There’s a monkey in “Bad Monkey,” a new miniseries premiering Wednesday on Apple TV+ based on the book of the same name by Carl Hiaasen, but aside from an affectionate bite on the ear and an inability — or perhaps a refusal — to do tricks, it doesn’t do anything wrong.
In fact, the monkey, named Driggs, is quite adorable (though admittedly, he's less adorable on the page). In any case, “Bad Monkey” is a more catchy title than “Adorable Monkey,” and more suited to a tale of fraud and murder under a tropical sun.
Set in Hiaasen’s usual South Florida stomping grounds, with trips to the Bahamas thrown in, the novel stays true to the author’s genial spirit, following its main plot with the usual tweaks and interpolations, fleshing out supporting characters and adding some anomalous magical realism to soften the blow of one of its several intertwining plot lines. Developed by “Scrubs” creator and “Ted Lasso” co-creator Bill Lawrence, it’s like three or four episodes of an episodic television series fused into one, in a generally tasty, unpretentious way: It’s not so much a meat-and-potatoes production as it is a fried shrimp-and-beer affair.
This is, for the most part, a comedy with campy, folksy narration by Tom Nowicki and enough jokes to fill all six “Thin Man” movies — whose combined running time is nearly matched by this 10-episode series — though you couldn’t really say they’re jokes, since it’s the laconic, fast-talking hero Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn) who’s doing the talking. Yancy is a former Florida Keys police detective, suspended for using his car to push his girlfriend’s husband’s golf cart (with her husband) into the sea. Bonnie Witt, played by Michelle Monaghan, is the girlfriend, a sexy, slightly dangerous bibliophile whose real name is not Bonnie Witt.
Michelle Monaghan plays Bonnie Witt (or is that her real name?), one of Andrew Yancy's love interests.
(Apple)
Despite the carjackings, the adultery, and his creative attempts to sabotage the sale of a monstrous yellow house next door, Yancy is 97 percent a good guy, straight-laced when necessary, tenacious in a way he can’t help himself: the kind of hero who remains at least outwardly unflappable in any situation and whose company, in the engaging person of Vaughn, is oddly soothing. Sensitive to nature, he enjoys his beautiful ocean view and the wildlife that comes to his property and more than once points out that the streetlights are red so that newly hatched baby turtles won’t mistake them for the moon and head away from the ocean instead of into it. And he really hates that big yellow house.
Meanwhile, in the Bahamas, on the island of Andros, young fisherman Neville Stafford (the charming Ronald Peet), owner of the monkey that bears his name, has a parallel problem: the seaside shack his father left him and in which he would be happy to spend the rest of his days is threatened by a resort development. Neville is more immediately threatened by the developer's local thug, Egg (David St. Louis), completely amoral and terrifying, but with a lovely singing voice.
A severed human arm, picked up by a fishing tourist, is handed over to Yancy when the local sheriff tasks him with transporting it to the Miami police in the hopes that it will relieve his headache. This brings him into contact with medical examiner Rosa Campesino (a vivacious and energetic Natalie Martinez), who, as you and I both know, will end up having some sort of relationship with our hero (they bond over mango ice cream).
Yancy comes to believe that what looks like an accident (a shark? a propeller?) may simply be murder, especially after he meets Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner), the widow of the identified owner of the severed arm. And with no official charge, he sets out to investigate, towing Rosa behind him, much to the concern of his best friend and former partner, Rogelio Burton (John Ortiz), whom Yancy constantly encourages to be more emotionally expressive.
Through a series of twists and turns, Yancy's quest will lead to Andros, where Eve turns up alongside the resort's developer, Christopher Grunion (Rob Delaney), and where Neville, encouraged by friends, has turned to the mysterious and imperious woman known as the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), a practitioner of Obeah, for magical help in keeping his house.
The supposed bad monkey stars Ronald Peet as Neville, a Bahamian trying to stop his land from being developed.
(Apple)
The Bahamas scenes, especially the expanded story of the Dragon Queen (she's a major character here) are tonally distinct from the rest of the series. They're closer to pure drama, shaped and enhanced by Turner-Smith's commanding performance; in fact, hers is the only plot in the series that could be called moving, the rest being interesting, funny, exciting or amusing. As we get closer to a reckoning, the bad characters get worse, desperation increases the danger and there's a hurricane. But this isn't the kind of show that will let evil go unpunished or afflict the good with senseless tragedies. It believes in happiness.
Among the famous faces in this large and universally impressive cast are Zach Braff, “like you’ve never seen him,” as a pill-popping Medicare scammer, and Scott Glenn as Yancy’s spiritually inclined father, Jim. Bob Clendenin is funny as a needy, fast-talking pilot, and Gonzalo Menendez earns his boos as a corrupt cop. L. Scott Caldwell as the Dragon Queen’s grandmother; Charlotte Lawrence as Eve’s stepdaughter, a Christian hipster; and Nina Grollman, as Madeline, a young woman Yancy keeps a close eye on after her boyfriend is murdered, all make the most of their screen time. Alex Moffat plays the real estate developer who hangs out behind the big yellow house; he doesn’t care what happens to the baby turtles.
Even the small roles, of which there are many more, are more substantial than usual, as if Lawrence felt it would be unfair to give each actor too little to do.
What makes “Bad Monkey” special is that it’s not special at all. It’s a bit whimsical at times, with its huge cast of characters and myriad plot lines, some of which are, strictly speaking, unnecessary, but it gets the job done in a colorful, traditional way. While many streaming mysteries obsess over style, depth, sociopolitical relevance and formal novelty, aiming to become talking points, the conversation around “Bad Monkey” might just go like this:
“Have you seen the show 'Bad Monkey'?”
“Yes, it's good.”
“Cool.”
“Cool.”
