Florida has been the site of a few ambitious-but-exhausting television shows this year, but thankfully Apple’s newest series Bad Monkey breaks the precedent set by the likes of Apples Never Fall and Palm Royale. Like its forerunners, Bad Monkey involves a beachy, sun-soaked mystery and a sprawling cast of characters, but the show keeps things fun for most of its 10 episodes.
Adapted from the Carl Hiaasen novel of the same name by Ted Lasso and Scrubs co-creator Bill Lawrence, Bad Monkey follows the occasionally effective exploits of detective Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn). Well, Yancy was a detective, but the show begins with his employment status in limbo thanks to an assault charge against the husband of his girlfriend Bonnie (MIchelle Monaghan). But when his partner Rogelio (John Ortiz) brings him a severed arm that may or may not be the product of a murder, Yancy can’t help but investigate.
With some help from Miami medical examiner Rosa (Natalie Martinez), Yancy learns that the arm belongs to Nick Stripling, a man of minimal wealth with a few potential suspects in his life. There’s the materialistic new wife Eve (Meredith Hagner), the resentful former drug addict daughter (Charlotte Lawrence), and the looming feds looking into him for insurance fraud. Eve moves on conveniently quick with a beau named Christopher (Rob Delaney), and they’re happy to use Nick’s life insurance money to help build a new resort on the Bahamian island of Andros. The case seems like a pretty cut and dry whodunnit, but a few added untimely deaths turns it into a coastal conspiracy.
Aside from Yancy’s crime solving, Bad Monkey takes a few trips to the Bahamas for an intersecting storyline. Amidst the hotel development, Neville (Ronald Peet) gets his beachside shack bought out from under him. He can’t get his home back, but he can get revenge. Neville visits the island’s Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), a mystical, fearsome figure who practices Obeah and is infamous for her curses. He asks for payback, but both his and the Dragon Queen’s wavering faith make things contentious.
The series that results from these myriad plots is enjoyable if uneven, with a solid number of laugh-out-loud moments and a fair amount of head-scratching ones. The show has a fantastic sense of its dark humor, with a few gory gags being especially memorable. There are plenty of twists as well, injecting the proceedings with some excitement and intrigue. However, the corresponding beats that have Yancy uncovering those twists do strain one’s suspension of disbelief (he solves the central mystery so suddenly and inexplicably that it made this critic double take and rewind). The series struggles with plot contrivances that make everything feel flimsier, from Yancy and Neville’s instant friendship in later episodes to the umpteen times that Yancy gets busted by the authorities but continues his investigation.
The cast is stellar regardless of these hiccups. Vaughn’s self-aware smarminess as Yancy sets a superb tone for the entire series. His chemistry with everyone else on screen is palpable, turning every impromptu interrogation into a veritable roast and helping to anchor the unlikely relationship between him and Rosa. That said, there are times when the riffs go on too long, padding out a show that feels like it could be done in eight episodes rather than 10.
Amidst all the comedy and crime, though, a complex layer of Bad Monkey gets teased out with the help of the Dragon Queen. She’s introduced as a mysterious and magical supporting character, a cliche that may lead you to suspect that she’ll be treated more as a prop than a person. But this show is full of surprises. The Dragon Queen ends up as one of the only characters to really get a dynamic arc. Her story is wrapped up in tradition, faith, and duty—and the desire to get away from it all—and Turner-Smith gives the series’ best dramatic performance by far.
As with many of Hiaasen’s works, Bad Monkey focuses on what people are willing to do—or, rather, what they’re willing to destroy—to get what they want. The series is packed with salient satirizations and plenty of environmentalist messaging, and it all feels more relevant with every passing day. That’s all to say that while the show may not hit the great heights of peak TV, there’s still plenty to get out of it.
The first two episodes of ‘Bad Monkey’ premiere on Apple TV+ on August 14.
