And the terrible ones are just as entertaining, at least in the first couple seasons. I'm sure it's gone way downhill by the end but I haven't gotten that far.

It's easy to forget how much stuff we take for granted about TV drama didn't exist before this show.

Like a lot of pop culture, I saw so many derivative products, parodies, and things influenced by it that by the time I actually saw the original thing it was totally worn out for me.

MIAMI MICE

Miami Vice, for all of the cheese, pretty much created the blueprint for the style of the modern prime-time TV drama. Michael Mann then went on to direct Manhunter, which is pretty much episode 0 of CSI, which speaks a lot to his influence on television.

How does it stack up against Dexter?

Far, far superior to Dexter.

Manhunter rules, Thief rules even more, and I just watched Heat last week for the first time since it came out and it holds up. Michael Mann has really grown on me.

Is i really?

I know Dexter gets ragged on, especially around here, but it's still a very watchable show; far, far better than the average CSI/Bones/whatever crap you'd find on network television! I was under the impression that Miami Vice was very much a standard network cop drama; better than most, perhaps even the ggld standard of such shows, but still clearly made for a pre-Sopranos world.

I could be wrong about that, because as I said, most of what I know about Miami Vice comes from Miami Mice and the occasional Simpsons reference.

Dexter is like a smelly sneeze. Miami Vice is a booger you show off proudly.