Five Reasons Why You Need To Watch ‘Bad Monkey’

I recently wrote about how Apple TV+ seems to be willfully ignoring any sort of promotion for Bad Monkey, its latest prestige streaming TV show. Apple seems to not want to promote any of its shows, but it seems odd in this case, when Bad Monkey is reportedly the top TV show on the service.

So I took it upon myself to spread the Bad Monkey gospel, as it were. The show is a sunshine noir (think Burn Notice, Magnum, P.I. or Veronica Mars) revolving around Andrew Yancy (Vince Vaughn), who is currently on suspension from his gig as a detective in the Florida Keys and recently got demoted to restaurant inspection duty. When he’s tasked with delivering a cooler containing a severed human arm with a watch tan line (but no watch) to the police, he gets curious.

And that’s when he uncovers a labyrinthine plot that involves murder, sketchy speculative real estate, a Bahamian voodoo priestess called the Dragon Queen, a romance with a medical examiner, and one mischievous monkey. Everything and everyone is related somehow. The show is based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel of the same name, and so far, it’s been great at preserving his satirical ethos. The plot can get to be a little much sometimes, but the colorful characters and funny narration always bring you back.

If that’s not enough, here are five more reasons why you should be watching Bad Monkey:

 It’s got Vince Vaughn in his element

Look, maybe you’ve been a fan of Vince Vaughn and his brand of quick-talking improv since his Frat Pack days. Or maybe you got sick of his motormouthed schtick a long time ago. Perhaps you’re more a fan of his weirder choices in Freaky, True Detective or Brawl in Cell Block 99.

No matter your preference, Vaughn’s performance in Bad Monkey is like if he took the down-to-earth elements of Dodgeball’s Peter La Fleur and combined them with a toned-down Trent from Swingers and made him a detective. He does for Carl Hiaasen’s dialogue and prose what Timothy Oyphant did for Elmore Leonard’s writing in Justified. He’s still funny and he still riffs a lot, but he’s older and wiser. He’s so money, baby.

(And sadly, even though the poster features Vince Vaughn with the titular bad monkey, the two have only met once so far. Stay tuned.)

It’s got great music

For whatever reason (maybe because he’s from Florida), a majority of the show’s soundtrack is comprised of Tom Petty covers. Eddie Vedder does “Room at the Top,” War on Drugs does “You Wreck Me,” Jason Isbell & the 400 Unit does “You’re Gonna Get It.” If Apple’s primary audience is Gen X dads, (or, in this writer’s case, an elder millennial with the music taste of a Gen X dad), they nailed it.

Episode 3 also features a geographically appropriate use of the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band’s steel drum cover of “P.I.M.P.” (thanks, Anatomy of a Fall, for revealing that hidden gem to the world).

It’s bright!

This should not have to be a point in this show’s favor. We used to light shows correctly in this country. Now the lighting on every show on a streaming platform tends to look like dogshit, and good luck if you’re watching something set in dark places that relies on a lot of special effects.

Bad Monkey is, truly, one of the brightest shows on television. Apple TV+ usually lights its shows brightly — even Dark Matter, which features an entire episode inside a dark cube, still manages to make it so that you know what’s going on in the darkness — but the Florida location only helps. And there are a lot of special effects; this is a show that features a severed arm and a pet monkey as plot points, plus a running bit involving a giant manatee. But not once have I ever had to squint or turn up the brightness on my TV to make sure I didn’t miss something.

It’s thematically appropriate, too. So much of Hiaasen’s work is about satirizing paradise and exposing the seedy corruption happening out in the open daylight. Bad Monkey takes that concept and literalizes it more than most sunshine noir.

It acts like a TV show 

Again, this is something that shouldn’t be revolutionary, but it is. Each episode of Bad Monkey consists of a main plot and a subplot. Each subplot, which also informs the main plot, is resolved by the end of each episode, while the main plot moves forward. Every episode ends on a cliffhanger that makes you want to watch the next episode right away.

In short, it’s what TV used to be. An “8-hour long movie,” this is not.

Bad Monkey was developed by Bill Lawrence, who is now best-known for Ted Lasso, but before that, he was best-known for Scrubs, which pulled off that kind of A-B-C plotting structure like clockwork. Scrubs was also great at pulling off tonal switches from comedy to drama without giving the viewer whiplash. Bad Monkey thrives off of that dynamic, going from weird gross-out body horror one moment to quippy buddy cop comedy the next.

It’s got a great supporting cast

Hiaasen’s work is full of colorful characters, and Bad Monkey is no different. John Ortiz as Yancy’s partner who can’t help but help him is a clear standout, as is Meredith Hagner as a (supposedly) grieving widow.

Other standouts include Rob Delaney as a shady real estate developer; SNL’s Alex Moffat as a douche realtor trying to sell a house next door to Yancy; Zach Braff as a sleazy doctor; Lost’s L. Scott Caldwell as the Dragon Queen’s mother; Scott Glenn as Yancy’s father/mouthpiece for Hiaasen’s environmentalism (he’s the one with the running manatee bit); and Michelle Monaghan as Yancy’s sometimes ex-lover, who also just happens to be a sex offender on the run.

With so many characters and so much plot to fit in, it’s a wonder that any of them make an impact, but the performances always manage to find a way to shine.

There, you’re all caught up. Now go watch one of the best shows of the year.

New episodes of Bad Monkey are released every Wednesday on Apple TV+.