Vince Vaughn’s crime comedy is a chill hang

Florida is forever fertile ground for a chaotic TV crime spree. From “Claws” to “Palm Royale” to “On Becoming a God in Central Florida,” combining a laissez-faire approach to law and order with tropical landscapes has proven to be an effective format for storytelling on the small screen. The novelist Carl Hiaasen has long specialized in exactly this milieu, making his 2013 book “Bad Monkey” a natural candidate for adaptation. The result, a 10-episode comedy on Apple TV+, takes the same funny, affectionate attitude toward its colorful characters as Vince Vaughn’s Andrew Yancy, a Keys police detective too bewildered by his surroundings to get involved in a messy love life or a grueling career.

“Bad Monkey” was developed by Bill Lawrence, creator of “Scrubs” and recent recipient of a blank check from Tim Cook courtesy of “Ted Lasso,” by far the computer company’s most successful Hollywood venture. Lawrence’s follow-up ‘Shrinking’ may have brought innovation and critical acclaim, but for this critic it was a creative disappointment – more a tonally muddled ‘Ted Lasso’ repeat than an exciting use of freehand. “Bad Monkey” isn’t really a level higher in terms of ambition; Despite the stacked cast afforded by Apple’s largesse, the show largely resembles Yancy in its smooth, no-holds-barred approach. However, it’s a new register for Lawrence, who brings his sitcom-honed talent for levity (along with “Scrubs” star Zach Braff) to the world of drug smuggling, land theft and insurance fraud.

However, Yancy’s first concern is a possible murder. On suspension after ramming his girlfriend’s husband’s golf cart with the victim on board into the marina – not really a long story; it’s exactly what it sounds like: Yancy is assigned an assignment as a chance for redemption. A severed arm has turned up off the coast of the Keys. If Yancy can bring the attachment to Miami and get the case off his department’s books, maybe he can stop moonlighting as a food inspector while his main gig is on hold.

Since this is a television show and not a guide to making good decisions, Yancy can’t help complicating things. The protagonist’s defining traits are his inability to keep his mouth shut or let sleeping dogs lie, so he flirts with medical examiner Rosa (Natalie Martinez) while pressuring her to decide that the origin of the arm is likely murder . Once the owner is identified as a shady businessman named Nick Stripling, Yancy interrogates Stripling’s wife Eve (Meredith Hagner, as monstrous and wonderfully bland as she was in “Search Party”) about the suspicious terms of her husband’s disappearance. Yancy’s partner, Rogelio’s (John Ortiz) repeated warnings to back off deliberately fall on deaf ears.

A smart move by “Bad Monkey” is to answer our questions quite early. According to Lawrence, ‘Bad Monkey’ is not a whodunit, nor even a great mystery; a flashback episode that reveals what that poor is like Real ended up in the Caribbean, plus Yancy’s own past with the Miami Police Department, arrives before the season’s halfway mark. (Suffice it to say, Yancy was already on his second chance when a vehicular attack put him on even thinner ice.) The structural choice is a welcome reprieve from the tiresome tendency to delay such revelations until long after the public it has noticed or might get new information. usefully incorporated into the plot. Some shows, like Apple companion “Sugar,” make an eleventh-hour turn on what should be their premise; “Bad Monkey” clears the air and becomes more of a cat-and-mouse game between Yancy and his targets than 10 hours of our hero stumbling around in the dark.

Vaughn has spent much of his press tour lamenting the demise of the R-rated comedies in which he made his name. Despite a poorly received dramatic turn in Season 2 of “True Detective,” he seems to have found a more comfortable place on TV after a stint in the final stretch of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The actor’s flat, motor-mouthed character doesn’t quite match the Margaritaville-esque environment of his latest role, but once Yancy becomes obsessed, the performance isn’t unlike Natasha Lyonne’s in “Poker Face”: both maniacally fixated on a target as credibly blasé about the risks of the pursuit.

“Bad Monkey” balances these misfortunes with frequent trips to the Bahamas, where an unrepentant Eve has gone into hiding with her boyfriend Christopher (Rob Delaney, underused until the second half of the season). The couple’s quest to develop a beach resort puts them at odds with locals like Neville (Ronald Peet), a fisherman and owner of the titular Primate. (His name is Driggs, and legend has it that he once starred in a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.) The Bahamas plot marks the series’ major expansion from the novel, which explores the impact of American interference on old residents, such as hired enforcers. Egg (David St. Louis) and Gracie (Jodie Turner-Smith), an obeah mystic who calls herself the Dragon Queen. While Turner-Smith develops Gracie beyond her intimidating, imperious exterior, the island interludes as a whole feel less focused without Yancy’s neurotic energy to drive the proceedings forward.

‘Summer TV’ is a somewhat nebulous concept, encompassing everything from unscripted schlock like ‘Love Island’ to endless hours of reruns. Still, “Bad Monkey” is exactly the kind of show the phrase brings to mind: undemanding but effective, offering all the distractions of a sunny day without the need to give up the AC. Lawrence surrounds his core ensemble with personalities: a real estate agent trying to unload a waterfront McMansion; a new T-shirt baron with potential ties to the Russian mafia – who may not advance the central case, but does help enhance the atmosphere. Yancy loves nothing more than to sit back in his lounge chair and let the ocean view wash over him. “Bad Monkey” evokes exactly such a feeling.

The first two episodes of “Bad Monkey” are now available to stream on Apple TV+, with the remaining episodes premiering weekly on Wednesdays.