REVIEW: The Curious Case of Bad Monkey

The most baffling show I've seen in many moons.

Eight episodes (out of 10) into the new series developed by Bill Lawrence (Srubs), based on the novel by Carl Hiaasen, and starring Vince Vaughn, and I’m tossing and turning in bed at 3 A.M. trying to decide if I hate this, or if maybe it’s not so bad.

Grabbing my phone and looking to prove an internal point, I found The Monkey's Paw, a horror story from a British author in 1902 which has been adapted many times since. I was thinking Curse of the Monkey’s Paw, which is also a thing.

The point being: This series has fucking cursed me.

The first few episodes of Bad Monkey have a lot of promise. You see going in that it’s based on a novel and that novel seems to be one of those cool, swampy things set in the Florida Keys. The off-the-rails, snarky detective, inept and corrupt officials, and small-time crooks and hustlers who are very likely to get in over their heads.

There’s also a voice over narration to move things along.

In some quarters, VO narration is a lazy cop-out for a tight script. While I’ve never used one in my writing, I don’t believe that as a rule. Tons of great stuff has used it — and, in this, it actually made me laugh a few times here.

But, understand that this is, first and foremost, a Vince Vaughn show.

How you feel about Vince Vaughn, because Vince Vaughn pretty much always plays Vince Vaughn, is an important consideration.

I loved Vince Vaughn in Swingers, Wedding Crashers, Dodgeball, and any number of other films where Vince Vaughn played Vince Vaughn.

But, Vince Vaughn not playing Vince Vaughn has not been very successful for Vince Vaughn. So, Vince Vaughn tends to now be older Vince Vaughn.

In the first few episodes, I felt the character of Andrew Yancy was kinda mixing with Vince Vaughn. And that was good. As was that whole quirky Florida Man vibe of bad cops and dumb grifters, and a shocking premise.

But, then it all started to shift.

I don’t want to do a play-by-play on the plot, because have at it if you want to. It guess it is fun. By and large.

The show has a pretty big cast and some of them are really good in those early episodes. A stand-out for me was Meredith Hagner, who I remember from Search Party.

I read the Wiki entry for the novel, and it seems to track story-wise. But for me (and Amy) something happened around episode four or five and things just started going off the rails TONALY.

I don’t know if this was meant to be played straight or as a parody, but Bill Lawrence didn’t have a handle on it. The Yancy character became full-on Vince Vaughn, to the point of a Russian mafia littering his house with rounds of bullets and him quipping his way through it like Wedding Crashers meets Die Hard.

I’m not even mentioning an entire secondary story set in the Bahamas. As someone who loves the Keys, and is well-travelled in the Bahamas, I loved the thought of it. Loved seeing the shipwreck in Fresh Creek, Andros. I’ll leave the Bahamas there, because the characters were one-dimensional at best, and stereotypical at worst.

So, yes. By episode six things were on the downturn.

Vaughn becomes Vaughn. Like a Nick Cage thing. Folks can drive from Miami to Key West in minutes. The young forensic pathologist girlfriend suffering from kids being shot, fucks Yancy on a just different stainless-steel examining table. An ex-girlfriend who might have had a bit of a backstory becomes a separate and stupid plot. And — because Scrubs — some old, burnt out version of Doctor "J.D." Dorian shows up for a few episodes to plant a seriously pointless plot point.

And again, this NOT treated like parody. It’s played real and it’s as dramatic as a soap opera.

And then there’s the VO ongoing narration. My God.

It seemed mildly interesting in those early episodes, funny in fact. It’s from a charter boat captain that shows up early on but then just disappears. It might have been a great device. But, it seems like it’s papering over bad writing with even more bad writing.

Here’s a made-up example:
Yancy comes out of the bathroom:
Narrator: It wouldn’t be the most serious load he had left behind. But, given the circumstances, it just might be the most important of loads.

Yes. That’s the level of the writing. The narration seems like a “post” fix where a group is trying to find some semblance of tone and style.

Then again, I’m wrong.

93% Rotten Tomatoes. Picked up for another season.

I mean, are are worse things in this world?

Um, yes.

Will you watch the second season of Bad Monkey?

Yes. If I feel like punishing myself for something.