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.
Child’s Play?
One might surmise that adapting these novels into film would be mere child’s play, but that’s not the case. In 1996, Hiaasen’s 1993 novel “Strip Tease” was made into a movie (“Striptease”) starring Demi Moore as a single mother who (surprise) works as a stripper trying to make ends meet. Moore was paid a then-record $12.5 million to star in it. While the movie ultimately cleared a profit, it was a supreme disappointment (a 13 percent critical score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 24 percent rating from audiences).
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.
Not Quite a Fish
The series opens with a vacationing first-time fisherman, on a tour boat operated by Capt. Fitzpatrick (Tom Nowicki, also the series narrator), reeling in not a marlin but an adult human male arm severed at the elbow. The damage appears to be the result of either a shark bite or a nasty encounter with a boat propeller. As per maritime law, Fitzpatrick is required to report it to the Coast Guard. Nowicki bears a faint physical resemblance to, and has a gravelly voice reminiscent of, Sam Elliott.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.
No Relation
Enter Dr. Rosa Campesino (Natalie Martinez), a Dade County medical examiner who quickly determines that the arm isn’t related to any open unsolved cases, and politely sends Yancy on his way. Ever the perceptive gentleman, Yancy gracefully takes his leave, but not before getting Rosa to drop a layer or two of defense. She likes him and accepts his offer of a popsicle, but wouldn’t dare admit that she in any way likes him.
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.
