Bad Monkey

Florida Man finds severed arm, beachfront mayhem and sardonic shenanigans ensue.

The first scene of “Bad Monkey,” the new series by “Ted Lasso” creator Bill Lawrence on Apple TV+, shows us exactly what kind of story to expect: A tourist finds a severed arm at the end of his fishing line while on honeymoon in the Florida Keys – an arm frozen in rigor mortis with its middle finger standing straight up. 

From here we enter a story that could seemingly only take place in Florida, or at least the parallel universe of beach-dwelling weirdos who typically inhabit books and movies about Florida. Based on a novel by Carl Hiassen, whose real home and fictional stomping grounds are both in the Sunshine State, “Bad Monkey” dives straight into this garishly colored world of salt water and tacky tourist traps. It does not take long to discover the host of shady characters who lurk just under the surface here, like the rats and roaches in the kitchen of a beachfront restaurant that our hero(?) discovers in Episode 2. 

In fact, the narrative unfolds not only in the Florida Keys, but also a quick plane ride away in the Bahamas. Across these Caribbean locations, a pair of stories begin to unspool, which we know will inevitably become intertwined – not least because our crusty, avuncular narrator tells us so explicitly. The narrator also happens to be captain of the fishing boat that retrieves the arm, but it’s not yet clear why he’s the one telling the story as of the end of the second episode.

We start with Andrew Yancy, a down-and-out police detective who starts the story on suspension after an embarrassing public incident involving his on-again, off-again girlfriend Bonnie (Michelle Monaghan) . . . and her husband. Things just get worse from there as Yancy is drawn into the mystery of the recovered arm, at first because his ex-partner Rogelio (John Ortiz) just wants to help the lazy police chief get it out of his jurisdiction. 

Yancy isn’t the kind of person who can easily leave things alone, being a detective and all. It’s especially difficult to let the case drop when everybody connected with the arm is acting so obviously suspicious – a widening circle involving the arm-bearer’s widow, his daughter, a shady land developer, and even the first mate of the fishing boat. He’s soon not only suspended, but fired and thrown into the unenviable role of restaurant inspector, trying (not very hard) to avoid pursuing the case, so he can have a shot at getting his job back. Joining him reluctantly on the investigation is Rosa (Natalie Martinez), a medical examiner from Miami who also can’t let go of the mystery after inspecting the arm. 

Meanwhile, in the Bahamas, Neville Stafford is a small-time fisherman with a misbehaving monkey (the source of the title, natch), who’s trying to keep his tiny shack from being swept away by the developer of a swanky new resort – a mysterious and very wealthy man named Christopher. Trouble is, it’s already been sold out from under him by his sister, so he is persuaded to resort to desperate measures by consulting a local voodoo practitioner known only (so far) as The Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith). The problem with magic, though, is that it never does exactly what you want it to, when you want it to, so Neville doesn’t have too much luck with this plan yet, which just makes him that much more desperate as he discovers more about the forces he’s up against . . . 

I think television is often a better venue for adapting novels than feature films, because it enables the creators to take their time developing the narrative, while also fleshing out multiple characters and side stories that just aren’t possible with a two-hour run time. “Bad Monkey” spends its first two episodes setting up all the pieces on the chessboard – or rather, letting them all find their haphazard way onto it as the story tosses them all together. By the time we arrive at the end of two episodes, we’re already familiar with at least a dozen characters and there’s a great sense of anticipation as the two stories are about to collide head-on.

I’ll avoid getting into too much more plot detail to avoid spoilers; half the fun of a mystery is discovering the twists and turns as we go. I haven’t read Carl Hiassen’s novel, so where we go from here is as much of a puzzle to me as it is to its characters. Maybe we’ll get more spoilery as the series goes on, as I intend to go right on with it, and I hope you’ll come with me.

Of course, the other half of the fun of a mystery is getting to know the characters, who are why we care about the story in the first place. These are given life by a great cast, even as many step neatly into well-worn tropes of mystery characters. These are people caught up in some nasty business, and each one has made plenty of mistakes – but even so, the tone avoids becoming mean-spirited. In the hands of a different filmmaker (Quentin Tarantino comes to mind), I could easily see such characters becoming much seedier and harder to like. But so far, “Bad Monkey” retains a breezy, bouncy sense of mischief that offsets the grim proceedings. 

The series rides on the performance of Vince Vaughn, who is neurotically glib as Andrew Yancy, maintaining a constant wisecracking patter to keep the world at arm’s length even as it falls apart around him. Vaughn’s knack for balancing genuinely irritating traits with an innate charm serves him well here, as Yancy bluffs and badgers people into helping him at every step, usually with a trademark Gen-X snarky quip. 

Of particular note among the supporting cast so far are Michelle Monaghan as Andrew’s chaotic sometime girlfriend Bonnie (or is she?), who has a playful chemistry with Vaughn but also knows exactly what kind of power she holds over him – and has a background that becomes stranger the more we find out about her. Jodie Turner-Smith is also a compelling delight as The Dragon Queen – thankfully far from a cliché of a fortune teller or magician, though it’s clear that she knows she is expected to play such a role and how to play it. She can be both unnervingly direct and girlishly vulnerable, and her role in the story will undoubtedly grow more important as the next few episodes play out. 

“Bad Monkey” has its flaws, including the voice-over narration I’ve already mentioned, which feels like it’s trying a bit too hard to set a wry tone for the story that is already present in the narrative. (Maybe it’s just a pet peeve of mine, but I rarely find this kind of narration in TV or films useful or interesting. Most of the time the story is better off without it.) But it doesn’t have to break new ground to be entertaining on its own terms – think of it like a fun summer beach book translated to the screen. I’m looking forward to the next chapter.