Review: Bad Monkey, "The Russian Mob Is Very Active in Key West" | Season 1, Episode 8
It's time to take accountability for our actions
After a couple of meandering midseason episodes, Bad Monkey is back on track. “The Russian Mob Is Very Active in Key West” is a narratively propulsive episode that sets the show up for the homestretch, and has everything I like about Bad Monkey: humor, engaging crime drama plotting, unexpectedly thoughtful character development, and b-roll shots of animals.
Let’s talk about that unexpectedly thoughtful character development. In this episode, I’m specifically referring to Egg, who over the past few episodes has evolved from a one-dimensional heavy to a complex character we care about…or, at least I do—I can’t speak for you and your willingness to cut a violent mercenary some slack just because he’s falling in love.
We first learned that the Striplings’ glowering enforcer has a multifaceted personality and a beautiful singing voice back in episode five, when he started to develop a relationship with the Dragon Queen. By episode eight, we see that singing to Gracie—who ha…