Miami Vice backdrop
Crime•Drama

The Best Episodes of Miami Vice

Every episode of Miami Vice ranked from best to worst. Let's dive into the Best Episodes of Miami Vice!

Binge this in 3d 18h•Peaking at 8.9/10

The story of the Miami Police Department's vice squad and its efforts to end drug trafficking and prostitution, centered on the unlikely partnership of Sonny Crockett and Ricardo Tubbs - who first meet when Tubbs

Airs on
NBC
BestEpisodes
WorstEpisodes
BestSeasons
AllEpisodes

Seasons5

All12345

Episode Rankings

  1. #1 Fan Favorite
    Click to reveal
    Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 3 - Out Where the Buses Don't Run
    8.9/10(1064 votes)

    #1 - Out Where the Buses Don't Run

    S2:E3

    Crockett and Tubbs question the sanity of a retired vice cop who wants them to chase after a coke dealer thought to be dead.

    Director:Jim Johnston
    Writer:Maurice Hurley

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  2. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 12 - Definitely Miami
    8.7/10(2173 votes)

    #2 - Definitely Miami

    S2:E12

    Crockett finds out first hand about Charlie Basset as a violent drug runner with an enticing wife that Sonny just can't get out of his mind.

    Director:Rob Cohen
    Writers:John Mankiewicz, Daniel Pyne

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  3. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 21 - Evan
    8.6/10(839 votes)

    #3 - Evan

    S1:E21

    Crockett and Tubbs join forces with the Federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms ... including Crockett's old partner Evan Freed. Tubbs tries to understand their troubled relationship.

    Director:Rob Cohen
    Writer:Edward di Lorenzo

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  4. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 11 - Forgive Us Our Debts
    8.6/10(569 votes)

    #4 - Forgive Us Our Debts

    S3:E11

    New leads persuade Crockett that a man he put on death row might be innocent, but a campaign-conscious DA is reluctant to help.

    Director:Jan Eliasberg
    Writer:Gustave Reininger

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  5. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 4 - Calderone's Return: The Hit List (1)
    8.5/10(1071 votes)

    #5 - Calderone's Return: The Hit List (1)

    S1:E4

    The team moves to protect Crockett and his family from an assassin, hired by Calderone to re-empty the void he left behind.

    Director:Richard A. Colla
    Writer:Joel Surnow

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  6. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 22 - Sons and Lovers
    8.5/10(571 votes)

    #6 - Sons and Lovers

    S2:E22

    The son of Tubbs' arch-enemy Calderone oozes to the surface with a $1 million contract on Tubbs, while Calderone's sister Angelina says Tubbs is the father of her child.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Dennis Cooper

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

    7. Trending NowTRENDING NOW

    The 20 WORST Episodes of Miami Vice

    READ
  7. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 15 - Smuggler's Blues
    8.4/10(895 votes)

    #7 - Smuggler's Blues

    S1:E15

    Someone in law enforcement is murdering drug dealers and their families in cold blood. To find the culprit, Crockett and Tubbs go undercover and travel to Colombia with a laid-back pilot to pose as dealers.

    Director:Paul Michael Glaser
    Writer:Miguel Piñero

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  8. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 1 - Brother's Keeper
    8.3/10(2668 votes)

    #8 - Brother's Keeper

    S1:E1

    Miami detective Sonny Crockett reluctantly teams with New York cop Rico Tubbs when both of them end up pursuing a drug dealer who killed their partners.

    Director:Thomas Carter
    Writer:Anthony Yerkovich

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  9. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 1 - The Prodigal Son
    8.3/10(911 votes)

    #9 - The Prodigal Son

    S2:E1

    Crockett & Tubbs go to Manhattan to find a group of Colombian drug dealers who are killing federal agents.

    Director:Paul Michael Glaser
    Writer:Daniel Pyne

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  10. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 15 - Little Miss Dangerous
    8.3/10(706 votes)

    #10 - Little Miss Dangerous

    S2:E15

    Crocket and Tubbs visit Miami's kinky Sex World parlor when a sailor shows up murdered. The trail leads to a mysterious underage dancer Tubbs tries to straighten out - but is this more than social work?

    Director:Leon Ichaso
    Writer:Frank Military

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  11. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 19 - Payback
    8.3/10(583 votes)

    #11 - Payback

    S2:E19

    A reclusive drug supplier thinks Crockett has the $3 million stolen by the dealer's former employee.

    Director:Aaron Lipstadt
    Writer:Shel Willens

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  12. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 4 - Walk Alone
    8.3/10(582 votes)

    #12 - Walk Alone

    S3:E4

    Tubbs poses as a con to expose prison guards who are extorting drugs from inmates, and killing those who refuse.

