Based on Bad Monkey by Carl Hiaasen
Developed by Bill Lawrence
Starring
Vince Vaughn
L. Scott Caldwell
Rob Delaney
Meredith Hagner
Natalie Martinez
Alex Moffat
Michelle Monaghan
Ronald Peet
Jodie Turner-Smith
Music by Waz & Jamie Jackson
Episodes 10
Executive producers: Bill Lawrence, Jeff Ingold, Matt Tarses, Marcos Siega, Vince Vaughn, Liza Katzer
Producers Stephanie Johnson, Jean Higgins
Cinematography: John Brawley, Michael Watson,
Editors: Les Butler, Perri Frank, Evan J. Warner,
Running time 39–57 minutes
Production companies: Doozer Productions, Warner Bros. Television
Original release Network: Apple TV+
Release: August 14, 2024 – present
As soon as I noticed that Bad Monkey was based on a Carl Hiaasen book of the same name, I knew I was in for a treat. Hiaasen is reliably loopy, witty, dark, with indelible characters and absurd but compelling murder mystery plots. And Apple+ has a well-deserved reputation for ensuring that television series respect the source material. (Severance, For All Mankind, Hijack, Slow Horses).
The opening sequence is an CGI masterpiece, with sand sculptures representing figures and events in the series rapidly melting as sand sculptures do. The final one, ominously, is an old six shooter gun melting into a pool of blood. It’s a subtle warning that Hiaasen comedies always involve a body count, and it’s not always just the baddies that get greased along the way.
Vince Vaughn is Andrew Yancy, a rather dissolute and unkempt former police detective who cut one too many corners and tweaked one too many official noses and is now relegated to the inglorious role of restaurant inspector, which in the Florida keys may be an even more hazardous line of work. He has an ideal home on the south shore of the keys that no insurance company would touch, but his life has been blighted by the construction of a grotesquely huge bright yellow Mcmansion on the adjoining property. Also, the realtor trying to sell the home is a real dick.
Ronald Peet is Neville Stafford, a young fisherman living in a oceanside shanty not far from Yancy, but in a different country (Bahamas, Andros Island) who returns home one day to find the shack has been torn down after his sister sold the inherited property out from under him. Both stories are linked through a pair of unscrupulous developers, one of whom first appears as a disembodied arm wearing a $250,000 Rolex. The local shaman is drawn into all this. Per Wikipedia: “A severed arm is discovered by a fishing boat off the coast of the Florida Keys. Ex-detective Andrew Yancy, suspended for having assaulted the husband of his lover, is tasked to deliver the arm to the Miami morgue. The arm is identified by Dr. Rosa Campesino as having belonged to Nick Stripling and is returned to his wife Eve. Eve’s step-daughter Caitlin believes she killed her father for his money. At a bar, Yancy witnesses Charles Phinney, the first mate of the boat where the arm was found, being shot dead. On Andros Island, resident Neville Stafford consults with the local Obeah, Gracie, known as the “Dragon Queen”, to put a curse on the developers seeking to replace his home with a resort. Christopher, the man developing the resort, is revealed to have been the one who shot Phinney.”
Thus the stage is set. Oh, yes, there is a monkey. Driggs, a tufted Capuchin. Cute little bugger, starts out as Neville’s inseparable companion. And Scott Glenn is there as Yancy’s father, Jim, who is one of the only middlin’ mystics on the show and doubles as the series narrator.
There’s murder, mayhem, a large building getting exploded and even a hurricane (only a Cat 3 because let’s not get overboard here). A complex and twisted plot, where everything falls neatly into place by the end. This is pure enjoyment from start to finish.
Now on Apple +