‘Bad Monkey’: A Carl Hiaasen Novel Adaptation Finally Done Right

TV-MA | 57m and 48m | Comedy, Drama, Mystery, Thriller | 2024
Carl Hiaasen was a beat reporter for the Miami Herald from 1976 to 2021. His first crime novel, “Tourist Season,” was published in 1986. Since then, Hiassen has published 14 more of the crime genre, all with two-word titles.
Every book is set in southern Florida—Miami, the Everglades, or the Keys—and all follow a distinct blueprint. A flawed-but-likable male lead with questionable (sometimes multiple) love interests, inadvertently and unwillingly gets caught up in a crime investigation. He’s surrounded by an array of colorful and dubious supporting characters, deeply bereft of legal accountability, moral compasses, or both.
The double-edged sword of Hiaasen’s books is that they provide superb first reads, but not so much a second time around, and (this is not a slam) are somewhat predictable. Once you know the formula, you pretty much know how they’ll end.
Again, this isn’t a bad thing. Hiaasen’s superb writing style is so addictive and entrancing that you don’t care if it’s predictable. His mix of high- and low-brow language, character development, and plot exposition is rivaled only by the novels of Elmore Leonard.
No other Hiaasen crime novel has been adapted for the big or small screen since then until now, and the nearly 30-year lull was worth the wait. Show-runner Bill Lawrence finally figured out how to take a Hiaasen novel, adapt it to another medium, and make it work.
How did Lawrence do this? He took the 2013 novel “Bad Monkey,” gave it room to breathe, and developed it at a leisurely pace over the space of 10 episodes. If the first two installments are any kind of indicator, this is a limited series that all Hiaasen loyalists and fans of quirky crime mysteries will be thrilled beyond belief.
The remainder of this opening salvo introduces most of the principal cast, led by Vince Vaughn as Yancy, a Key West detective. The detective is currently on paid leave while awaiting trial, where he is charged with assault.
Also making instant impressions in the first two episodes are Michelle Monaghan as Yancy’s on-and-off-again girlfriend Bonnie, and Meredith Hagner as the opportunistic gold digger Eve. John Ortiz appears as Yancy’s often flustered former detective co-worker, Rogelio.
Lawrence more than successfully sets the table for the remaining eight episodes in a perfect baiting and teasing manner that reveals just enough to make it impossible not to return for more.