Crime comedy Bad Monkey starring Vince Vaughn spent another week near the top of the streaming ratings charts. The Apple TV+ show follows a former detective turned restaurant inspector solving an oddball murder in hopes of getting his old job back.
And it’s not Apple’s only current hit. Slow Horses just launched and the spy thriller is doing well.
Bad Monkey does good on Apple TV+
From the start, Bad Monkey brings three strengths. It’s based on a bestseller, and the series was adapted for Apple TV+ by Bill Lawrence, who created a little show called Ted Lasso … you might have heard of it. Plus the new series stars Vince Vaughn, who’s clearly perfect for this role.
That was enough to get the show off right. It premiered in mid August, and almost immediately rose to No. 1 on Reelgood’s list of Top 10 TV shows on streaming. Then it stayed at the top for a second week. On its third week, from August 29 through September 4, the series slipped to No. 2. The rival service JustWatch puts the show at No. 4 on its weekly listing (August 26 through September 1) of popular series.
Estimates from companies like Reelgood and JustWatch are necessary because streaming services rarely reveal how many people tune in to their offerings.
Critics also think Bad Monkey offers good things. It earns a 93% approval rating from review-aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes.
The Times (UK) reviewer said, “Vaughn has a great vehicle here, and if you miss Bruce Willis on screen, as we all do, there are moments Vaughn is a convincing lookie-likie, only with a bit more hair.” And the Chicago Sun-Times said, “Bad Monkey succeeds in capturing the funny, juicy elements of Carl Hiaasen’s South Florida murder mystery.”
Apple TV+ itself says:
“Based on Carl Hiaasen’s New York Times bestselling novel and enduring cult favorite, Bad Monkey tells the story of Andrew Yancy (Vaughn), who has been bounced from the Miami Police Department and is now a health inspector in the Keys. But after stumbling upon a case that begins with a human arm fished up by tourists, he realizes that if he can prove murder, he’ll be back in. He just needs to get past a trove of Floridian oddballs and one bad monkey.”
The first five episodes of Bad Monkey can be watched now, and the sixth appears on Wednesday. New episodes air on successive Wednesdays through October 9.
Slow Horses season 4 gallops onto the popularity charts
Image: Apple TV+
Season 4 of Slow Horses got underway on Wednesday, September 4, so it appeared for only a single day of Reelgood’s weekly popularity chart. Nevertheless, it made it to No. 8 on the list. Expect it to do much better next week.
The Apple TV+ season 4 summary says:
Slow Horses is a darkly humorous espionage drama that follows a dysfunctional team of British intelligence agents who serve in a dumping ground department of MI5 known un-affectionately as Slough House. Season four opens with a bombing that detonates personal secrets, rocking the already unstable foundations of Slough House.
The Emmy-nominated series stars Gary Oldman as MI5’s irascible Slough House section chief Jackson Lamb.
The first episode of Season 4 is ready to stream now. Fans who need to catch up before diving in can stream the first three seasons, which all hold a Certified Fresh score on Rotten Tomatoes.
Watch these and more on Apple TV+
Watching Bad Monkey, Slow House, plus many other series or films comes with a subscription to Apple TV+. The service is $9.99 per month with a seven-day free trial. You can also get it via any tier of the Apple One subscription bundle.
And Apple’s streaming video service also includes much more, of course. There’s a library of drama, comedies, musicals, children’s shows, nature documentaries, etc.
