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If you’re in the market for a detective show, there’s no shortage of options. You’ve got your sad detectives and your sadder detectives. You’ve got your British detectives, your Nordic detectives, your True detectives. With Bad Monkey, though, you’ve got something else altogether. Meet the Florida Man detective.
Based on a 2013 novel by high king of Sunshine State satire Carl Hiassen and adapted by Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Ted Lasso, Shrinking), Bad Monkey is a refreshingly wacky spin on a genre that’s dominated TV since Columbo. (The first episode dropped on Apple TV+ this week, once again signaling the streaming service’s Prestige Dad™ ambitions.)
We might as well start with the arm. A Florida Keys fisherman reels in a severed arm, which then lands in the hands of Andrew Yancy, a disgraced Miami police detective doing time in purgatory as a health inspector in the Keys after beating up his girlfriend’s husband. As far as protagonists go, Yancy, played by Vince Vaughn, is one you want to hang with for 10 episodes. An endearingly sardonic, chatty, no-bullshit animal lover who, unlike your prototypical TV detective, is not particularly tormented.
Yancy’s former partner Rogelio (give it up for That Guy John Ortiz), advises him to just toss the arm to some hungry gators. He keeps it in his freezer instead, which kicks off a zigzagging adventure featuring shady real estate deals, Medicare fraud, Michelle Monaghan, a voodoo priestess, affairs of the heart, affairs of other parts, and one little monkey, all guided along by the warm, grizzled tones of narrator Tom Nowicki, who makes Hiassen’s words leap off the page.
Here’s what differentiates Bad Monkey from the gritty detective shows of the moment: it’s actually funny. (Also: it’s well-lit. Also: the weather is good.) 2000s-era comedy stalwart Vaughn is just the start. I’m a big fan of Rob Delaney, co-creator and star of Catastrophe, as a writer, comedian, and person, and I loved seeing him play against type here, opposite Search Party’s Meredith Hagner, who’s equal parts menacing and hilarious.
Will Bad Monkey keep you at the edge of your seat dying to find out what happens next? Not so much. You might not even really care who did what. But it’s a reminder why the Florida Keys have long been a fertile ground for stories about weirdos (complimentary) and eccentrics. And sometimes the satisfaction is, much like a trip to the beach, just about relaxing and luxuriating in a good vibe.
