The “Florida Man” has been a long standing meme, and now it’s come to life. Venezuelan actor Edgar Ramírez plays Mike Valentine in the upcoming Netflix crime drama, Florida Man which will be available to stream on April 13. The trailer dropped on Monday, and Ramírez shines as he gives a new twist to what it means to be the “Florida man.”
Ramírez’s character is a recovering gambling addict who returns to his home state of Florida, still in debt to a mobster. “When a struggling ex-cop is forced to return to his home state of Florida to find a Philly mobster’s (Emory Cohen) runaway girlfriend (Abbey Lee), what should be a quick gig becomes a wildly spiraling journey into buried family secrets, and an increasingly futile attempt to do the right thing in a place where so much is wrong,” reads the synopsis. He also navigates complicated relationships with his father (Anthony LaPaglia) and ex-wife (Lex Scott Davis).
It’s Ramirez’ latest collaboration with the streaming service after The Last Days of American Crime and Yes Day.
The mini-series is executive produced by Jason Bateman and Michael Costigan’s production company, Aggregate Films. Creator and showrunner Donald Todd (This Is Us) grew up in Florida and he told Netflix, “As I grew up, I never stopped thinking about why Florida is Florida.” “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,” he added.
The limited series also stars Emory Cohen, Anthony LaPaglia, Abbey Lee, Otmara Marrero, Lex Scott Davis, Emory Cohen, Clark Gregg, Isaiah Johnson, Paul Schneider, and Lauren Bugliol.