Florida Man (Netflix series, 2023)
Florida Man is a neo-noir comedy crime series starring Edgar Ramirez as an ex-cop who returns to his home state to look for the runaway girlfriend of a Philly mobster.
Let’s start with some context. There have always been men from Florida, but about ten years ago the phrase ‘Florida Man’ became an internet meme, about how men in the hot climate of Florida seemed more prone to lunatic behavior than men in other parts of the US.
There were so many news headlines with ‘Florida Man does so and so’ that they seemed to become one person: Florida Man, the world’s worst superhero.
Some of that humor resurfaces in this series, which was created by Donald Todd, who is known for his work on comedy series like Ugly Betty and Samantha Who.
The Florida Man in question is Mike Valenti, who is played by Edgar Ramirez. Mike is a gambler and has lost (in no particular order) his money, his wife, his friends and his job.
Mike is hired by crime boss Moss Yankov (Emory Cohen) to track down the mobster’s girlfriend Delly West, who is played by Abby Lee.
Thing is, Mike and Abbey already have some history together, and once he starts investigating, he stumbles onto some long hidden family secrets and it doesn’t take long before everything starts to unravel.
Pretty soon our Florida Man realizes he can’t escape the swamp that is also known as the Sunshine State, which is as per usual full of (human) alligators.
And so it becomes increasingly hard for Mike to do the right thing while being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The Florida landscape provides a great backdrop for a series like this, while both Ramirez and Lee are very charismatic performers.
The show also boasts an impressive line-up of co-stars, including Anthony LaPaglia as Mike’s criminally inclined father Sonny, Paul Schneider as police officer Andy Boone and Clark Gregg as Sheriff Ketcher, whose gun Mike pinches early on and whose life is thrown into disarray when he tries to find himself a new one.
Creator Donald Todd, by the way, has a slightly different take on what a Florida Man is: someone who lives by his own rules. Which basically means living by no rules at all.
So when Delly West tells Mike there is a way they can get their hands on 100 million dollars world in gold they go for it.
That means pissing off some really shady men with guns. But, then again, as Sheriff Ketcher puts it: ‘This is Florida. The whole state is shaped like a gun.’
That line tells you everything you need to know about this very enjoyable show.