Bad Monkey: Season 1

This series had all the hallmarks of a winner when it was announced in August of 2021. You have the comedic crime capers of popular novelist, Carl Hiaasen, a pitch-perfect piece of casting in Vince Vaughn doing what he does best and a monkey. Because who — beside the cast of Friends — doesn’t love a monkey? And then you look at that date: August 2021. The show debuted in August of 2024. Now, as a person with some math skills, that means exactly three years of cast changes, script changes, edits and re-edits to get to a workable show. And that generally spells trouble. Often you end up with dead ends in your narratives, inconsistent character development and disjointed plot cohesiveness. So it was with this in mind that we sat down to watch what I otherwise would have thought would be a real home run of a series.

First, I have never read a Hiaasen book. But my understanding is that Vaughn’s detective character, Andrew Yancy, is the protagonist in two of his novels, including Bad Monkey. I am and have been aware of his work, though. I didn’t realize, of course, that there is actually very little monkey in Bad Monkey. I mean there is a monkey, but he plays no real role in the goings on. I’d call him a tertiary character. Or one wrung lower than that. Second, the show wasn’t as much of a mess as you might think given the behind-the-scenes reporting. Are there some weird dalliances and murkiness with the B, C and D plots? For sure. Are there a few moments where you ask yourself why they take the most appealing character in the show, Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez), and just kind of send her away? Absolutely. At ten episodes, is it probably two episodes too long? Yeah, it is. Despite being too long, are there also some odd continuity questions with the story — like how did Yancy and this islander dude, Neville (Ronald Peet), suddenly become fast friends? Yup.

The issue is there’s just too much going on. I imagine it tries to follow the book, but we’re constantly bombarded with new wacky characters and groups who have an interest in the development and overdevelopment of land in the Florida Keys and Andros Island in the Bahamas. Because it’s clear that Hiaasen has this kind of human/nature connection that he feels is threatened by the tourist industry and the new wealth that is always looking to destroy the natural way of things with construction and progress. This philosophy clearly undergirds his philosophy and why the bad guys in this story are the bad guys and why Yancy, who just wants to hang on the beach and love and respect the native wildlife, is the good guy. The funny thing is, the plot, such as it is, is in itself a red herring. We go into it thinking we’re watching a murder mystery when a severed arm is pulled out of the water by a fishing boat. Because a human arm equals dead body, right? Well, maybe not. Maybe it’ really is’s really about how people who try to build stuff where Hiaasen feels it shouldn’t be built deserve what’s coming to them.

Yancy is your typical down-on-your-luck dude. Fired from his detective job for dumping an abusive husband in the bay, he is eventually hired back as a restaurant inspector in the Keys. He’s lonely, a developer has built an ugly spec mansion right next to his bungalow and his romantic life seems to be on pause. But you can’t take the detective out of the game that easy, so when he hears about the whole arm thing he snoops around and meets the aforementioned medical examiner, Rosa. In doing so, he gets two prongs of his former life back: the excitement of an investigation and a potential love match. Win win. And, honestly, this would have been a fine linear story. Wisecracking Vaughn in conjunction with absolutely adorable Martinez are terrific together and could have shared the screen for the entirety of the series without the constant side trips to the Bahamas and the internal machinations of the life insurance scam the human arm turns out to be. Because we, the audience, know pretty early on that the owner of the arm, Nick Stripling (Rob Delaney), is very much alive. Just missing an arm. So it goes from a mystery show to a crime show. And, I hate to say it, but insurance fraud just isn’t that interesting as far as crimes go. Even when the characters end up murdering people to cover their tracks.

At the show’s core is a decent idea. One that could honestly extend for seasons if Vaughn is game. His character is great. His detective friend, Rogelio (John Ortiz), is great. My understanding is that the Rosa character doesn’t extend to the second Yancy novel, but hopefully they can find a way to bring her back. But it feels like some of the characters — especially the incongruous homicidal turn of Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner) — felt bolted on. At times it even felt like they were in a different story. Like they filmed a bunch of the stuff in the Bahamas to help flesh out something they felt was missing in the main storyline. The Neville character, for unsance, made no sense (even though his monkey is the monkey) and kind of flitted around just happening to be in the right place at the right time to be a stand-in for plot holes and a connector to unconnected story points. And the whole Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith) storyline with the witchery and familial stuff, which also had to do with overdevelopment of pristine land, just felt like someone being forced to get a b plot in there. And, look, I actually enjoyed the show, even with its foibles. Oh, did I mention Michelle Monaghan plays Yancy’s ex-girlfriend who molested an underage boy when she was a high school teacher, and that the whole show is voiced over by a random boat captain? And that’s only two of the additional points of weird. Yeah, shit’s a little all over the place. But, yes, I think with maybe just one more year (!), they could have trimmed some of the fat, narrowed the focus and lean into the magic that happens whenever Vaughn is on screen with just about anyone.