Tubi Thursday: Miami Vice's Version of 'Manhunter' (aka 'Shadow in the Dark')

 A TV Version of Manhunter?  The same year as the Film?

Someone should tell Michael Mann about this!
Oh, he was an Executive Producer, you say?

Let's take a break from Movies to discuss the Episode of Miami Vice called...

A strange and mysterious man nicknamed The Shadow breaks into people's houses...but doesn't kill them.

Instead, he eats their raw meat and steal...men's pants?

Crockett and Tubbs are on the case.  They're also sharing a Car, since this Episode was supposed to air BEFORE Crockett get a replacement Car (it was blown up in the Premiere).

The issue- this one was bumped back to air on Halloween, screwing up the continuity.

The Lead Detective on the case is intense...and has gone a bit crazy.

After beating up an informant, he shows up at what he thinks is one of The Shadow's potential victims and shoots the meat cooler.

Is his brush with insanity some not-so-subtle foreshadowing?

Things escalate as The Shadow hits another House- after Tubbs fails to find him- and does something bad to the lady in the House...off-camera, since this is 1980's TV.

Now things are serious, so Crockett goes even deeper and stops sleeping.
That didn't work out well for Christian Bale, but I like his chances.

His sanity is tested, but he finally is able to figure out The Shadow's plan and find out the House he will hit.

Him and Tubbs arrive just in time to stop the guy from stabbing a victim, since, I guess this escalated quickly for him.

Crockett stops him, but has to insist that 'he's a Cop' to the would-be victim, since he looks so messed up.

The Episode proper ends with a dream sequence and...oh, that's it.  The End.

On the positive side, there are many differences here.
On the negative side, there are many differences here.

That said, this is still *obviously* inspired by the Film.  The Shadow isn't as scary as The Tooth Fairy- see below- but his look is definitely inspired by him.  I wonder if they gave him the tattoos and then never showed them too.

The idea here is a neat one- Crockett gets too deep trying to catch a criminal.  It's just kind of a shame that he does for someone that didn't even attack anyone at that point.  Yes, things escalate when Shadow attempts something, but the whole 'I'm losing myself' thing was already going strong.

It's also a bit repetitive at times, as we see at least 3-4 Scenes of people talking to him or being concerned around him.  We got it- show me something else.

In summary, it's a fine enough Episode that sets things up for later with Crockett, but basically gives nobody else much to do, if anything.  Makes you just want to, you know, scream, right?

For what it's worth, it was neat to see a Vice Episode that tried something new.  There's none of the usual flair here, which, is kind of ironic, since that is heavily present in Manhunter.