After rear-ending a guy and his golf cart off a pier, a police detective in the Florida Keys named Yancy is demoted to restaurant inspector. A decently sardonic premise, even if I’m not sure how that works (aren’t these different departments?), but in Apple TV+’s “Bad Monkey,” starring Vince Vaughn, Yancy is pulled back into police work when some tourists out deep sea fishing reel in a disembodied human arm. “We’re in the memory-makin’ business,” their grizzled captain shrugs.
Adapted from author Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 comic crime novel, the show is from Bill Lawrence, of “Scrubs” fame, and, more recently for Apple, “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking.” Lawrence has a tendency to go sappy in ways I find emotionally dishonest — the men at the center of his shows, including this one, are frequently stunted but good-hearted and we’re supposed to adore them for it. But tonally, the 10-episode season of “Bad Monkey” is aiming for something different, and for the better.
Yancy is the quippy, easygoing lone ranger of the type that often shows up in the novels of Thomas Pynchon or Elmore Leonard, with unending confidence, but judgment that isn’t always the best. The kind of guy who doesn’t follow the rules, but somehow nails the bad guys anyway. That’s a promising setup.
The show largely works. But I would like it considerably more if someone other than Vaughn were in the central role. He doesn’t embody a specific character so much as play a version of his well-worn persona, delivering a glib, fast-talking patter but little else to suggest there’s a human being underneath all that bluster. He’s blank behind the eyes.
Audiences will likely be drawn to the show either way. Despite an abundance of television thanks to streaming, the actual quality in the aggregate has gone way down. I think at this point viewers are just grateful for anything halfway competent and entertaining and the kind of easy watching that doesn’t insult your intelligence.
So what’s with that arm pulled from the water back in the Keys? Yancy is instructed to drive it up to Miami and hopefully offload the case to the good folks of Dade County. But not before he buys some popsicles and fresh crab and tosses them in the cooler along with the arm. At the morgue, he meets the medical examiner, Rosa (Natalie Martinez), who will eventually team up with him on the case (and fall into bed with him, as well). If only there were some sizzle between them, but their chemistry remains theoretical.
A parallel storyline unfolds in the Bahamas, where a young fisherman named Neville (Ronald Peet) and his pet capuchin monkey (who is neither bad nor good, but simply there) live a simple and idyllic life in a beach shack left to Neville by his father. Turns out, the land has been sold out from under him and the humble abode is demolished when a couple of obnoxious American developers (Meredith Hagner and Rob Delaney) come looking to build a resort. They are also — surprise! — connected to that mysterious arm.
Looking to stymie their plans, Neville seeks out the services of a priestess known as the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), who is suffering a crisis of confidence and just wants off the island. Her story takes a while to get going — initially it veers awfully close to exotifying the character — but it becomes the most resonant narrative of the series, especially as it pertains to her push-pull relationship with her grandmother (a terrific L. Scott Caldwell). Turner-Smith’s career has been underwhelming so far, but when she gets a chance to be vulnerable here, she’s quite good.
Eventually, Yancy and Rosa make their way to the Bahamas, where the storylines finally intersect. An unseen narrator guides us through it all — sample voiceover: “(She) knew she might get a UTI banging in the jacuzzi, but she still felt it was worth it” — which gives the show a mirthful energy and personality it’s otherwise lacking. Plus, there’s a brief but welcome appearance by Scott Glenn, underplaying it beautifully as Yancy’s extraordinarily Zen father.
The show is fundamentally a portrait of downmarket scammers and oddballs who lack a moral compass or even a conscience. The setting is a fantasy all on its own, considering the Florida Keys are ground zero for sea-level rise in Florida. But maybe that’s too much of a bummer for “Bad Monkey” to acknowledge. It’s happy to tackle the sleazoids of humanity. But the climate crisis? As if!
“Bad Monkey” — 2.5 stars (out of 4)
Where to watch: Apple TV+
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
