The severed arm is the least chaotic thing in Bad Monkey. Based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel and set in a Floridian fever dream of corruption, cover songs, and crustaceans, Apple TV+’s new series juggles comedy, mystery, and one very judgmental monkey. But it’s not the crime, the heat, or the gator guts that steal the show—it’s the cast, the Petty songs, and the wildly unpredictable tone that somehow sticks the landing.
“It’s a dream job,” says Natalie Martinez, who gets to flirt, threaten, and autopsy her way through the chaos. “And yes, we definitely played with the arm.”
Showrunner Bill Lawrence (Scrubs, Ted Lasso, your therapist’s favorite streaming comfort food) is back doing what he does best: throwing broken people into absurd situations and making you fall in love with their dysfunction. Only this time, he’s got a monkey. And a musical tribute to his all-time hero: Tom Petty.
“Every Cougar Town episode was named after a Petty song,” Lawrence says. “He’s a Florida icon, like Carl. So I figured, why not just go full Petty on this?” That meant enlisting Sharon Van Etten, Nathaniel Rateliff, Jason Isbell, and yes, his daughter Charlotte Lawrence, who covers “Wildflowers” with the kind of aching intimacy that’s usually reserved for funeral montages and Subaru commercials.
“I begged to be part of it,” Charlotte confesses. “It’s one of my favorite things I’ve ever done. We recorded it live, all in the same room, which I’d never done before. It was magic.”
Meredith Hagner, who plays Eve—arguably the show’s Joker-meets-Florida-Woman villain—delivers what might be her career best. “It felt like a make-a-wish experience,” she jokes, before getting real: “Roles like this don’t come around. The scripts were fucking solid. Episode 4 gets into Eve’s backstory, and I really pushed to show the trauma, the abuse... that sociopaths don’t just happen. Some are built.”
Lawrence, ever the ensemble whisperer, cast actors who’d either never done comedy or never done this kind of comedy. “Ronald Peet’s Neville,” he says, “is the guy everyone roots for—but who can’t root for himself.”
Peet, born in the Bahamas, drew from his extended family’s speech patterns to find Neville’s voice. “I’m not playing a lost boy,” he says. “But he’s from the lost tribe. Everyone’s pulling for him, but he hasn’t quite snapped into place.”
Then there’s Vince Vaughn, doing peak Vince Vaughn things—droll, cocky, unpredictable. “You just have to play tennis with him,” says Martinez. “He’ll run with one word you say and turn it into something brilliant.”
Peet agrees, though he took a more Zen approach. “You can’t think about the legend of Vince Vaughn or you’ll freeze,” he says. “You just breathe. Moment by moment. Then when you watch it back, you go, oh… that was fucking cool.”
Even the monkey gets his moments—just don’t call him a metaphor.
There’s no clean category for Bad Monkey. It’s part noir, part screwball, part tropical fever dream. There’s a line in the press notes that nails it: “philosophical men who don’t quite fit their lives.” That’s the vibe. Broken people, searching. For justice. For clarity. For the other half of that arm.
And if all else fails, they’ve got Petty.
Watch the interview above and then check out the trailer below.
