Florida is eternally fertile floor for a chaotic TV crime romp. From “Claws” to “Palm Royale” to “On Turning into a God in Central Florida,” the mixture of a laissez-faire method to regulation and order with tropical surroundings has proved an efficient setup for storytelling on the small display. The novelist Carl Hiaasen has lengthy specialised in exactly this milieu, making his 2013 e-book “Unhealthy Monkey” a pure candidate for adaptation. The outcome, a 10-episode comedy on Apple TV+, takes the identical droll, affectionate angle towards its colourful characters as Vince Vaughn’s Andrew Yancy, a Keys-based police detective too bemused by his environment to get wound up over a messy love life or a floundering profession.
“Unhealthy Monkey” was developed by Invoice Lawrence, the “Scrubs” creator and up to date recipient of a clean test from Tim Cook dinner courtesy of “Ted Lasso,” the pc firm’s most profitable Hollywood enterprise by far. Lawrence’s follow-up, “Shrinking,” could have earned a renewal and awards nods, however was to this critic a artistic disappointment — extra of a tonally muddled “Ted Lasso” rehash than an thrilling use of free rein. “Unhealthy Monkey” isn’t fairly a degree up in ambition; regardless of the stacked solid afforded by Apple’s largesse, the present largely takes after Yancy in its easy, unbothered method. It’s, nevertheless, a brand new register for Lawrence, who brings his sitcom-honed expertise for levity (together with “Scrubs” star Zach Braff) to the world of drug smuggling, land theft and insurance coverage fraud.
Yancy’s first concern, although, is a possible homicide. On suspension after ramming his girlfriend’s husband’s golf cart into the marina with the sufferer aboard — not likely a protracted story; it’s precisely what it appears like — Yancy will get assigned an errand as a shot at redemption. A severed arm has turned up off the coast of the Keys. If Yancy can take the appendage as much as Miami and get the case off his division’s books, he could get to cease moonlighting as a meals inspector whereas his essential gig is on maintain.
This being a tv present and never a information to creating good choices, Yancy can’t assist complicating issues. The protagonist’s defining traits are his lack of ability to close up or let sleeping canines lie, so he flirts with health worker Rosa (Natalie Martinez) as he pressures her to rule the arm’s origin a possible murder. As soon as its proprietor is recognized as a shady businessman named Nick Stripling, Yancy interrogates Stripling’s spouse Eve (Meredith Hagner, as monstrously, deliciously vapid as she was on “Search Social gathering”) on the suspicious phrases of her husband’s disappearance. The repeated warnings of Yancy’s associate, Rogelio (John Ortiz), to again off fall on willfully deaf ears.
One sensible transfer “Unhealthy Monkey” makes is to reply our questions fairly early. In Lawrence’s telling, “Unhealthy Monkey” isn’t a whodunit, nor even a lot of a thriller; a flashback episode revealing how that arm actually ended up within the Caribbean, plus Yancy’s personal previous within the Miami Police Division, arrives earlier than the season’s midway level. (Suffice it to say Yancy was already on his second probability when vehicular assault put him on even thinner ice.) The structural alternative is a welcome reprieve from the tiresome tendency to delay such disclosures till lengthy after the viewers has caught on or new data might be usefully included into the plot. Some exhibits, like Apple peer “Sugar,” make an eleventh-hour twist out of what ought to be their premise; “Unhealthy Monkey” clears the air to turn into extra of a cat-and-mouse sport between Yancy and his targets than 10 hours of our hero fumbling round at midnight.
Vaughn has spent a lot of his press tour lamenting the demise of the R-rated comedies the place he made his title. Regardless of a poorly acquired dramatic flip in Season 2 of “True Detective,” he appears to have discovered a extra snug berth in TV after a stint on the ultimate stretch of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” The actor’s flat-voweled, motormouthed have an effect on doesn’t fairly sq. with the Margaritaville-esque environs of his newest function, however as soon as Yancy will get obsessed, the efficiency isn’t in contrast to Natasha Lyonne’s in “Poker Face”: each maniacally fixated on a objective and believably blasé in regards to the dangers of the chase.
“Unhealthy Monkey” balances these misadventures with frequent journeys to the Bahamas, the place an unrepentant Eve has absconded along with her boyfriend Christopher (Rob Delaney, underused till the again half of the season). The couple’s quest to develop a beachside resort places them at odds with locals like Neville (Ronald Peet), a fisherman and proprietor of the titular primate. (His title is Driggs, and legend has it he as soon as acted in a “Pirates of the Caribbean” movie.) The Bahamas plot marks the collection’ most vital growth from the novel, exploring the impression of American meddling on longtime residents like employed enforcer Egg (David St. Louis) and Gracie (Jodie Turner-Smith), an obeah mystic who calls herself the Dragon Queen. Whereas Turner-Smith will get to develop Gracie past her intimidating, imperious exterior, the island interludes as an entire really feel much less centered with out Yancy’s neurotic power to push the proceedings ahead.
“Summer time TV” is a considerably nebulous idea, encompassing all the things from unscripted schlock like “Love Island” to limitless hours of reruns. But “Unhealthy Monkey” is exactly the type of present the phrase calls to thoughts: undemanding however efficient, providing all of the distraction of a sunny day with out the necessity to relinquish the AC. Lawrence surrounds his core ensemble with personalities — a douchebag actual property agent attempting to dump a waterfront McMansion; a novelty T-shirt baron with potential ties to the Russian mob — who could not advance the central case, however assist improve the vibe. Yancy loves nothing greater than to recline in his deck chair and let the ocean view wash over him. “Unhealthy Monkey” instills simply such a sense.
The primary two episodes of “Unhealthy Monkey” are actually out there to stream on Apple TV+, with remaining episodes premiering weekly on Wednesdays.