“Florida Man”: fun and peril in the sunshine

Let’s imagine that Elmore Leonard, Janet Evanovich and Dave Barry brainstormed.
We’ll assume that alcohol or chemical enhancements were provided, The result might be “Florida Man” (shown here), the surprisingly good, seven-part mini-series that arrived recently on Netflix.
Leonard was a Detroit novelist who occasionally moved his focus down to Florida, with a surplus of eccentric character; his “LaBrava” was an award-winner and“Maximum Bob” briefly became a TV series. Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum novels (set in New Jersey) are filled with odd characters; Barry is the Miami humorist whose first novel, “Big Trouble,” was big on Florida quirks.
Throw them together, mix thoroughly and you have “Florida Man.”
Edgar Ramirez, the Venezuelan native best-known for playing Versace in an FX mini-series, stars as Mike, a former cop who’s drowning in gambling debts to a mobster named Moss. Now Moss makes him go to Florida and retrieve his runaway girlfriend Delly.
It soon occurs to the viewer that Delly (Abby Lee) is quite beautiful, Mike is reasonably handsome and Moss is neither. But there are twists here, making it hard to guess who (if anyone) is being honest.
The story is soon sprinkled with side characters and Florida oddities. We meet Mike’s diligent sister Patsy and their father (Anthony LaPaglia). We meet Mike’s ex-wife, who’s still a cop, and his bizarre minions; even the couple running the motel has an intriguing back story.
There’s also a sub-plot about a cop whose Florida vacation crumbles. He’s played by Clark Gregg (Phil Coulson in Marvel movies and series), who also directed the final two episodes.
Yes, the direction here is consistently good. With its wild plot, “Florida Man” could easily plunge into silliness, but it remains a sharp drama. Watch a late scene with Mike and his dad accidentally turning an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting into a sort of soul-searching encounter.
Maybe that shouldn’t surprise us. “Florida Man” is produced by Jason Bateman, part of the deal that brought “Ozarks” and “Arrested Development” to Netflix. He knows how to make a show fun without letting it be silly.
For Netflix, this is part of a hot, three-Thursday stretch – “Florida Man” on April 13, Keri Russell’s “The Diplomat” on April 20, the new “Bridgerton” season on April 27. For now, at least, Thursdays seem like the center of the TV universe.