After rear-ending a man and his golf cart off a pier, a police detective within the Florida Keys named Yancy is demoted to restaurant inspector. A decently sardonic premise, even when I’m undecided how that works (aren’t these completely different departments?), however in Apple TV+’s “Dangerous Monkey,” starring Vince Vaughn, Yancy is pulled again into police work when some vacationers out deep sea fishing reel in a disembodied human arm. “We’re within the memory-makin’ enterprise,” their grizzled captain shrugs.
Tailored from writer Carl Hiaasen’s 2013 comedian crime novel, the present is from Invoice Lawrence, of “Scrubs” fame, and, extra not too long ago for Apple, “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking.” Lawrence tends to go sappy in methods I discover emotionally dishonest — the lads on the heart of his reveals, together with this one, are often stunted however good-hearted and we’re presupposed to adore them for it. However tonally, the 10-episode season of “Dangerous Monkey” is aiming for one thing completely different, and for the higher.
Yancy is the quippy, easygoing lone ranger of the sort that usually reveals up within the novels of Thomas Pynchon or Elmore Leonard, with endless confidence, however judgment that isn’t all the time one of the best. The form of man who doesn’t observe the principles, however someway nails the unhealthy guys anyway. That’s a promising setup.
The present largely works. However I would love it significantly extra if somebody apart from Vaughn have been within the central position. He doesn’t embody a selected character a lot as play a model of his well-worn persona, delivering a glib, fast-talking patter however little else to recommend there’s a human being beneath all that bluster. He’s clean behind the eyes.
Audiences will possible be drawn to the present both approach. Regardless of an abundance of tv due to streaming, the precise high quality within the combination has gone approach down. I feel at this level viewers are simply grateful for something midway competent and entertaining and the form of simple watching that doesn’t insult your intelligence.
So what’s with that arm pulled from the water again within the Keys? Yancy is instructed to drive it as much as Miami and hopefully offload the case to the nice people of Dade County. However not earlier than he buys some popsicles and contemporary crab and tosses them within the cooler together with the arm. On the morgue, he meets the medical expert, Rosa (Natalie Martinez), who will ultimately group up with him on the case (and fall into mattress with him, as nicely). If solely there have been some sizzle between them, however their chemistry stays theoretical.
A parallel storyline unfolds within the Bahamas, the place a younger fisherman named Neville (Ronald Peet) and his pet capuchin monkey (who’s neither unhealthy nor good, however merely there) stay a easy and idyllic life in a seaside shack left to Neville by his father. Seems, the land has been offered out from below him and the common-or-garden abode is demolished when a few obnoxious American builders (Meredith Hagner and Rob Delaney) come seeking to construct a resort. They’re additionally — shock! — related to that mysterious arm.
Trying to stymie their plans, Neville seeks out the providers of a priestess often called the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), who’s struggling a disaster of confidence and simply needs off the island. Her story takes some time to get going — initially it veers awfully near exotifying the character — but it surely turns into probably the most resonant narrative of the sequence, particularly because it pertains to her push-pull relationship along with her grandmother (a terrific L. Scott Caldwell). Turner-Smith’s profession has been underwhelming up to now, however when she will get an opportunity to be susceptible right here, she’s fairly good.
Ultimately, Yancy and Rosa make their option to the Bahamas, the place the storylines lastly intersect. An unseen narrator guides us by means of all of it — pattern voiceover: “(She) knew she would possibly get a UTI banging within the jacuzzi, however she nonetheless felt it was value it” — which provides the present a mirthful vitality and persona it’s in any other case missing. Plus, there’s a short however welcome look by Scott Glenn, underplaying it superbly as Yancy’s terribly Zen father.
The present is basically a portrait of downmarket scammers and oddballs who lack an ethical compass or perhaps a conscience. The setting is a fantasy all by itself, contemplating the Florida Keys are floor zero for sea-level rise in Florida. However possibly that’s an excessive amount of of a bummer for “Dangerous Monkey” to acknowledge. It’s blissful to sort out the sleazoids of humanity. However the local weather disaster? As if!
“Dangerous Monkey” — 2.5 stars (out of 4)
The place to look at: Apple TV+
Nina Metz is a Tribune critic.
Initially Printed: August 14, 2024 at 5:30 a.m.