Monday, March 25, 2013

Pastiches: Miami Vice's "Shadow In The Dark"

At the same time Michael Mann was directing the 1986 movie Manhunter, he was also executive producer on TV's Miami Vice. He was a key contributor to that show, focusing on the aesthetic and visual look of the show.

In the third season of the show in 1986 an episode entitled "Shadow In The Dark" appeared, which many have noted has strong similarities in plot and look to "Manhunter" (and therefore "Red Dragon"), with "Sonny" Crockett becoming Will Graham, struggling to retain his own sanity whilst delving into the disturbed mind of cat burglar "The Shadow" (somewhat like "The Tooth Fairy").


2 comments:

  1. Wasn't that the Red Dragon gambling character scribbled on the wall @0:37? (you know, the same one that was carved in the Jacobis tree.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Definitely looks like it. I think the story goes that Don Johnson was "promised" the role of Will Graham in "Manhunter" by the studio, but Michael Mann went with William Petersen instead, so this episode of Miami Vice was Johnson demonstrating that he could have done the role well.

    ReplyDelete