Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey Struggles to Find Its Voice | TV/Streaming

But, after meeting the widow of the deceased, Eve Stripling (Meredith Hagner), he becomes suspicious that there is more to this story than he initially thought. As the mystery slowly unfolds, “Bad Monkey” gets more and more outlandish, but it works perfectly for the world Bill Lawrence has created. Juxtaposed with the Florida-set portion is a coexisting story focusing on Neville Stafford (Ronald Peet), a young Bahamian fisherman, which adds a darker flair that the series desperately needed.

Neville, like Yancy, finds himself in over his head when his house is set up to be demolished by developers, and he attempts to do anything to stop it. Their stories don’t directly connect for more than half of the series, but despite this, the two characters work as mirrors for each other’s journeys. Unfortunately, it almost feels as if these two stories should have connected quicker than they did, and at times I found myself yearning for more screen time for Peet. 

Like Lawrence’s other work, Yancy and Neville are surrounded by an ensemble cast of characters who at times steal the spotlight. There’s Yancy’s former partner and best friend Rogelio Burton (John Ortiz), who gets wrapped up in all his shenanigans, and Bonnie Witt (Michelle Monaghan), his ex-lover, who he can’t seem to shake. But, at the heart of both stories is Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez), a medical examiner from Miami, and Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), an Obeah–practicing woman living in the Bahamas. 

Though at first, it feels as if these two will simply be love interests or narrative foils for the series’ leading men, Martinez and Turner-Smith end up stealing the show. Rosa’s budding connection with Yancy leads her to join him on his unofficial police investigation, while Neville desperately seeks out Dragon Queen’s in an attempt to change his life. Both pairings are quite different from one another, but that’s what makes them work. There’s a magnetic push-and-pull happening in each of these relationships, and it’s what makes “Bad Monkey” worth watching. When Martinez and Vaughan and Turner-Smith and Peet are on screen together, respectively, the series is electric. The camera holds on their faces, close and almost suffocating in nature, allowing the admiration (and, at times, apprehension) these characters have for one another to shine.