Miami Vice: Season 4, Episodes 20-22 (complete)

Episode 4.20 A Bullet For Crockett - When a season is running out of money what does it do? Decide it's time for that old "flashbacks to previous episodes 'clip show'". Crockett shot and in hospital is the excuse and only Switek (with help from light relief character Izzy) actually tries to find the shooter whist rest mope around his bedside... they even throw in some stock footage for the operation itself! Glenn Frey's fantastic "Smuggler's Blues" track (which an episode of the same name in season 1 was inspired by and actually had Glen as a guest star) played in full over a flashback montage is the only plus point of this poor effort.

Episode 4.21 Deliver Us From Evil - Hackman, a bad guy from Crockett's past Crockett has a good reason to hate (see the excellent Season 3 episode "Forgive Us Our Debts") returns resulting in personal deaths on all sides and Crockett on the path of revenge. A great final scene in which I had, in the past, misinterpretted the final camera shot as a TV exec insisting on a 'cop out' ending (which softened the impact somewhat) but I now realise it wasn't... It may be just me not realising all these years (!) but if not, without spoilers, then if when you watch it it strikes you as a bit of a 'cop out' ending instead maybe you should believe what Crockett says in that scene and think that there may have been a few seconds we don't see between the penultimate and final camera shots...

Episode 4.22 Mirror Image - Crockett loses his memory in an explosion and 'becomes' his undercover drug-dealer alter ego, Burnett, whilst his colleagues believe him dead. There are obvious parallels with the Star Trek "Mirror Mirror" universe (not least the title!) in the idea behind this excellent episode, which showcases Don Johnson as he plays the part of a ruthless bad guy wonderfully and indicates what his character could have become if he really had decided to work on the wrong side of the law. Due to it's odd nature this is certainly not an obvious season closer which actually makes it the brave and thrilling finalé turns out to be..