Bad Monkey

Bad Monkey feels like a classic Vince Vaughn film when he was in his prime. He shines here as the lead of another great Apple TV show. Is it the best show you'll watch this year? No. But it still very good and worth your time to watch. If you like Vaughn then you'll like this and vice versa if you don't like him. He does his classic fast talking, tongue in cheek comedy that he's famous for. This show is based off Carl Hiaasen's best seller. It almost feels it was written for Vaughn, that's how good he is here. The show is also beautifully shot, making the most of the sun filled settings in the Bahamas and Florida. Besides the comedy and action there are plenty of twists and turns to hold your attention.

Apple TV+ has been in fire with all the great tv series they've put out the last few years and Bad Monkey is another home run for them. It stars Vince Vaughn as a former police detective who is now a restaurant inspector, what follows is an action comedy that is as entertaining as you'd think it'd be with Vaughn doing what he does best. It also stars Michelle Monaghan, Natalie Martinez, Meredith Hagner, John Ortiz, among others who all play oddball characters that make this show what it is. This is just a fun, light hearted comedy that's an easy watch to just turn your brain off and have good time watching it.

I like it. Hopefully Vince Vaughn will not turn out to be an alien!

First things first, the opening credits are terrific. The soundtrack is excellent. The writing and atmosphere remind me of Elmore Leonard's 'Rum Punch.' It feels like it was custom tailored for Vince Vaughn who is terrific in the lead role. My only nitpick is Vince should lose the dye job and look his age.

The supporting cast is interesting and eclectic, and other than John Ortiz, essentially unknown to me. Tom Nowicki does a nice job with the rum-soaked narration.

It will be interesting to see if the series can maintain its great start because Apple+ does not have a good track record with original series. But, I'm rooting for Vince!

I am a huge fan of Carl Hiaasen's novels. This serialized version of Bad Monkey, which I reread not too long ago, is very well done. The few changes I noted in passing were logical and made the tv version better than it would have been. I would give the casting and photography high ratings. I'm not particularly a fan of Vince Vaughn, but I think he does well in this show. I like the narrator part, too.

I didn't see Natalie Martinez's name so it was great surprize to recognize her in this. I first saw her in a thing called "Under the Dome", not a very good series. Her performance in "Kingdom" was remarkable. She's good in this one, too.

I hope someone, Apple or not, takes some of Hiaasen's numerous other works for tv or cinema. "Strip Tease" was a pretty good movie as far as I recall. I'm usually not impressed with Apple's tv output, but this one hits the mark!

I love Carl Hiaasen's writing, particularly the Andrew Yancy novels. I'm also a fan of Bill Lawrence. To an extent. Scrubs could be grating, Ted Lasso meandered once he left, Shrinking is... I don't know.

But as far as the first two episodes go, they've nailed the tone of the book and the casting is really good. I never would've picked Vince Vaughn as Yancy, but he's perfect. The world weariness, the sardonic self loathing, it's all there.

You can tell that Lawrence is a huge Hiaasen fan and he's been thinking about this for a while. It's been a few years since I read the book but I like the additions that have been made to pad the story out. Again, I'm basing this off two episodes. I really hope this series is successful and we get a Razor Girl adaptation.

And I think the narration, sort of a lackadaisical Floridian version of Sam Elliot in Big Lebowski. It keeps things wry and offbeat. The only issue I have so far, and maybe just because I know the eventual outcome, is the big reveal in the book works because there isn't a visual element involved and you've been too distracted to think that hard about it. I would be surprised if most people didn't guess what's going on right away. But boy, what a fun beautiful time.