ill Lawrence has a type. In his Apple TV+ era, the creator, who became a brand name in the aughts with his surreal medical comedy , has favored a particular kind of protagonist. A single, middle-aged guy (whose whiteness and straightness almost go without saying) with decades’ worth of baggage, usually of the romantic variety, this character uses a quippy persona to hide his fundamental sadness.
He cracks jokes, does impressions, self-deprecates, dispenses cultural references, and generally behaves like he’s hosting a talk show, even when he’s having what is supposed to be an intimate conversation. This is not a type of person I have ever observed in nature. But in Lawrenceland, he’s ’ Ted Lasso transforming an underdog football club into a family of winners while estranged from his own wife, son, and emotions.
He’s antihero Jimmy Laird ( ), a therapist and father whose nervous breakdown following the death of his wife might just lead to a personal and professional breakthrough. And now he’s Andrew Yancy, the wise-cracking, down-on-his-luck suspended police detective, played by Vince Vaughn, at the center of Lawrence and Matt Tarses’ , premiering Aug. 14 on Apple TV+.
An adaptation of the 2013 novel by Carl Hiaasen, the darkly comedic, extremely Floridian crime drama constitutes a rare departure, for Lawrence, from the sitcom format. Unfortunately, the series is just as infatuated with its over-the-top protagonist—and as exhausting in its relentless quirk—.