‘Bad Monkey’ Creator On Bloody Season 1 Finale, Season 2 Clue That Has Been Hiding In Plain Sight, Who Would Be Back & Why Was Monkey … Not Bad
SPOILER ALERT: The story includes details about Episode 10 of Apple TV+’s Bad Monkey.
Season 1 of Bill Lawrence’s Apple TV+ crime series Bad Monkey, based on Carl Hiaasen’s novel, wrapped its run with a jam-packed finale that saw the demise of three main characters. Gracie, aka the Dragon Queen (Jodie Turner-Smith), died at the hands of Eve (Meredith Hagner), who also pushed her wheelchair-bound husband Nick (Rob Delaney) into the ocean. As the show continued to weave magic into reality, the Dragon Queen’s dying wish to Eve, “I hope you choke … on your lies,” basically came true as Eve choked on a baby carrot and then was pulled by an invisible force to the edge as she jumped off a building to her death after escaping to Portugal.
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Yancy (Vince Vaughn) was back at his job as a health inspector in the Florida Keys, with Madeline and her Russian boyfriend Pestov as his new neighbors. Bonnie (Michelle Monaghan) called in from a beach after breaking out of prison, and Rosa (Natalie Martinez) stopped by for one last hookup with Yancy before she called time on their relationship.
The season ended the way it began, with Rogelio (John Ortiz) telling Yancy to come take a look at something in his car.
In an interview with Deadline, Lawrence, creator/co-creator of such series as Scrubs, Cougar Town and Ted Lasso, discusses some of the big moments in the finale and the changes he made to the book. There has been no Season 2 decision by Apple TV+ yet and no writers room opened (I hear the latter may happen next month), though things are looking good as the comedic caper has been consistently topping the streamer’s rankings.
Lawrence reveals what a second season would be based on — something he had telegraphed in every episode of Season 1 — and whether the series could go beyond that. He addresses which characters we may see back alongside Yancy, why the show didn’t live up to its title of capuchin Diggs (Crystal the Monkey of Night at the Museum and The Hangover fame) being bad and how Bad Monkey could carry on with the title even if there is no monkey next season.
Lawrence, who is based at Warner Bros TV, also reveals his original casting choice for Yancy and why the series is narrated by the Captain, and highlights some of the top improvised bits in Season 1. (For Lawrence’s comments on the status of the long-rumored Scrubs reboot, his upcoming series for HBO starring Steve Carell and the likely Season 4 of Ted Lasso, check out Part 2 of our interview.)
DEADLINE: Let’s start with the question at the very end of the finale when Yancy asks Rogelio, “What’s in the car, man?” What’s in the car and what’s next?
LAWRENCE: Somebody asked me why I picked Bad Monkey. Carl Hiaasen, who is an idol of mine, has like, 20 bestsellers. It’s one of the only books he wrote a sequel to; the sequel’s called Razor Girl. And if you watch the opening credits, the sand thing — no one’s seen it yet — there’s a couple things, like a beach ball, and if people pause it when they go by a beach chair, there’s a copy of that book, like a summer read sitting there. That will tell people what is next.
DEADLINE: So if and when there is a renewal, Season 2 will be based on Razor Girl?
LAWRENCE: Yes, it will be based on Razor Girl. And I’m super hopeful that we will start working on it very soon.
DEADLINE: I believe there are only two books featuring Yancy. Could you do more than two seasons and go beyond the source material?
LAWRENCE: I think that the best thing about the new kind of, I don’t want to say limited series model, but White Lotus is a good template as a show that people expected to be one year. But by its very nature, even though it’s still called White Lotus, it’s a new group of characters, save for one. If you look at Bad Monkey and Razor Girl, anybody that watched the last few episodes of Bad Monkey knows it’s a bloodbath, and I can’t really do a second season with the same characters.
But that’s what’s cool about Carl, each year is kind of a different paper issue mystery. There’s no third book written, but the joke for me is either pressuring Carl to write one or taking one of his old ones and making Yancy the lead. It’s so much easier when you use an amazing source material, and the dude is really good, he’s a classic American satirist and also a good guy.
DEADLINE: You mentioned how the finale closed out characters’ storylines, which included Yancy’s relationship with Rosa, played by Natalie Martinez who I believe had a one-year deal. Is Rosa gone or could she come back?
LAWRENCE: That’s why Razor Girl is such a good Easter egg. In Razor Girl, aside from some of the smaller parts of people who run restaurants and stuff like that, one of the only characters that’s still in it from the first year is Rosa. So if we’re lucky enough to get to do a second year of Bad Monkey, whether she’s a regular or just in a bunch of episodes, she is in the book; she shows up in the middle and becomes a player.
DEADLINE: So the hope is that Natalie will be back?
LAWRENCE: I never answer any of this stuff, not because of not wanting to, but because the writers room hasn’t started yet, and so I can’t tell you if Rosa is going to be a regular or if she’s just going to come back through the world. I would hope, if we get to do a second year, that Natalie’s in.
