Vince Vaughn has made a career of playing characters like Bad Monkey’s Andrew Yancy: wisecracking cynics who seamlessly switch between sarcastic one-liners and charming missives. It’s the kind of role Vaughn can play in his sleep, but his crackling performance in this new Apple TV+ series suggests an actor giving maximum effort. Adapted by Bill Lawrence from Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 bestseller of the same name, Bad Monkey sees the co-creator of Ted Lasso and Shrinking gathering another group of misfits and oddballs in an entertaining, if not scattered, crime comedy that kicks off with the discovery of a severed arm with its middle finger extended.
Set in the Florida Keys, Miami, and Andros (the largest island in the Bahamas), Bad Monkey takes advantage of these vibrant locales – they play an integral role in the motives of the heroes and villains. Yancy may be a former Miami detective who’s now working in the Keys as a health inspector, but this is a self-inflicted downgrade – and it isn’t all bad. Although his current job is unfulfilling, the view from his oceanside house has a nurturing and therapeutic effect. While the disgraced detective is described as “consistently reckless, inappropriate, and glib,” he does have a softer side: He’s so deeply connected to nature, he lights the outside of his home with red bulbs to help guide baby turtles back to the surf. It’s the classic gruff exterior/heart of gold combo, meaning Yancy doesn’t fall too far into asshole territory. Plus, the red lighting adds to the tension during romantic interludes and a dangerous standoff later in the season.
Early on, as the pieces quickly fall into place, Yancy realizes the case of the potentially fatal flipped bird is the perfect stopgap until he gets his gun and badge back. The mystery leads him to medical examiner Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez), who feels lost in a career that exposes her to the worst of humanity. Immediately, their fast-talking, flirtatious interactions have a screwball energy that taps into Vaughn and Martinez’s undeniable chemistry. Martinez more than holds her own during the morgue meet-cute and subsequent team-ups, volleying quips right back at her co-star.
Witty banter is a longtime Lawrence signature that’s come to define his Apple TV+ output. Like Ted Lasso and Shrinking, Bad Monkey is led by characters who struggle to communicate, but Yancy has a stronger sense of self than Coach Lasso or Jimmy Laird. (While his career is going down the drain, confidence is not something he lacks.) The ensemble that’s built around Yancy further distinguishes Bad Monkey as the work of the TV veteran who created beloved early 21st century comedies Scrubs and Cougar Town. Each of the relationships that splinter off from Vaughn’s character adds layers to a guy who’s as lovable as he is self-destructive. Best friend and former partner Rogelio Burton (John Ortiz) is the grouchy voice of reason, who also brings the mysterious arm into Yancy’s life. Endless bickering between this duo offers insight into how Yancy functions in a partnership, but the underlying love is equally telling.
Tom Nowicki pulls double duty as a fishing boat captain and narrator whose gruff voice adds to the series’ humor and contemporary hardboiled detective atmosphere; Search Party’s Meredith Hagner gives Yancy a worthy adversary as Eve Strippling, the widow of the man whose arm gets all of Bad Monkey’s balls rolling. She’s a scene-stealer who hilariously struggles to squeeze out any tears over her dead husband’s fate. Eve is quick to move on with property developer Christopher (Rob Delaney), who, despite first appearance, is more puppy dog than terrifying. Opposite Hagner, Delaney is reliably great as the man whose wheeling and dealing is a threat to this piece of paradise.
Nowicki’s narration does some heavy lifting to assure us that the various threads strung around the central case will come together, but the story suffers from feeling disconnected at times. The Keys and Andros portions of Bad Monkey are linked by depictions of humankind’s detrimental impact on wildlife. Conflict on the island, which veers in some surprising directions, centers on the Obeah-practicing Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith, deftly portraying a woman whose complexities extend beyond her personal beliefs and rituals), her grandmother YaYa (L. Scott Caldwell), and the different players in the luxury development saga that’s threatening the home and livelihood of Bahamian fisherman Neville Stafford (Ronald Peet). (Neville’s capuchin monkey, Driggs, is the series’ simian namesake.) Back in Florida, Michelle Monaghan, as Yancy’s ex, Bonnie, is compelling as a woman who wants to live in a great novel, but hers is one storyline that starts strong before adding to the meandering overtones. The prevailing trends of the streaming age tend to either rush a series or lazily nudge it toward the finish line, and the first season of Bad Monkey lands more in the latter camp – the shortest of its 10 episodes is 40 minutes.
But while the season could do with two fewer episodes, spending time with guest stars like Scott Glenn, Ashley Nicole Black, and Zach Braff is never a bad thing. And it’s never hard to look at: Bold blues and lush greens make Bad Monkey pop without throwing an unnecessary orange filter that lesser shows use as visual shorthand for “Florida.” (Hello, CSI: Miami.) Not all the bright shades give Yancy the calming effect he’s seeking, and a yellow eyesore property next to his “happy place” provides an amusing, constantly escalating running joke. Despite some overall shagginess and meandering storytelling, Bad Monkey is consistently funny, and Vaughn does a stellar job captaining this boat.
