Friday A/V Club: That Time Thomas M. Disch Wrote a Miami Vice Episode About Alien Abductions, Starring James Brown and Chris Rock

Today's TV detritus

Thomas M. Disch, the man behind the New Wave science-fiction novels 334 and Camp Concentration, also wrote an episode of Miami Vice. It's about alien abductions, it stars James Brown as an aging R&B star who's become some sort of cult leader, and it's got a very young Chris Rock in it too. I'm informed that Miami Vice fans tend to think it's the worst episode of the series. But I'm not a Miami Vice fan, and as far as I'm concerned it's the one delirious hour that justifies the show's existence:

The episode is called "Missing Hours," and it originally aired on November 13, 1987. Enjoy.

(For past installments of the Friday A/V Club, go here.)

Comments

[ubik]

On Wings of Song is also highly recommended...a great writer.

[Crusty Juggler]

Interesting.

I am more of a "Viking Bikers From Hell" Miami Vice sort of guy. I also like the episode that had a Glenn Frey video in the middle of it.

Note to all you kids out there: That song will not put a woman in an amorous mindset.

[Florida Man]

I watched "Switchblade Sisters" last night. I learned the 70's were very rapey and communisty.

[Krokko]

We came across that on some streaming service recently and found it to be quite, uh, entertaining.

[Jesse Walker]

I remember renting that in the '90s, I think on VHS. IIRC, it included an intro featuring Quentin Tarantino talking about how much he loved the movie's dialogue.

[Drake]

Season 4 is when Miami Vice really started falling apart. The first few seasons was like MTv with gun play. I was perfectly content to drink beer and watch on a Friday night before heading out.

Ahh, the 80's...

[Lee G]

The fashion lives on. The white linen jacket will never die.

[Lee G]

Anybody else watching Narcos on Netflix? I just started it last night. So far it's decent.

[R C Dean]

I watched it all the way through. I'd give it a solid B+ to A-.

SPOILER ALERT:

Pablo Escobar is a bigtime coke kingpin.

[Episiarch]

Seeing as I don't even remember this episode (and I've watched the entire series 3 times now, including watching it religiously as a kid when it came out), this must be a pretty bad episode. However, the show did start to fall apart in the last one to two seasons and you cease paying a lot of attention.

"If I twitch, she dies."

"Maybe you won't even twitch."

[Crusty Juggler]

Good link.

Is being invited over to dinner on Crocket's houseboat, where he keeps his pet gator, really all that appealing?

But I'm not a Miami Vice fan

With this statement Walker drops out of the ten of my favorite Reason employee list.