DEADLINE: What about some other characters we got to know and love who are not in Razor Girl, like Neville, Alex Moffat’s Evan, Michelle Monaghan’s Bonnie, even the security guard who joins the FBI? Is there a way to check in and see how they’re doing?
LAWRENCE: One of my favorite things about Carl’s books in the Carl Hiaasen world is that minor characters from one book and series are major characters in other books, and his characters in his books cross.
So yes, if we go forward, anybody that’s still alive … Look, the monkey is not in Razor Girl. So anybody that’s still alive, that people responded to, we’re going to figure out a way that they exist in our world — or at least cruise through. Carl really loves that; it’s important to him that all the characters from his world continually exist in this world.
It goes for Michelle Monaghan, who is definitely out there in the world, all the way down to the dude from Big Bang Theory that runs that disgusting restaurant. I would like to see Yancy’s neighbors, that Russian dude and Madeline; I would like to see the guy that owns the bar. In Razor Girl, the sheriff has failed upward and become a local politician, very successful, which is how it happens in Florida, such a sh*t show.
DEADLINE: You mentioned the monkey, Diggs. The show is called Bad Monkey. I was waiting until the end for Diggs to actually do something bad. In the book, there is an incident with Egg…
LAWRENCE: Yes, he attacks Egg violently and graphically.
DEADLINE: That is not in the show, maybe it had to do with PETA…
LAWRENCE: No, you know what happened? A, I haven’t worked with a bunch of live animals and Crystal, I felt comfortable because it’s a monkey that’s been doing movies for years and years. But the rest of the nature is just found nature; everything else you see in the show, no animal wranglers, no anything. There is an amazing Easter egg scene, one of the Key deer wandered on set while we were shooting. And Alex Moffat just stayed in character, he’s like, “Get out of here. I’m trying to talk to someone.” And that stayed in the show. One of my friends was like, how did you get that deer to do that? We didn’t get to do anything, they came and ate the bushes all day.
But yes, that [Diggs’ attack on Egg] was originally going to stay in the show. But we lean into what’s working, and the actor that played Egg, David St Louis, and his relationship with Jodie, which is not in the book the same way, became so rich that … Once we made the decision late in the season of, Oh, this guy is, in his own way, a sympathetic character, and we’re actually telling somewhat of a dark love story, we had to ditch that section of the book where the monkey disfigures Egg. And so it was a product of storytelling, not as much any calculated decision.
DEADLINE: But you kept the name of the show, Bad Monkey, even though Diggs didn’t do anything wrong.
LAWRENCE: I know, I know. This is the way we rationalize it. At least once when the monkey is biting Neville’s in the pilot, he says, “Stop that, bad monkey, bad monkey.” If it were my show, and it was just in a vacuum, A I wouldn’t name it Cougar Town, but I probably would have ended up having a different title. But I think what people underestimate in a great way — and I’ve seen it on social media — is, Carl Hiaasen’s stuff is iconic, and you can’t change the title from a book that was so beloved; it was a New York Times bestseller for six weeks. That ended up being something that we were not going to run away from, no matter what. And even now, if we get to do a second season, we’re trying to figure out how we can live in a White Lotus world that the show’s still called Bad Monkey, but it’s also Razor Girl for all the people that love that novel.
DEADLINE: So there is no monkey in Razor Girl but the show is keeping the Bad Monkey title?
LAWRENCE: I know, right? that’s what are trying to figure out. Either the monkey has to still exist, or we have to figure out an answer.
DEADLINE: You took some liberties with the book. We already mentioned Diggs, but also the way Eve died, falling off a balcony versus in a boat crash in the finale, and we didn’t see Nick’s two arms being buried together. Why did you make those changes?
LAWRENCE: Carl Hiaasen is a hero of mine, I started reading his books when I was like 15, and that’s why it was such a weird experience for me to say, Carl, this is one of my favorite books but for me to do 10 episodes, I need to add, like, six chapters. Some things are easy answers: there’s production issues with boat crashes and stuff like that make it harder to do. But the bigger picture was, he bases most of his characters on — he shows you the newspaper clippings of all the craziness in Florida and the Bahamas; he still lives there. The Dragon Queen was based on a real woman in Andros, but she was much, much older and a charlatan, a con woman, and ended up being incarcerated.
I said, I need this to be a completely different story and a little bit of a redemptive arc. He really was kind about it, and he not only liked but helped us shape the idea of whether or not magic is real, which became part of the end of the show. And that’s why a lot of the stuff changed. It’s definitely why Eve’s death changed. We just wanted to, at the end, imply that the magical world out there, whether it be nature or whatever you happen to believe in, is actually real, and that explains Eve’s death.
DEADLINE: You mentioned the Dragon Queen and her redemptive arc. We started to like her by the end, and Jodie Turner-Smith is great in the role. Did she have to die — and in such a gruesome fashion?
LAWRENCE: Warner Bros has reached the point when they know that no matter what I say, I’m going to only have six episodes done before we start filming. A lot of writers are much more responsible and have the whole thing done. The only positive I can tell you from it is that enables you to lean into what’s working. When we made the pilot, Jodie showed up, she helped us find Obeah consultants, an actual practitioner. She took control of her wardrobe and hair and makeup, all trying to line it up with the character.
