Miami Vice

3. Authenticity, Redemption, and the Politics of Miami Vice

Chapter 3 Authenticity, Redemption, and the Politics of Miami Vice 65 Arecurring theme in Miami Vice is the alienating character of undercover police work in which vice detectives must constantly be on their guard. A treacherous criminal underclass , with its power, wealth, and surfeit of illicit drugs, is bad enough. The desperation of an ever larger number of homeless and dispossessed people, the failure of Marielito refugees to find homes and jobs, and the constant racial and ethnic tensions (discussed in chapter 1) also go with the territory. Once Crockett and Tubbs infiltrate the criminal underground as drug dealers Sonny Burnett and Rico Cooper, they must confront their fears of being discovered and how their true identities are jeopardized. In chapter 2, we saw this given dramatic expression in the predicament of Arthur Lawson, who felt the need to give himself over to the satisfaction of the transgressive desires he has repressed and at the same time to maintain his role as a respected representative of law and order. Because Crockett must retain his identity over time as a vice detective even as he masquerades as Burnett, his performance brings into relief the constructed nature of his role. Twenty years after the debut of the series, when Michael Mann spoke about what he called “the core” of the Sonny Crockett char- 66 Chapter 3 acter, he recalled a line from Anthony Yerkovich’s pilot. Gina Calabrese asks Crockett, “Do you sometimes forget who you are?” and Crockett replies, “Darlin’, I sometimes remember who I am.” The undercover vice detective who must of necessity identify with his role always faces the possibility that he will be consumed by it. Of course, one might contend that Crockett’s performances as Burnett by definition call his authenticity into question. Against this it might be argued that for Crockett’s actions to even count as “performances,” there must be a basis in the behavior of an authentic self on which such performances supervene. Nevertheless, since it is for the purpose of posing as his undercover persona that Crockett has been provided with the Ferrari, the Scarab boat, the sloop St. Vitus Dance, the designer wardrobe, and the Rolex watch, Miami Vice invariably raises the question of whether without them he has a stable character of his own. In the series pilot, Sonny’s estranged wife, Caroline, tells him, “You get high on the action,” and this remark presages the eventual break-up of their marriage. By the fifth episode, their divorce is final. In the course of the series Crockett has affairs and romantic involvements with a femme fatale with a homicidal husband (“Definitely Miami”), a flight attendant who dies from the cocaine she has smuggled into the country (“Yankee Dollar”), and a French Interpol agent who is in reality an assassin for a sinister organization (“French Twist”). In the episode “Nobody Lives Forever,” Crockett is so preoccupied by a new romance with an architect named Brenda (Kim Greist) that he fails to cover Tubbs’s back when the latter is in jeopardy. As a result, Tubbs is beaten up during a surveillance assignment that Crockett missed because he overslept at Brenda’s house. Tubbs shows up at her door, a bloodied, somber reminder to Crockett that his first commitment must be to the job and his partner. After Crockett falls in love in succession with a drug-addicted physician (“Theresa”) and the owner of an escort service that fronts for a prostitution ring (“By Hooker By Crook”), he gives 67 Authenticity, Redemption, and Politics ironic expression to his choices in women: “First a junkie, now a hooker. I think I’ve been in the business too long; I’m starting to fall for the players.” These failed romances and dysfunctional relationships clearly serve as reminders that the emotional life of a vice detective is precarious and seldom in balance. In the fourth season , Crockett marries country/pop singer Caitlin Davies (reallife pop singer Sheena Easton), but this relationship, too, is doomed to failure. The vulnerability of their marriage to fate is indicated by just how quickly their romance blossoms in the four-episode arc. When Caitlin asks Sonny whether they can make their marriage work despite their disparate career paths and he answers that they can, “or die trying,” he is telegraphing events that will overtake them and bring Caitlin’s life to an abrupt and tragic end. Gina: “Do you...