Miami Vice (TV Series) Missing Hours (1987) User Reviews

I can't believe I liked this episode

[Reel1120 · 6/10 · 13 April 2024]

Man, this episode will definitely challenge your commitment to Miami Vice, that's for sure. One of those "out there" episodes that Vice throws in every so often. They don't usually work for me, but the missing hours was actually quite enjoyable. I think because the actors all seemed to be enjoying themselves.

Big booty Trudy investigates a very strange death and ends up possibly being abducted by a ufo, and James Brown is the alien that abducted her. (I think).

And a very young Chris Rock is a clerk that follows strange phenomena on message boards ( a pre cursor to internet chat rooms god this show is old).

I had heard that this was definitely when Vice went downhill, and I was dreading it. The 4.5 rating is the lowest I've seen by far for a vice episode. I actually like it better than Like A Hurricane. James Brown flying a houseboat ufo is more enjoyable than Sheena Easton singing I got you babe with a chorus of children... by a long shot.

The Worst Episode In The Entire Series

[skippydouche · 1/10 · 10 April 2007]

OK, first off, love the TV show and hated the movie.

That being said, this episode is by far the WORST Miami Vice episode. It has so many plot holes and horrible graphics that even the "Godfather of Soul" couldn't save this piece of crap from stinking up the airwaves.

The poor handling of material is only the beginning of why this film made no sense, but to fully understand how bad this episode is, rent it and come back and post your own thoughts.

This is as bad as it gets and was the beginning of the end of Miami Vice as we know it.

WOW, that sucked!!!

[cory5521 · 1/10 · 16 July 2012]

The best way to explain this episode would be to say....WHAT??? This episode is a prime example of why the series took such a swift hit in ratings. Trademark Miami Vice cool melodramatic music, negative. Awesome night time chase scenes back-lit by said music, nope. Moving and intense dialogue among the vice squad, not a chance. There is no excuse for writing an episode this awful, especially when there were episodes canceled that were better than this. I could hand a crayon to the 4 year old kid my wife babysits across the hall and he could scribble out a better story than this, while watching Ben 10 (which he does like a zombie). The only reason to watch this episode would be to see how terrible it is, that and to say you have seen them all which I understand. My advice, have a couple drinks before you watch this stinker. Miami Vice is still my favorite show of all time...by far.

Strange... and not in a good way

[Tweekums · 3/10 · 21 June 2012]

This episode doesn't start out too promisingly... Noogie is back; he is dressed in a 'spaceman' costume and a man takes one look at him and drops dead! Things soon start to get weird; Trudy sees the man with his throat cut but there is no sign of any wound when he gets to the morgue. She goes to the man's houseboat and some strange things start to happen. The body vanishes from the morgue; apparently signed for by Trudy. Carson from the records department says that Trudy has been talked about on Alien Abduction message boards but when Trudy returns she claims she was out at a disco with singer Lou De Long. He is now giving talks about alien abduction! Later it looks as if Crockett and Tubbs have had an encounter too when a light hits their car and the electrics fail. As the team try to find out what is going on further strange things happen and frequently while things are happening they are being watched by men with binoculars.

I had heard some fairly negative things about this episode but was prepared to give it the benefit of the doubt; unfortunately I think it lived down to its reputation and is probably the worst episode of the series so far. The story just seemed far too silly; we had possible UFOs, government drug experiments and the possibility that it was all just a dream. The episode is notable for having singer James Brown guest star as Lou De Long; although he was in effect just playing himself. The episode also featured an early guest appearance from Chris Rock who puts in a decent performance as Carson. Normally a weak episode of Miami Vice is still worth watching but I think I might skip this one when I watch the series again; even having been warned it was weak I was disappointed.

This isn't just bad Miami Vice, it's bad Television and bad storytelling

[a_spiff · 1/10 · 23 May 2008]

This isn't just bad Miami Vice, it's bad Television and bad storytelling and awful, awful music. I don't know wtf they were thinking when they made this episode. And what a waste of Chris Rock and James Brown.

It's too bad Olivia Brown was featured so strongly in this episode. It's not often Olivia and Saundra Santiago get "their" episodes. To waste one on UFOs and a paranormal bs, especially on a series like Miami Vice...

Saundra had Heroes of the Revolution at the end of season 3. That was a pretty decent episode for Miami Vice. Hopefully Olivia gets one more chance at a spotlight episode in the fourth season.

Stupid episode, stupid season. Dick Wolf sucks.

[daviddiepusc-92269 · 2/10 · 21 January 2022]

Wow, that episode was utter garbage. The dialogue was stupid, the plot was stupid, the script was stupid.

Duck Wolf sucks, he is no Michael Mann. Never liked Law & Order, never liked the X-Files...this episode is a mash of the two with an extra dash of stupid.

Not as bad as others are saying, but definitely not great

[frankenbenz · 7/10 · 10 August 2007]

James Brown doesn't get asked to do much other than be himself, but that's more than enough to make him a scene stealer. Chris Rock is one ugly kid and if he didn't get his teeth fixed and some other cosmetic alterations, he might have had a much more difficult time becoming the household name he is today. Nevertheless, his manic energy fits this completely unorthodox MV episode like a glove.

Aliens, hallucinations, surrealism and a lot of well researched talk about UFOs make this episode worth watching, albeit nothing like anything we'd expect from a series grounded in realism. I can see why so many MV devotees consider this the worst episode ever, but, in my opinion, it doesn't come close to deserving that dubious distinction.

The production values are high, the writing is intelligent and the plot will keep you guessing right up until the ambiguous ending. It may be a little goofy as a result of the subject matter, but it is nothing like the corny episodes in previous seasons with paper thin archetypes, A-Team like shootouts and excessive time fillers of bad 80's pop tunes played over style over substance montages.

