The Florida Keys is paradise on earth. As long as you ignore the crime, the corruption, the eccentric locals and some issues involving a pet monkey in a mini diaper. After a fisherman pulls a severed arm from the water (one that’s flipping the bird), the authorities want the problem disposed of immediately. Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), a detective on suspension due to an unfortunate incident involving his girlfriend’s husband, is tasked with dumping the limb. He senses that not all right is in this case, and soon he finds himself on the hunt for a possible murderer. Cue the treacherous family members, a gorgeous coroner assistant, a real estate scheme in the Caribbean, voodoo queens and, yes, one misbehaving primate.
Apple TV+’s “Bad Monkey” brings together TV maven Bill Lawrence of “Scrubs” and “Ted Lasso” fame and Carl Hiaasen, perhaps the most beloved comedy crime writer in America. The patron saint of Florida sleaze has made his name on stories of weirdos, scandals and “it could only happen here” drama in the Sunshine State. Given the popularity of his work, and its naturally cinematic qualities (fast-flying dialogue, frenetic action, memorable oddball characters), it’s somewhat surprising that we haven’t gotten more adaptations of his work.
“Bad Monkey” certainly makes a solid case for more, even if it falls a touch short of its goals.
Typically for a Hiaasen story, there are many twists and turns, all helped along by a cavalcade of memorable weirdos. There’s Bonnie Witt (Michelle Monaghan), Yancy’s ex-girlfriend with a secret past; Even Stripling (Meredith Hagner), the widow of the owner of the missing arm who doesn’t seem especially bereaved by what’s happened to her husband; and Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez), a Miami coroner who becomes Yancy’s accomplice. Across the waters in Andros, Bahamas, resides the other weary protagonist of the tale, Neville Stafford (Ronald Peet.) Having lost his beloved beach house to ruthless out-of-town developers, he’s determined to do whatever it takes to get back what is his. And what else is a man with only a pet monkey to do but acquire the services of the local spell practitioner, the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith)? It doesn’t take long for everyone’s paths to cross in barmy fashion.
Lawrence is no stranger to a dash of cynicism in his comedy, although his best known works are those that put proud earnestness to the forefront, such as “Ted Lasso”, his Apple TV+ mega-hit. Hiaasen is not known for pulling his punches or leaning into the grotesque with his portrayals of seedy rich bullies, low-level crooks and cops with more on their mind than justice. Lawrence is mostly savvy enough to not get in the way of Hiaasen’s own language, or his oft-explored ecological concerns (the biggest punching bag of the show is a flop-sweaty real estate salesman, played by “SNL” star Alex Moffat, who is desperately trying to sell an ugly McMansion next to Yancy’s house.) It all works best when it embraces the sun-drenched noir of detective questions, shady witnesses and the general aura of bad things around every corner. If anything, “Bad Monkey” could stand to have more bad taste. Some jokes taken from the source material pull their punches in a way Hiaasen never would (Yancy’s attack on his girlfriend’s hubby is far worse in the novel, and funnier as a result.) It’s a Florida show, after all. Why not revel a little more in the state’s surrealness? At least they have the good decency to play a Jimmy Buffet song or two along the way.
On paper, Vince Vaughn is the ideal choice for a Carl Hiaasen antihero. As one of the core members of the Frat Pack, the early 2000s ragtag crew that defined mainstream American comedy cinema, Vaughn’s sardonic persona was one of the smart straight(-ish) guys of the group, halfway between sanity and madness. For the most part, he makes for a good protagonist. Yancy is a good cop who does bad things, a public mess who still has a strong moral core even as he causes havoc wherever he goes. In many ways, he’s a character you could have taken from any Vince Vaughn movie in 2006.
The issue is that the series has no idea when to rein in its star. Why tell one joke when you could make four in a row? Yancy just never stops talking and it wears thin very quickly. This is a Vaughn original since the book has Yancy keeping his quips pretty restrained. Was the star and executive producer being paid by the word? If only they’d given him and the audience some room to breathe.
A 300+ page book gets 10 episodes that are roughly an hour long each, and while some expansions to characters like Neville, Rosa and the Dragon Queen are welcome, the lag is also obvious (and it gives Vaughn even more time to fill dead air with rambling.) One wonders why Lawrence, an expert at the 30-minute comedy, didn’t tighten things up and commit to that format instead. It makes better sense for something that’s supposed to be as zippy as a Carl Hiaasen story. Instead, the expansion reveals the flaws in the narrative, akin to that very messy third season of “Ted Lasso”, which made the same mistake.
One of the bigger twists in the book is revealed rather early and you feel the air deflate the narrative as a result. Would that “Bad Monkey” have been more noir and less comedy.
“Bad Monkey” premieres Wednesday, Aug. 14, on Apple TV+.
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