Bad Monkey: Vince Vaugh takes a spin around the Florida Keys in comedic crime noir from Ted Lasso creator

Vince Vaughn has his thing, right? He talks a little too fast, he’s droll and just a teeny bit dismissive.

It’s not a vibe that works for every project but it’s perfect for Bad Monkey, the new crime drama-comedy starring Vaughn as a detective in the Florida Keys.

Populated with curious characters in a compulsive mystery, Bad Monkey is a sweaty noir. Florida has been a great backdrop for everything from Lawrence Kasdan’s Body Heat and John Huston’s Key Largo to Wild Things, Bloodline and Dexter.

There’s something about the combination of oppressive heat, the proximity of alligators and the constant one-up-manship of gaudy waterfront property that makes everyone a little bit wackadoo and prone to stuff-ups.

Based on Carl Hiaasen’s best-selling novel, the story kicks off with a fishing trip and a severed arm. It’s an arm that no one wants — not the Florida Keys police and not the Miami authorities. Whoever accepts it also has to take the case, and no one wants a dismembered limb to scare off those tourist dollars.

Which is how the appendage ends up in Andrew Yancy’s (Vaughn) possession. Yancy has recently been suspended from the force after he rammed his lover’s (Michelle Monaghan) abusive partner off a pier but he’s given the assignment by his former colleague (John Ortiz) of trying to offload the arm to the Miami folks.

His curiosity is piqued and he can’t help but start investigating the case even though he’s meant to be doing nothing more than lying in a hammock.

The arm belonged to a man named Nick Stripling and his wife Eve (Meredith Hagner from Search Party) seems suspiciously not so grief-stricken by his death to the point she is already shacked up with the equally dubious Christopher (Rob Delaney, rocking a pornstache).

Nick’s daughter Caitlin (Charlotte Lawrence) tells Yancy that her stepmother definitely did it but Caitlin has some weird stuff of her own.

There’s also the concurrent story of Neville (Ronald Peet), a young man in the Bahamas whose beach cottage and slice of paradise comes under threat from greedy American developers looking to put up a resort. Not surprisingly, the two plotlines are connected.

You can always rely on every developer on a TV show or in a movie to be greedy and ethically challenged — hmmm, there must be something in that.

There are drive-by shootings, a mystic (Jodie Turner-Smith) who can place curses on people, idiots with “pussy magnet” bling and a potential romance with a coroner (Natalie Martinez). There are lots of elements going on but that’s how it should be with any noir – misdirects, complications and betrayals.

A knowing voiceover narration from Tom Nowicki cues audiences into the mystery’s secrets while laying the groundwork for what’s to come.

The specific rhythms of Vaughn’s loquaciousness bounces off well with the cast around him, especially Ortiz, and it also grounds the energy of the series.

Bad Monkey manages to weave together stressful stories without ever placing that burden on the audience. It’s a breezy and genial experience even when it’s dealing with some ugly things.

The series is the third collaboration between Apple TV+ and prolific TV producer and writer Bill Lawrence, and just like Ted Lasso and Shrinking, it’s affable, tonally rich and very watchable. It’s a partnership that is obviously paying creative dividends.

While Lawrence’s filmography, which also includes Scrubs and Spin City, tends to lean into the idealism of its characters, a noir mystery needs a pricklier foundation. There are darker strokes in Bad Monkey but it’s still a lighter shade of the black-hearted villains that tend to exist in this corner of the genre.

And that’s fine, because that’s the show Bad Monkey is – a film noir with a tad more sunshine.

Rating: 3/5

Bad Monkey is streaming now on Apple TV+