A comedic crime caper starring Vince Vaughn

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 lately for Apple, “Ted Lasso” and “Shrinking.” Lawrence tends to go sappy in methods I discover emotionally dishonest — the lads on the middle of his reveals, together with this one, are incessantly stunted however good-hearted and we’re alleged 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 always reveals up within the novels of Thomas Pynchon or Elmore Leonard, with endless confidence, however judgment that isn’t all the time the most effective. The form of man who doesn’t comply with the principles, however someway nails the unhealthy guys anyway. That’s a promising setup.

The present largely works. However I would really like it significantly extra if somebody apart from Vaughn have been within the central position. He doesn’t embody a particular 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 seemingly be drawn to the present both method. Regardless of an abundance of tv because of streaming, the precise high quality within the mixture has gone method 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 health worker, Rosa (Natalie Martinez), who will finally 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) dwell a easy and idyllic life in a seaside shack left to Neville by his father. Seems, the land has been offered out from beneath him and the standard 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 referred to as the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), who’s struggling a disaster of confidence and simply desires off the island. Her story takes some time to get going — initially it veers awfully near exotifying the character — but it surely turns into essentially the most resonant narrative of the sequence, particularly because it pertains to her push-pull relationship together 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 weak right here, she’s fairly good.

Ultimately, Yancy and Rosa make their method 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 price it” — which supplies the present a mirthful power and character it’s in any other case missing. Plus, there’s a short however welcome look by Scott Glenn, underplaying it fantastically as Yancy’s terribly Zen father.

The present is essentially 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 perhaps that’s an excessive amount of of a bummer for “Dangerous Monkey” to acknowledge. It’s blissful to deal with 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 Revealed: August 14, 2024 at 5:30 a.m.