Explores Miami Vice’s combination of disparate influences (MTV, film noir, soap opera, ‘high concept’ action films) as well as the social, cultural and industrial moments when it burst onto the network

Introduces readers to major components of televisual analysis--style, storytelling, the television show as commodity and ideological critique-- that illustrate the show’s unique features

Provides a model for students’ own assessment of other shows, and confirms precisely how--and on what terms--Miami Vice redefined the police drama and an era