As far as season 4 goes, it's definitely the weakest entry thus far, but considering how strong season 4 has been up until this episode, I'm willing to give it props for daring to be different. One thing is for sure, you never know what's around the next corner and that is way more than I can say for about half of the episodes from season's 2 and 3.

Arguably the worst "Vice" of all

[wallykennedy · 3/10 · 16 November 2019]

Nothing works in this. The plot is crazy. James Brown is not Liam Neeson or Bruce McGill.......he can't act. Too wacky for "Vice".

Mulder & Scully Would Make It Complete

[fmp323 · 10/10 · 11 May 2013]

I guess I'm going to throw the curve, but I really like this episode. But then I not only love MV, I love The X-Files. When they talked about missing time,I thought "Man, Mulder would love to be there!" Even had men in black! I've been watching X-Files a lot lately on Netflix - so this fit right in. Not the first time I've seen it either, though from the reviews I seem like the rare viewer who'd watch it multiple times. James Brown is excellent as well. Different, off-beat, in a good way. I also happen to love many of the episodes in season 4, but not to the exclusion of seasons 1-3. Not sure why some folks don't care for this season....

As for the reviewer who hates MV, why bother to write a review of a show you can't stand????

Miami Peaks or Twin Vice.

[Hannes-15 · 1/10 · 5 May 2007]

This is by the far worst episode of the series. I am a big fan of 80's TV series, anything from the A-team, Magnum PI and even Murder She Wrote. One series that I was never a big fan of was Twin Peaks and this episode of Miami Vice fits better in there than the normal 80's cool Vice episodes.

There were few good points like Chris Rock, I am not a big fan of Rock but he was very good. The pre-credits scene was good, after that it was all down hill.

The plot. What was it? Aliens, Government moving mind altering drugs? Never really got the plot.

Worst episode of the series so far.

[mm-39 · 2/10 · 21 February 2017]

A experimental episode. Like many experimental T V experiments Missing Hours goes side ways and turns awful. A unusual story of a guy who dies, his wife, a U F O convention, and a house boat! Don Johnson adds much humor in a sarcastic way. When Detective Trudy goes into rants about peanut butter, James Brown, and missing time I found the script just too much. Tubb's tries to rationalized the U F O experience, and the government tries to cover up Trudy's experience with Tubbs. If the government people where actually government people. The bizarre ending tires to tie up the conspiracy theme. I found the ending in this though; What the hell did I just watch? 2 out of 10. Missing Hours is an episode that should be missed like a U F O abduction.

What the hell was that ?

[jr-71462 · 1/10 · 20 June 2017]

It isn't April fool's day so that can't be it. It is 2017 and it is a rerun - was this the "jump the shark" point in the series ? I want that hour of my life back. Bad everything - writing, acting, clothes, makeup. This episode isn't even worthy of being called "crap". At least crap was good for something at some point before it became crap. This is maggot feces on crap.

Yow! I Feel BAD.

[Ankhoryt · 2/10 · 10 April 2007]

Why two stars? One for the immortal James Brown (well, I *wish* he were immortal) and one for the 22-year-old Chris Rock, who looks about 17, and still acts the pants off of that dreadful dork who played Tubbs. Brown, of course, was an excellent actor in addition to his unmatched talents as a singer and performer.

I'm not a Miami Vice fan under any circumstances except when they're playing the theme song (though I despise some of the visuals for that) and when Don Johnson is standing still and not talking, in a shot all by himself. In this and in his later series with Cheech Marin, he makes an excellent mannequin for a really great wardrobe mistress. And in "Long Hot Summer," he makes an excellent actor, so let's blame MV on really poor writing.

Other than Johnson standing around being handsome, MV usually is an excuse to dress "policewomen" as prostitutes and send them teetering along in 4" hooker heels, no matter what they're doing. This episode had a lot of that, including at least two trips to a rotting, rope-bestrewn dock where such shoes would be an immediate peril to one's survival. (There's also an extraordinary frequence of needs to have meets in stripper bars, and interviewing witnesses in teeny bikinis down ankle-deep in sand -- no matter what the detectives were wearing at the time -- but two tendencies aren't specific to this episode, they're general complaints).

This was supposed to be a psychedelic mind-futz episode, with LSD-like experiences that involved quaint special effects we can now look back on with nostalgic smiles. There's no spoiler in this review because the plot was so goofy it couldn't hold my attention, despite my best efforts because I wanted to write this review to commend Brown & Rock. So enjoy if you can... LSD? UFOs? Black helicopters? (just kidding; or am I? even *I* don't know for sure). But Brown! Rock! These two are always worth watching, even if the glop inbetween is so forgettable it makes their scenes incomprehensible.

Wow.. they really made that shade of SciFi work

[sky-06599 · 10/10 · 16 January 2021]

I really was wondering what turn they would take and I must honestly say I am surprised.

The plot is ok, but the story telling is great.

It's full suspension until the end, totally loved this episode.

Weird but great

[thorstenkrings · 10/10 · 12 May 2023]

Dick Wolf once said in an interview that there was a point when they were running out of ideas because they felt they had done everything they could with the characters. So season 4 contains some "strange" epiosdes that breal the mould. And if you want strange it doesn't get any stranger than a Thomas M. Disch screenplay. I would argue that Disch's novels are actually high brow literature. Here Disch is having fun with the characters and the storyline. Watching it you keep thinking that there must be a logical explanation for it all but lo and behold, there isn't. So within the framework of Miamai Vice this is certainl not what a viewer expects. Talen by itself I find it weird in an entertaining way and a precurser for later programs such as The X Files and Twin Peaks.