She buried herself in it, and it was so good, even in the pilot when she first has that one scene, you’re like, Oh sh*t. And so we started leaning into it. And yes, the funniest thing at the end, because we knew that it would be an impactful story, was both Meredith and Jodie came independently to [EP] Matt Tarses and me, and said, “Neither one of us has to die. We’re having fun, and we’re both kind of good characters to keep this thing going.” But I said, “Look, I have the second book, you two aren’t in. It doesn’t take place on Andros, does not take place in your world.” No, she didn’t have to [die], but I thought it was a good, edgier, poetic ending to someone that had to find who they were at the end.
DEADLINE: Why is the Captain the narrator? I mean, seemed a little random. And would that continue in Season 2?
LAWRENCE: The truth is that when Matt Tarses and I and the writers made the show, it was much longer to get all that exposition out. But the biggest hole for us was, there wasn’t as much of Carl Hiaasen’s language in there as we would have liked. Because when you read Carl’s books, he’s such a brilliant satirist but, 80% of the stuff is in the descriptions of the scenes and stuff. So we came up with the idea of having a narrator late in the process and went about, literally, with highlighters going, this is all Carl Hiaasen’s stuff, word for word, we were stealing from the novel. And so like when he says, “Sonny became Sheriff because, when the election happened, he was the only candidate that was not currently incarcerated,” that’s straight from Carl. And then we would try to mimic, like, “Yancey had never seen trouble in an orange dress before.” That’s how Carl writes, so he got his voice in there. When we were thinking about doing it, we said, who do we want to do this with?
Carl and we were all talking, and he said that he often feels like a lot of his stories are fishing stories; they’re tall tales. And that gave us the idea to have it be the captain, the fisherman, when he says in the beginning, I’ll tell you something about fishing stories, they always start on a boat. And we accidentally cast an actor as the fisherman, Tom Nowicki, who sounded to us like The Big Lebowski and had a gravelly voice.
DEADLINE: And last but not least, we can’t discuss Bad Monkey and not talk about Vince Vaughn. Yancy comes from a book and yet it feels like a role written for Vaughn. How much of what is on screen is the original character and how much of it is Vince?
LAWRENCE: In the pilot, originally, when I handed it in, I said, because they always like ask, Who’s casting? I said the best piece of casting would be James Garner if he were still alive — I don’t know if that’s possible or not but who knows with AI — a big guy that is charming and a turn of phrase, and can do some sketchy stuff, but because he has a gleam in his eye, people root for him anyways. And then once Vince became super interested, there is not a comedy writer, actor, comedian of a certain age that wasn’t influenced by the way that Vince Vaughn does the rat-a-tat kind of comedy. We had a bunch of people that knew how to write that, and the idea of getting to write the Vince Vaughn that we remember from some of those movies in Carl’s world was really fun. And Carl, we leaned on him a lot. Can you see this guy as Yancy? And in his head, he’s like, Oh, totally, big lumbering dude. So he was on board.
DEADLINE: How much of what we see was improv from Vince? Because it often seems like he’s making it up. Was it all on the page?
LAWRENCE: Vince’s skill-set is, there’s three different things that Vince does that make him awesome. One is, every time he does the scene, he’s so respectful. He says, alright, let’s do one exactly as written. So we do that. And then he’ll say, alright, everybody, let’s do one that we play. And then we play, and we’ll steal jokes of his. And the third thing is, he also has this innate ability to make everything look like it’s coming off the top of his head.
And not only is he riffing and improvising, but also he is doing the same thing when he’s setting up other actors and actresses and making them funny. On this show, it definitely had that vibe. Meredith Hagner from Search Party, who plays Eve, is a remarkable improv comedian and was doing it all the time. Alex Moffat, SNL, doing it all the time. I always populate my worlds with people like that, and then take credit for it.
DEADLINE: Can you note some memorable moments that were improvised?
LAWRENCE: In the pilot, Vince went on and on and on about the smell of the dead arm in the cooler behind him. None of that was scripted. And if you go back and look at the pilot, you’ll see there’s some weird cuts in there because, to use it all, since there’s like six different takes while we’re driving around, I had to cut outside the car, cut back to John Ortiz, cut back to the car, cut tight to him. He turned one line into a whole scene, which was super fun.
Meredith Hagner in the pilot, when my daughter [Charlotte Lawrence] walked up to her at the funeral, she said, “Honey, you know it’s a funeral, right? Because I can see your vagina” because my daughter is wearing a very short skirt. And I’m like, Oh, she just established the comedic tone for the show in terms of her character. So we kept that in.
Ashley Nicole Black and Alex Moffat in the last episode, when he’s looking for the ring in the water, none of that was scripted. Ashley is an improv comedian and was a writer on the show. And when he says, “You and me both, sister,” she’s like, “Don’t call me sister, that’s not for you.” I get to set and I’m like, “Oh, this is awesome. I’m excited to take credit for this.”
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