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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Entertainment
Rebecca Nicholson

Bad Monkey review – Vince Vaughn’s easy-going detective drama is tons of fun

Vince Vaughn in Bad Monkey.
Vince Vaughn in Bad Monkey. Photograph: Bob Mahoney/Apple TV+

Most Apple TV+ shows are cut from the same plain cloth. They tend to have massive budgets, A-list actors and competent storytelling, but, with a handful of exceptions (Severance, Slow Horses, Sunny, basically all the S’s) they also tend to be relatively forgettable. Fine, entertaining even, but somehow flimsy and fleeting, too. Like the electronic products that made the company’s fortune, it’s all smooth lines and clean corners, which is good for laptops and phones. But when it comes to TV, Apple’s output has often erred on the side of caution.

So it is again with Bad Monkey, which stars Vince Vaughn as Andrew Yancy, a disgraced detective unofficially working a case in the Florida Keys. Yancy is off the job after assaulting his lover’s dodgy husband by ramming his golf cart into the water. Even though he’s been suspended from the job he clearly loves, bloke’s bloke Yancy is happy at home. He enjoys simple pleasures, such as playfully trying to stop the sale of the megamansion next door to his modest house, and having a nice drink on his sunlounger while staring out at the waves.

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