A new series that goes beyond a popular Florida meme is coming to Netflix.
‘Florida Man’ is set to be released on April 13. The series comes to Netflix from Jason Bateman’s production company, Aggregate Films. According to Netflix, the series digs much deeper into “the swamp than a news snippet can.”
“We’ve all seen the meme. We’ve all seen the headlines about a seemingly singular “Florida man” breaking laws in the most creative ways imaginable: ‘Florida Man Arrested for [fill in blank with wild crime, possibly involving alligators].’”
The series follows Mike Valentine (Edgar Ramírez), a recovering gambling addict from Florida who returns to his home state when a mob boss sends him to find his missing girlfriend.
“Mike gets caught up in situations that would put some of the best “Florida man” memes to shame,” Netflix said in a news release. “He finds out that he can’t quite escape the hometown he tried to leave behind.”
Born and raised in the southernmost US peninsula, creator and showrunner Donald Todd knows his subject intimately.
“As I grew up, I never stopped thinking about why Florida is Florida,” he recalls. “Florida is a thin layer of porous crust on top of a hundred feet of water, and it’s maybe a few feet above sea level… it might all sink. So when you feel that everything is temporary, you take what you can when you can get it. A ‘Florida man’ is someone who’s proudly independent and doesn’t live by your code, which means he doesn’t live by any code.”
Todd and Ramírez said they were most fascinated about Mike Valentine because he’s stuck in the middle of two lives — an ex-cop and ex-gambler who’s trying to make good but who’s still indebted to a mobster.
“And that’s the most dangerous place anybody can be,” says Todd, “especially if you’re going to a place that’s not gonna give you any guidance morally. Mike feels that he’s a hero and just needs one more day to prove it… then one more after that.”
Netflix said the central question of the show is: “How did we get here?”
“[People] laugh at the mug shots and the headlines,” says Todd, “but what’s the story behind the meme?” Meme aside, the Sunshine State is unlike any other, and it’s the perfect backdrop for a character-driven thriller. “The brightest sun casts the darkest shadows,” Todd says, “so people can hide in shadows. All of that creates an ethos that’s perfect for a bright and noirish crime story.”
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