    Director:David Jackson
    Writer:W.K. Scott Meyer

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  13. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 12 - Down for the Count (1)
    8.3/10(530 votes)

    #13 - Down for the Count (1)

    S3:E12

    Zito reluctantly uses a boxer as bait to help the vice squad nail a former drug kingpin involved in bookmaking; it ends in tragedy and the loss of a comrade for the vice cops.

    Director:Richard Compton
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  14. Miami Vice Season 4 Episode 22 - Mirror Image (2)
    8.3/10(464 votes)

    #14 - Mirror Image (2)

    S4:E22

    A concussion leaves Crockett thinking he is his drug dealer alter-ego Burnett and goes to work for a Colombian crime boss.

    Director:Richard Compton
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  15. Miami Vice Season 5 Episode 1 - Hostile Takeover (3)
    8.3/10(449 votes)

    #15 - Hostile Takeover (3)

    S5:E1

    Still thinking he is really Sonny Burnett, Crockett starts a war between the crime family he has joined and a rival clan.

    Director:Don Johnson
    Writer:Ken Solarz

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  16. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 5 - Calderone's Return: Calderone's Demise (2)
    8.2/10(1025 votes)

    #16 - Calderone's Return: Calderone's Demise (2)

    S1:E5

    While on the trail of Calderone in Bimini, Tubbs falls in love with a woman who forces him to consider his loyalties.

    Director:Paul Michael Glaser
    Writers:Joel Surnow, Alfonse Ruggiero

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  17. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 19 - The Home Invaders
    8.2/10(778 votes)

    #17 - The Home Invaders

    S1:E19

    The squad is assigned to assist Robbery with a string of brutal home invasions. Castillo is concerned the officer in charge - who was Crockett's mentor - is mishandling the investigation and the two clash, leaving Crockett torn between loyalty and a resolved case.

    Director:Abel Ferrara
    Writer:Chuck Adamson

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  18. Miami Vice Season 1 Episode 22 - Lombard
    8.2/10(715 votes)

    #18 - Lombard

    S1:E22

    Crockett and Tubbs must protect a reluctant witness from his prior employers -- the Mafia family that wants to silence him.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  19. Miami Vice Season 2 Episode 8 - Bushido
    8.2/10(722 votes)

    #19 - Bushido

    S2:E8

    Castillo is forced to choose between friendship and duty when Jack Gretsky, his best friend from his days in Vietnam with the CIA, reemerges from the criminal underground complete with a Russian wife who is being pursued by the KGB.

    Director:Edward James Olmos
    Writer:John Leekley

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  20. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 5 - The Good Collar
    8.2/10(544 votes)

    #20 - The Good Collar

    S3:E5

    A star high school athlete, arrested for delivering heroin, agrees to help Crockett trap a 15-year-old drug lord; it turns ugly.

    Director:Mario DiLeo
    Writer:Dennis Cooper

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  21. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 7 - El Viejo
    8.2/10(585 votes)

    #21 - El Viejo

    S3:E7

    Crockett & Tubbs keep tabs on a crusty old stranger who plans to cut a deal with a murderous Bolivian drug dealer.

    Director:Aaron Lipstadt
    Writer:Alan Moskowitz

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  22. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 13 - Down for the Count (2)
    8.2/10(486 votes)

    #22 - Down for the Count (2)

    S3:E13

    Switek is outraged by Internal Affairs' findings; Crockett and Tubbs' TV gambit may prove fatal when a mobster reclaims the action lost to Guzman.

    Director:Richard Compton
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  23. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 15 - Duty and Honor (a.k.a. The Savage)
    8.2/10(514 votes)

    #23 - Duty and Honor (a.k.a. The Savage)

    S3:E15

    Castillo is not the only one to realize that a series of prostitute murders matches the M.O. of killings in Vietnam in the early 70s; the cops get help on the case from a man claiming to be a Vietnamese inspector.

    Director:John Nicolella
    Writer:Marvin Kupfer

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  24. Miami Vice Season 3 Episode 19 - Red Tape
    8.2/10(535 votes)

    #24 - Red Tape

    S3:E19

    Tubbs searches desperately for the source of information leaks about future busts.

    Director:Gabrielle Beaumont
    Writer:Michael Duggan

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

  25. Miami Vice Season 4 Episode 21 - Deliver Us from Evil (1)
    8.2/10(433 votes)

    #25 - Deliver Us from Evil (1)

    S4:E21

    A murder case that hits close to home reunites Crockett with the man who used him to trick his way off Death Row.

    Director:George Mendeluk
    Writer:Unknown

    Be the first to start the conversation for this episode

Best Episodes Summary

"Out Where the Buses Don't Run" is the best rated episode of "Miami Vice". It scored 8.9/10 based on 1064 votes. Directed by Jim Johnston and written by Maurice Hurley, it aired on 10/18/1985. This episode scored 0.2 points higher than the second highest rated, "Definitely Miami".