Vince Vaughn hangs out and solves crimes – what more could you want?

If you can wade through the rubble of obvious influence, homage and repetition of worn-out tropes, Evil Monkey on Apple TV+ might be worth your time. Inherent in the process of adaptation – from book to television – is that words become flesh and in the magic of incarnation certain things come to light that might have lived and looked quite differently in the mind. On paper – the book by Carl Hiaasen – Evil Monkey is not only attuned to the oddball characters that make up Florida's most interesting, slightly menacing aspects, but it's also delivered in the language of the distinctly Orange State. It's rhythmically enticing, with every page devoted to at least two gags, a minor plot thrust and someone saying something so ridiculously factual about an unbelievable event that you'll be charmed to the end in a single sitting. The show has a little trouble replicating that feeling.

The 13th of his two-part crime novels, Evil Monkey is one of Carl Hiaasen's most memorable and unconventional page-turners – not the best, but far from the worst – and a clear choice for a TV adaptation. Like many of Hiaasen's other books, it is as absurd as Dave Barry's Miami-Herald column and as entertaining as watching one of those tiny, nondescript capsules that turn into a dinosaur-shaped sponge in water. Most notable, however, is the strong influence of John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee novels, which turn the familiar hard-boiled private detective into a hero with a light-hearted side, whose hatred of injustice and generally laid-back demeanor stand in stark contrast to the shady brooders and conspirators who surround him and sometimes swindle his services. For Travis McGee as Evil MonkeyAndrew Yancy (played on screen by Vince Vaughn), things just happen and keep happening until, through an accumulation of absurdities, personal failings, and the cheerful leadership of the writers, who champion tactfully disguised tirades against overdevelopment, a resolution emerges.

Vince Vaughn's Yancy is a recently suspended detective who is about to take a higher-up job as a health inspector. Meanwhile, a honeymoon fishing trip is interrupted when a severed arm is plucked from the sea. Yancy's former partner Rogelio (John Ortiz) receives the arm and tasks Yancy with finding a legal home for the limb. Thus begins a facet of a prismatic story that is at first more a collection of clumsy punchlines than a full-fledged story. To add confusion, the audience is introduced to an endless array of players, including Bonnie Witt (Michelle Monaghan), a mysterious woman trapped in a bad relationship, Neville Stafford (Ronald Peet), a Bahamian fisherman who has a monkey and loves the simple pleasures in life, the twisted, empty lovers Eve and Christopher (Meredith Hagner and Rob Delaney), and many more. To save time, it all comes together in the end, but Evil Monkey is more than happy when viewers wonder if the show is just nonstop gags.

In fetal calm in a garishly kaleidoscopic hammock strapped to palm trees is probably the best, and probably intended, way to read Carl Hiaasen's books. (It's the same position they were probably written in.) Thanks to Apple TV+, that pleasure now extends to the air-conditioned confines of your own home, with visuals that solve the problem of having to conjure up images or make connections. If an easy-to-read, easier-to-enjoy crime thriller could become an even breezier endeavor, series creators and executive producers Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Ted Lasso) and Matt Tarses have cracked the code.

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The evil monkey is tuned to his own frequency

Florida is essential to the Apple TV+ series, but it's the crazy antics that reward the viewing figures

Looking at Evil Monkeywhich is bathed in unnatural hues even for Florida, one has the feeling that the show is aiming for the popular, misleading gloss of CSI: Miami or Dexterand even goes so far as to portray Florida as a place where only devious intentions and Tommy Bahama shirts can be found. Outside of the oppressively bright images that eschew a wider setting establishment in favor of tightly controlled, hand-picked locations, Evil Monkey is still funnier than any recent comedy and teaches audiences more about Florida's ecosystem – from turtles to petty criminals – than they'd expect from a television show about the impact of a severed arm on multiple lives.

Evil MonkeyThe jumbled puzzle plot of is of the supposedly laid-back Margaritaville variety, though it's entirely designed to deliver twists and turns and the neatest possible exit to a story that casts an extraordinarily wide net. Thanks in part to a handy voiceover that chimes in throughout—often to detrimental, over-the-top spelling effect—the audience is attuned to the inner workings of the characters (many of the show's punchlines are exploited using this technique) and the vast, spinning wheels of the story.

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For a show that features a variety of criminal acts – from cold-blooded murder to fraud -, a monkey, a coroner (Natalie Martinez) who steals an outfit from a recently deceased person, a police officer who becomes a food inspector, and much more, Evil Monkey maintains a semblance of funkiness, but it's less concerned with the structural understanding of the place and more with the mechanics of the storytelling. That's not necessarily a bad thing, either, if you're OK with Yancy and Neville being the only real people and everyone else being an insult to their well-being.

Evil Monkey is not the first of its kind. But unlike Inherent vice (Thomas Pynchon’s book or Paul Thomas Anderson’s film adaptation), Evil Monkey is free of the postmodern urge to leave things undecided, but to stand at an angle and throw the audience's perspective a little off-kilter. While the reality of the burned-out and still-burning Larry “Doc” Sportello warps like the floorboards of a beachfront property, Andrew Yancy here is happy to let the experience wash over him as he cajoles his way through the interwoven plot while remaining a rock-solid leading man. None of that navel-gazing reflexivity is on display here, and Vince Vaughn delivers his best performance in years (with all due respect to Craig S. Zahler's masterpiece, Dragged over concrete).

“Bad Monkey” is the best crime comedy in years

Directed by Vince Vaughn, the series is based on Carl Hiaasen's quirky and hilarious book and is a pleasant pastime.

Yancy is an outward-looking character who seems to know he is the star. What brings life to the performance is his ability to respond to the reactions of others. In many scenes, he seems to be monologueing, weaving in comments from bystanders and carrying on as if he were in a bubble. Vaughn has often played roles that bridge the gap between the viewer and the action on screen, but never was the charisma as strong as in Evil Monkey.

Punchlines come faster than bullets, and Evil Monkey never tries to scale down its comedic ambitions in favor of realism. Subtlety is not the issue here, and due to the beach reading nature of noir, not much deep thought is required from the audience. Comfortable television has rarely been this relaxed. Sure, the show raises some ethical dilemmas, but its sole aim is to tackle very dark topics in the funniest way possible. Most of the time, it works, landing somewhere between the underrated Police unit! and the wrongly cancelled Cabin 49.

With House of the DragonThe pathetic finale of the second season and the ten-season run of shows that should have been put out to pasture years ago, Evil Monkey is a refreshingly relaxed alternative to self-serious nonsense that comes across more like parody than audience-respecting television. Here, viewers can immerse themselves in a show that offers crime (lots of it) and humor (even more), and never feel like they're being strung along. Damn, Evil Monkey does all the work. So make yourself a margarita and come on in, the water is warm.

“Bad Monkey” premieres on Apple TV+ on Wednesday, August 14.