‘Bad Monkey’ Recap, Episode One

About midway by means of the primary episode of Apple TV+’s new collection, Dangerous Monkey, the narrator (Tom Nowicki) asks us to be affected person, promising that “it can all make sense finally.” However do I actually care if it is smart finally? The reassurance is good, however what if I’m simply glad to go alongside on the trip? With a stellar forged, a tremendous soundtrack, and a ton of laugh-out-loud moments, it already seems like this can be a present the place the journey is the vacation spot.

Dangerous Monkey is tailored from Carl Hiaasen’s cult-classic novel of the identical title. Set in Miami, Key West, and the island of Andros within the Bahamas, it’s a deeply humorous, sprawling thriller that enlists a listing of eccentric characters longer than the severed arm on the story’s middle. On the heels of two hit exhibits for Apple TV+ (Ted Lasso and Shrinking), creator Invoice Lawrence antes up for an adaptation for the streamer. And, if the primary episode is any indication, he’s bought a aptitude for bringing the web page to the display. The collection makes use of an omniscient narrator to convey Hiaasen’s distinctive voice to the present and punctuate the proceedings with wickedly humorous observations on the interior lives of the wild characters. I do know it’s just one episode in, however to date, I’m having fun with the whole lot this present is serving up.

Central to the narrative is the wry, wisecracking detective, Andrew Yancy, performed by Vince Vaughn. As everyone knows, Vaughn has had a really profitable profession taking part in wry, wisecracking dudes, and his vibe clicks with Yancy’s. (Your mileage could differ in case you aren’t completely into Vince Vaughn doing his Vince Vaughn factor, however I dig it.) Yancy is like an antihero with none off-putting grit. Yeah, he’s antagonizing the real-estate agent (Alex Moffat) who’s constructing a hideous yellow monstrosity subsequent to his serene property, however the agent is a complete douchebag. And certain, his girlfriend, Bonnie (Michelle Monaghan), is married, however she appears fairly chill about the entire state of affairs (nicely, till she finds a bloody arm in his freezer). Yancy is an affable and content material man. He’s fairly glad together with his life, apart from the truth that he’s been suspended from his beloved job as a murder detective as a result of the truth that he rammed Bonnie’s husband’s golf cart into the ocean after he noticed him slap Bonnie. That is an objectively hilarious factor to do to another person — particularly a person whose spouse is dishonest on him with YOU — and we’re additionally sort of on Yancy’s aspect right here. Each man who hits his spouse ought to 100% be forged into the ocean; Yancy is simply out right here doing God’s work.

Because the episode opens, Yancy’s previous companion, Rogelio (John Ortiz), involves him with a proposition: Carry a random severed arm to Miami and attempt to dump it on the coroner there. Yancy is intrigued. He is aware of he’s getting handed crap jobs underneath the desk whereas he’s underneath suspension, however he’s additionally recreation for something that brings him again to his previous beat. So he heads as much as Miami, stops by the morgue, and instantly engages in a heavy flirtation with the hottie coroner, Dr. Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez). Yancy immediately has a flirty rapport with virtually everybody he meets, however this one one way or the other feels completely different. By the top of the episode, these two enthusiastically exchanged mango popsicles near quickly decaying physique components, and that certain felt like a twisted model of soulmates. Rosa says she has a boyfriend, however something might occur within the subsequent 9 episodes, proper?

Rosa shortly informs Yancy that Miami PD just isn’t lacking an arm from a white dude, however she has a curious thoughts, too. She extracts some suspiciously small shark tooth from the wounded space and likewise notices that there’s a watch lacking from the wrist. She’s , however she’s additionally a busy gal, so she sends Yancy and his little arm, too, again to Key West. On the way in which dwelling, Rogelio means that Yancy dump the arm in a swamp, however Yancy is simply too principled a cop and too invested within the curious story behind the arm to only feed it to the gators at this level.

And it’s an excellent factor he sticks it within the freezer together with his leftovers as a result of a girl named Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner) comes searching for it just about the very subsequent day. Yancy will get saddled with the duty of dropping it off to her in a random parking zone. I agree with Eve that this very a lot seems like a drug deal. Why didn’t she should go to the station to choose it up? On the very least, wouldn’t she should fill out some paperwork claiming it as hers? However by no means thoughts. The shady pickup state of affairs provides us a enjoyable change inside Eve’s automotive through which Yancy is aware of she’s hiding one thing, and he additionally will get to react to her telling him that her husband, Nick, named his boat “Summer time’s Eve” after her. Perhaps that not-so-fresh feeling knocked Nick off his boat?

