Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey Is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts

After Bill Lawrence (writer, producer, and comedy expert) tapped into one of the most beloved shows in recent years with Ted Lasso as co-creator then followed it up with another hit (Shrinking) right away, it’s both unexpected and disappointing that his latest series, Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey, feels more like a dud than another triumph. 

His new comedy-drama (based on the 2013 novel of the same name by Carl Hiaasen) is a big mess. Not an unwatchable or maddening one per se, but a mess nonetheless. It’s overstuffed and overwritten—showcasing dozens of characters and unnecessary subplots—yet also possesses that charming quality that makes Lawrence’s light-hearted shows a delight. It may be the book’s fault (I haven’t read it), but the plot of its TV version comes off as contrived and needlessly chaotic from the start.

Our hero, Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn, flexing his comedy muscles) is the obnoxiously talkative detective of Key West (previously Miami Police) with a revoked license he desperately tries to reinstate. For now, though, he’s doing the degrading work of Roach Patrol as a health inspector. That is until his former partner Rogelio (John Ortiz) dumps a severed arm on his doorstep and asks him to take it to a Miami coroner and see if she can connect it to an ongoing investigation there. Yancy sees this (incorrectly) as a chance to get his license back sooner, depending on whether he can prove that (based on his hunch) the limb’s owner was murdered. So, despite the multiple warnings of his ex-colleague not to pursue the case, he begins an investigation that takes him back and forth between Key West, Miami, and eventually the Bahamas.

Alongside him, we’re forced to follow seemingly never-ending threads that introduce eccentric characters like an insufferable real estate bro, the bitchy widow of the man the arm belonged to, a Voodoo Dragon Queen Lady in the Bahamas, and several others who are involved in the case one way or another—or not at all. Oh, and there’s also a monkey that has nothing to do with anything, but it’s here anyway because… well, the title.

If all this sounds convoluted and far-fetched, that’s because it is. However, once an early twist reveals crucial information about the arm and its owner, the plot turns out to be much simpler—and, unfortunately, less engaging—than you expect. Thus, watching Bad Monkey feels like the equivalent of meeting a half-drunk stranger at a bar who has a good story but can’t tell it well and also suffers from ADHD. To put it bluntly: it’s exhausting.

Though Lawrence and his writers do their best to sell it as a feel-good comedy by applying over-the-top, goofy humor to the bonkers-yet-likable characters, the result is strangely underwhelming. The well-assembled and diverse cast somewhat improves the constant awkwardness of the series but can’t pull off a miracle. As much as I enjoy Vince Vaughn talking my ear off with ridiculous nonsense, his constant babble is a lot to endure here. You would think that a goofball such as Yancy would be a perfect fit for him, but, somehow, even his tough-guy gangster in True Detective Season 2 felt weirdly more inspired than anything he does as a silly, erratic, and egomaniac cop here.

That applies to the entire series, too. I simply couldn’t shake the feeling throughout these 10 episodes (all of which were provided for review) that Bad Monkey wanted to be so many things (satire, crime fiction, drama) that it failed to become any of them. The unnecessarily overlong episodes (often close to an hour) with a superfluous and at times cringy voiceover (by a character who’s barely even part of the story) didn’t help much either.

That said, the one aspect where the series undoubtedly succeeds is capturing the breezy and laid-back vibe of the Sunshine State and the Bahamas impeccably. It’s simply hard to be mad at a show this handsomely shot, taking place in not one but three paradise-looking locations. Taking in the landscape of Key West and Miami, you can almost feel the humid heat on your skin, breathe the salty air in your lungs, and the sudden urge to put on a flamboyant Hawaiian shirt like you’re on vacation. Yes, there’s murder and blackmailing and corpses—which are all native to Florida anyway—but it’s also an endless summer down there. And at the end of the day, Bad Monkey wants you to relax and have a good time, maybe with a cocktail or two to ignore all the bad jokes and gaping plot holes.

Plot holes and tiresome performances aside, some of the supporting characters and their arcs that fall almost entirely outside of the main case are good fun on their own. Like Michelle Monaghan’s Bonnie, who keeps escaping life (and the law) by constantly running from it through bad hook-ups and weird affairs with men she never really wants but ends up with anyway. Or Jodie Turner-Smith’s force of nature Dragon Queen, a dangerously beautiful woman wanting to abandon her roots and the island she grew up on by any means in the hope of a better and more exciting life. And then there’s Scott Glenn, playing Yancy’s sweet and enigmatic father, channeling the same unforgettable energy he brought to The Leftovers. I would watch a show about either of them as the lead, but as a part of Bad Monkey, they often feel out of place and oddly redundant.

Overall, Lawrence’s series is overpacked with characters, storylines, and jokes it has no place for, desperately wanting to please any and every viewer who presses play. But in trying to capture everyone, it succeeds in truly capturing no one. But if you need a virtual vacation to the tropics because you can’t afford a real one, I guess you could do worse. 

Bad Monkey premieres Wednesday, August 14th on Apple TV+.

Akos Peterbencze is an entertainment writer based in London. He covers film and TV regularly on Looper, and his work has also been published in Humungus, Slant Magazine, and Certified Forgotten. Akos is a Rustin Cohle aficionado and believes that the first season of True Detective is a masterpiece. You can find him talk about all-things pop culture on Twitter (@akospeterbencze) and Substack (@akospeterbencze).

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