Okay, everyone in the room who wore a pastel coloured jacket with white t-shirt and white loafers without socks in the '80s take one step forward.

C'mon... I know there are a few of you out there...

...ah, that's more like it, let's see... one, two, three... six... 24, 120... er, okay, a grand total of four of you.

And me, that makes five. Five trendy, cutting edge cool looking hipsters who learned everything there was to know about fashion and sunglasses from one television show, the epitome of televisual cool, Miami Vice.

"We need backup and some firm hold styling mousse! NOW!"

Who didn't want to live on a boat called the Saint Vitus Dance? Who didn't want a pet alligator named Elvis? Who didn't want a black Ferrari Spyder? (Even if it was a fake with a Chevy engine). Or a white Testarossa? Or Rayban sunglasses? Or a three day growth? The list goes on and on...

Simply way too cool for words. On with the shows...

DISC 1
Calderone's Return
It's a race against time for Crockett and Tubbs when Sonny's name is discovered to be next on the list of people getting murdered by a dealer making power moves back into the criminal drug underworld of Miami.

Fashions:
Sonny wears a black tee with an aqua jacket and chartreuse slacks.

Music:
Pointer Sisters I'm So Excited.

"Put your hands where I can see them or the plush leather sofa and ornate mirror frame get it!"

Calderone's Return Part 2
Calderone has escaped to the Bahamas, and Crockett is out for revenge after narrowly escaping a hit attempt. This time it's personal for Tubbs as well, as Calderone is revealed as responsible for his brother's death. There's a cool montage when they use the Scarab to travel from Miami to the Bahamas.

Fashions:
Sonny wears white linen pants, a green tee and a designer floral print open shirt. Tubbs dispenses with the suits and goes bare chested wherever possible.

Music:
Tina Turner What's Love Got to Do With It?.

Florence Italy
When a teenage prostitute is found murdered following a street race between Crockett and Tubbs in the Daytona and an unknown person in an exotic Porsche sportscar, the only clue points to an up and coming race car driver.

Fashions:
Sonny's in a white jacket with shoulder straps and white pants with a purple tee. Also a white tee with grey jacket and pink pants. Yep, pink.

Music:
Jimi Hendrix Up From The Sky.

DISC 2
Miami Vice/Pilot
This double ep is the launch of the show, and also the beginning of the Calderone story. Crockett works in the Miami Vice Squad, Tubbs is cop from New York investigating Calderone. When Crockett loses his partner to a car bomb, he hooks up with Tubbs to continue the investigation. This Calderone story continues on disc 1, though it's possible that my preview discs had their labels swapped in this is actually disc 1, which would make more sense.

Fashions:
In the first ep they hadn't settled on the Rayban Wayfarers yet and the Ferrari didn't show up until the second half, so Crockett wears BluBlocker shades and drives a white musclecar. He actually manages to wear a shirt though, it has buttons and all. Amazing!

Music:
Cyndi Lauper Girls Just Wanna Have Fun and Phil Collins In the Air Tonight.

French Twist
A young girl witnesses a murder at a hospital. Investigations reveal that the killer is a vicious international criminal. A female Interpol agent is assigned to work the case with Crockett, but Tubbs doesn't trust her. Crockett sleeps with her anyway.

Fashions:
Pale blue pants with a peach coloured open neck top and gun holsters for machismo.

Music:
Jan Hammer goes nuts with his synthesizer.

Made a long time ago in a sun drenched, drugged out galaxy far far away, this was filmed long before the concept of widescreen televisions and HDTV, so the 4:3 picture will just have to do. The first ep doesn't look great, with washed out colours and struggling to create anything resembling a solid black. These aspects improve as the episodes go, but they all have their moments of dullness, and the softness to the picture isn't too great a problem.

Clarity is reasonable for the age of the product, but it does show its fair share of marks and crap on the print. The encoding has been pretty generous, with a miniscule amount of aliasing and a slight smearing of the finest detail being the only bugaboos to rear their perfectly tanned heads.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 stereo mix is a totally uninspiring and unimpressive affair, struggling to bring any real weight and impression to the shows. Shootouts suffer most, as do the car chases, with gunshots sounding very weak and recessed, probably the limpest element of the sound design. For dialogue it at least conveys things clearly enough, and the sound is generally free from hiss so it's not too bothersome. This helps the music out as well, those sweet sounding '80s hits that you thought (prayed) you'd forgotten. My wife walked in on me watching this DVD and told my two year old son that daddy was taking a holiday in the '80s. And like her taste in music is any better! She still freaks out when she hears a Spandau Ballet or ABC song on the telly. Freak!

Get yourself in the mood for this. Pull out volumes 1 and 2 of the Miami Vice soundtrack on LP record, put on a pair of linen jocks and pour yourself a wine cooler. The coolest show on television is back.