when Irish eyes are crying

I got so bored the other day that I followed my temptation to watch a repeat of the 1980's show Miami Vice entitled 'When Irish Eyes Are Crying', this episode to me seemed to mark the beginning of a serious and slightly darker tone that the series took on in the late 1980's usually tying in political things to happening (at the time) to the flashy Ferrari driving pastel wearing "police men".

This episode was no exception and shows the arrival of some well known IRA members to Miami who are suspected by the department of trying to acquire arms from a South American dealer which include Stinger missiles and biological warfare shells.

As this is going on the Saundra Santiago falls for the IRA man played by Liam Neeson who seemed to have been putting on a rather cringe worthy stereotypical Irish accent.

Crockett's meet with an arms dealer over the purchase of Stinger missiles he suspects the IRA of trying to acquire results in it's testing on the biggest trademark of the series until that point;

His Ferrari Daytona:



Now not to get too technical but not only would it be a complete waste for a portable SAM heat seeking missile like the Stinger which is expensive and which isn't designed for taking out sleek Ferrari's driven by Miami Vice cops but instead airliners high in the sky, as in the term Surface to Air Missile which is what it is.

Not only that but the destruction of that Ferrari showed a real turning point in the show as it got darker and grittier and begun to deal with real events, this one detailing the troubles in Northern Ireland was followed if I remember correctly by an episode dealing with US troops in Nicaragua doing something or other.

Anyway the plot shortly thereafter begun to thicken showing the IRA guys to be really terrorists and about to get in the shit of some passengers of an incoming British Airways Concorde using the Stingers they have acquired, however thanks to Edward James Omos and his M-16 tooting from helicopter skills their plans are thwarted ensuring Miami didn't become the shows Lockerbie as well!

It was an interesting episode worth the 40 minutes of watching TV, but not much more than that, that being said I don't think this entry was really worth writing!

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In real life in early 1990 four Irish men were arrested for trying to acquire Stinger missiles for activities outside of the United States, they tried to buy these missiles in, yes you guessed it, Florida off of two undercover FBI agents!