Yancy will get formally fired from the pressure for questioning Eve, however after seeing Mrs. Stripling’s bizarre response, he can’t let issues go. So, he heads to Nick’s funeral and does some snooping. Not solely does he encounter two FBI brokers there, however he additionally runs into Nick’s jaded daughter, Caitlin (Charlotte Lawrence). Caitlin is filled with fireplace and doesn’t take any shit. She is satisfied Eve killed her dad, however she has no proof. She additionally hasn’t spoken to her father in over a yr. To Eve — a catty trophy spouse — she’s clearly the stepdaughter from hell, and she or he in all probability doesn’t need her poking round in her life.

This episode bounces between two storylines and, initially, Eve is the one one we see in each. As she’s grieving Nick’s demise, we see her wander by a person named Neville (Ronald Peet) at his soon-to-be demolished fishing shack on the island of Andros. We meet Neville and his (dangerous) monkey, Driggs, on the day that they discover out Neville’s half-sister has bought the place out from underneath him to ensure that a developer named Christopher to make room for a glamorous resort. Neville is determined to maintain his slice of paradise, so he tries to think about something to stop it from being torn down. Sadly, Neville just isn’t one for considering exterior the field, so the one lightbulb he has entails pissing within the building crew’s gasoline tank.

Later, he goes ingesting together with his pals, and one in all them tells him he ought to seek the advice of the Dragon Queen, purveyor of old-school Obeah, conventional curses, and spell-casting. At first, Neville is reluctant — his mother didn’t imagine in Obeah — however when he lastly pays the queen a name, he’s totally enchanted by her spell. Me too, Neville. Me too.

Jodie Turner-Smith is a sight to behold because the Dragon Queen. Her power is fierce, and she or he owns the room, confidently controlling each iota of what her company do and see whereas they’re in her house. She even appears to have sway over her Ya-Ya (the great L. Scott Caldwell), as she banishes her from the room as quickly as Neville seems. As his pal instructed, Neville provides the queen some cash, a bottle of booze as an providing, and an article of the developer Christopher’s clothes. The Dragon Queen circles him, giving us sufficient time to really respect her killer purple eyeliner, flirts with him, after which shoos him away like a fly with out even telling him what she would possibly try to do to unravel his downside. Her energy is awe-inspiring, and I worship her already.

That evening, Neville sees the developer return from the States. It’s a man in an orange poncho, the identical man that Yancy sees homicide one of many solely witnesses from when the arm was pulled from the ocean and onto a vacationer fishing boat. {That a} man would put on an orange poncho to commit a drive-by homicide is completely looney tunes, but it surely helps us determine him within the remaining few moments of the episode. The narrator guarantees that he’s been telling us the identical story all alongside, a promise that feels a bit much less dramatic than the present needs it to be as a result of it’s unclear why we must always care about this developer man in any respect. However with this pleasant murder-mystery-dinner really feel of the forged of characters and the plentiful laughs, this present can take me anyplace so long as it continues to vibe this difficult.

• Did anybody else really feel just like the present was sort of giving Dexter a nod when Yancy instructed Rosa that he needed to convey the arm to Miami, “… the place random severed arms are an on a regular basis factor.” Dexter was answerable for oh-so-many severed physique components floating off of the Miami coast. Maybe he killed this dude, too? Ah, the crossover potential!

• Yancy has to elucidate the purple lights to 2 Key West residents throughout this episode, however I can affirm that you just solely should be within the Keys for like 17 minutes earlier than somebody tells you in regards to the turtles (and Ernest Hemingway and his rattling cats). Residing within the Keys, each Evan and Madeline would have definitely recognized what the lights have been for, so these interludes have been undoubtedly for viewer profit. Will we get to see some little turtle infants hatch at a pivotal level within the narrative? I certain hope so!

• Even with all of Yancy’s fast-talking and quip-making, the largest snicker I bought from this episode was the sight gag of his bike tipping slowly over into the water from the dock.

• Tom Petty Cowl Watch: Should you have been listening intently, you might need seen that this episode was solely soundtracked to the dulcet sounds of Tom Petty’s songs. The collection kicks off with Petty’s “American Lady,” however then we get two covers — “Room on the High” by Eddie Vedder and “Even the Losers” by Fitz and the Tantrums.