Bad Monkey continues to crush refreshing cold beers in the little spot between funny and foreboding. In the course of only three episodes, the series has already got corner seat real estate in a lived-in, locals-only hangout of its own design, where the laughs usually beat back the darker impulses that course through South Florida like canals to the sea. But only usually.
Because even a guy like Andrew Yancy, with his Vince Vaughn-powered gift of gab, can’t keep the tone light forever. Not when the pool of other people’s blood keeps growing around the severed arm of Nick Stripling. In episode 3, that blood is courtesy of a guest straight from the rolodex of Bad Monkey showrunner and exec producer Bill Lawrence – Zach Braff, the star of Lawrence’s Scrubs before his tinfoil-biting turn as a singer of cheeky T-Mobile jingles.
But more on the demise of Braff’s improbably-named Israel O’Peele in a bit. First, let’s put both principals of the Bad Monkey story in one Florida breakfast place together, even if they don’t know it. Neville is helping out at his half-sister’s Samara’s cafe, serving mugs of steaming coffee to neutralize Floridian hangovers.
But because he doesn’t actually know Yancy and Rosa yet, for us it’s like if a celebrity was moving through the background of their morning chat. It’s a fun way for Bad Monkey to push its characters into further proximity, and gets even better when Yancy briefly puts on his restaurant inspector’s hat to ente.