Bad Monkey
Certain movies become favorites. Watched over and over again. And back in the days of VHS watched so many times the tape become unplayable. But there are a rare few that you know will enter your personal pantheon from your first viewing. In fact they're so good that as soon as you finished watching it that first time you went back to the beginning and watched it all over again. The first movie I remember doing this for was Clue. My best friend brought it over on VHS thinking I'd love it. She was right. I asked her if I could borrow it and the second she left I rewound it to the beginning and watched it a second time. I almost contemplated a third viewing but I waited until the next day to do that. Swingers is another movie that I did this with. My friends and I rented it from Blockbuster Video and we went over to one of their houses to watch it. Since I was the one who rented it I took it with me when we left claiming I would return it right away but instead I promptly went home and watched it again. I watched it again for Vince Vaughn. Sure you could argue that Jon Favreau is really the star of that movie. I will violently disagree. This began my love of all things Vince Vaughn. His laid back laconic snark is an artform in itself. He's had some big hits here and there and quite a few misses, like I totally blocked out that he was in the Jurassic Park sequel... And yes, he will forever be beloved for Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story, and his stepping in to play Freddy Funkhouser on Curb Your Enthusiasm after the death of Bob Einstein which gave him good television exposure. But for me around 2005 when Wedding Crashers came out I was kind of tired of the same old same old from him. And then Bad Monkey came around. At first I wasn't sure I was going to watch it. My mother was a huge Carl Hiaasen fan and anyone who has spent any time around books knows how memorable the cover for Bad Monkey is with that piratical primate... So she would have been onboard. And then it was announced Slow Horses was coming back earlier than expected and I decided to get Apple+ a little early and see what this show was all about. Well this show is about Vince Vaughn's comeback. And while he didn't actually go away, this is a roll that will forever define him. It plays to his skillset to such a level it's a masterclass in acting just watching him. He is perfection as Andrew Yancy. I mean, people might say that it was a given it would be so good because Bill Lawrence is behind it and he's brought us Ted Lasso, Shrinking, Scrubs, and Spin City to name just a few classics. But this is a vehicle for Vaughn. His snark is still there, he's still laid back, but he's talking a mile a minute, filling the air with his words and his humorous delivery all while being backed up by a stellar cast. And while people will bemoan that a second season couldn't possibly be as good because almost all the cast is dead... Well, I'm willing to trust Bill Lawrence and his three season plan. Because, trust me, if there's any justice in the world Vince Vaughn will be getting an Emmy off this show. It's a delicious and delightful mystery inside a mystery while you take in all that Florida has to offer, and that happens to be a lot of Tom Petty covers. But at the very end they use Tom Petty's own version "Leaning to Fly" and it's like coming home. And Vince Vaughn as Andrew Yancy is welcome in mine anytime. I even will admit to enjoying his slightly annoying ringtone on his phone...
When a show is based on a book that no one has bothered to even translate into English to release as a tie-in edition with the show, as a viewer you're not expecting fine art. Which is exactly where your expectations should be in regard to The Couple Next Door. This is about pretty people fucking each other. Both literally and figuratively. Jessica De Gouw and Sam Heughan are Danny and Becka, the playful couple into swinging. Eleanor Tomlinson and Alfred Enoch are Evie and Pete, the happily married childhood sweethearts expecting their first child. The couples become friends, Eleanor and Alfred lose the baby, and the sexcapades start. Evie is a little too into it. Pete is just trying to please his wife. As for the swingers, they broke their cardinal rule of not mixing friendship and pleasure. There's large expanses of time just wasted on longing looks with music and slow motion camerawork. So. Many. Longing. Looks. Yes, I get it Starz, you're trying to do softcore porn, can we maybe get a plot to go with that? They do try to shoehorn in a plot with corrupt cops and investigative journalism and religious fundamentalism and slut-shaming and Danny having a deaf kid by another woman, but none of this matters, and in fact, none of it is resolved or will be resolved because by season two we're onto a whole new cast. Well, almost all new. One standout character remains. Which is where this show shines. When it's just pretty people and their paramours, it's nothing, when it becomes about creepy stalkers and sexual mind games, well, then it's special. Eleanor Tomlinson's Evie gets this wicked gleam in her eye as she starts to become obsessed with Danny. She knows they have a connection and due to his incredibly fertile sperm he gets Evie pregnant. Which Evie then spins into a fantasy of the two of them running off together and starting a new life. Which, yes, it could then be compared to Fatal Attraction. But the thing is, while Evie is wonderfully unsettling, it's when Alfred Enoch's Pete goes over the edge that the whole series gels. He is deranged but Enoch makes the character someone relatable. You want him to take this all to the next level. You want him to burn their street to the ground. This show understands it's soapy nature and that is why it works. If it didn't have this absurdity to it, well, then it would be pornographic schlock. Which brings us to the best character who is returning for the second season, Alan Richardson as played by Hugh Dennis. Alan takes care of his wife while spending all his free time spying on Danny and Becka. He quickly spirals out of control when Becka boots him from her yoga class. He takes revenge by breaking into their house and leaking their private photos online. But the strain is too much and he has a stroke. Which leads to him being taken care of by his wife. Who exerts exquiste revenge on her pervert husband. It's that exquiste revenge, that exqusite mania, that line between how a normal person would react to a situation and how we wish our darker selves could react that makes this show work. It's still not high art, but at times it's hilarious.
