalties.

    Director: Paul Michael Glaser

    Writer: Joel Surnow, Alfonse Ruggiero

  • Lombard
    8.2/10643 votes
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    #14 - Lombard

    Season 1 Episode 22 - Aired 5/10/1985

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

    Director: John Nicolella

    Writer: N/A

  • Tale of the Goat
    8.2/10646 votes
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    #15 - Tale of the Goat

    Season 2 Episode 8 - Aired 11/15/1985

    Crockett and Tubbs escort a coffin containing a criminal to his final Miami resting place ... until its learned that he has risen from the dead and has a similar zombie fate scheduled for Tubbs.

    Director: John Nicolella

    Writer: N/A

  • Walk Alone
    8.2/10522 votes
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    #16 - Walk Alone

    Season 3 Episode 4 - Aired 10/17/1986

    Tubbs poses as a con to expose prison guards who are extorting drugs from inmates, and killing those who refuse.

    Director: David Jackson

    Writer: W.K. Scott Meyer

  • The Good Collar
    8.2/10491 votes
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    #17 - The Good Collar

    Season 3 Episode 5 - Aired 10/24/1986

    A star high school athlete, arrested for delivering heroin, agrees to help Crockett trap a 15-year-old drug lord; it turns ugly.

    Director: N/A

    Writer: N/A

  • Down for the Count (2)
    8.2/10439 votes
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    #18 - Down for the Count (2)

    Season 3 Episode 13 - Aired 1/16/1987

    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: Dick Wolf, John Schulian

  • Duty and Honor (a.k.a. The Savage)
    8.2/10472 votes
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    #19 - Duty and Honor (a.k.a. The Savage)

    Season 3 Episode 15 - Aired 2/6/1987

    Castillo is not the only one to realize that a series of prostitute murders matches the M.O. of killings in Vietnam in the early 70s; the cops get help on the case from a man claiming to be a Vietnamese inspector.

    Director: John Nicolella

    Writer: N/A

  • Deliver Us from Evil (1)
    8.2/10394 votes
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    #20 - Deliver Us from Evil (1)

    Season 4 Episode 21 - Aired 4/29/1988

    A murder case that hits close to home reunites Crockett with the man who used him to trick his way off Death Row.

    Director: Dick Wolf, George Mendeluk

    Writer: Michael Duggan, David Black

  • Mirror Image (2)
    8.2/10425 votes
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    #21 - Mirror Image (2)

    Season 4 Episode 22 - Aired 5/6/1988

    A concussion leaves Crockett thinking he is his drug dealer alter-ego Burnett and goes to work for a Colombian crime boss.

    Director: Richard Compton

    Writer: N/A

  • Hostile Takeover (3)
    8.2/10410 votes
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    #22 - Hostile Takeover (3)

    Season 5 Episode 1 - Aired 11/4/1988

    Still thinking he is really Sonny Burnett, Crockett starts a war between the crime family he has joined and a rival clan.

    Director: Don Johnson

    Writer: N/A

  • No Exit
    8.1/10880 votes
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    #23 - No Exit

    Season 1 Episode 7 - Aired 11/9/1984

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

    Director: David Soul

    Writer: Maurice Hurley

  • Golden Triangle - Part 1
    8.1/10712 votes
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    #24 - Golden Triangle - Part 1

    Season 1 Episode 13 - Aired 1/11/1985

    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

  • Golden Triangle - Part 2
    8.1/10692 votes
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    #25 - Golden Triangle - Part 2

    Season 1 Episode 14 - Aired 1/18/1985

    Lt. Castillo must bring down his old enemy, who has passed his organization to his grandsons. They have kidnapped Castillo's long-lost wife to ensure their escape from prosecution.

    Director: David Anspaugh

    Writer: Maurice Hurley, Michael Mann