It's quite rare to see a show, especially a Netflix show, rated at 0% on Rotten Tomatoes. But that's exactly where newly-released Florida Man finds itself.
The dark comedy, which stars Edgar Ramirez as an ex-cop who is sent back to his home state of Florida to find a Philadelphia mobster's girlfriend, has had a troubling reaction from critics. Most of the criticism is aimed at the length of the series, the muddled storylines and TV shows' incompatibility with "meme culture".
As the name suggests, Florida Man is based on the internet meme of strange and unusual news headlines which stem from the more bizarre residents of the Sunshine State. Just a simple search at the time of writing comes up with some gems like "Naked, greased-up Florida man accused of breaking into 2 homes, jumping in pool".
The show, which is produced by Ozark star Jason Bateman, is luckily getting better audience reviews, with an overall score of 71%. It's also been victim of releasing at the same time of arguably Netflix's best ever show, Beef.
The show which stars Steven Yeun and Ali Wong currently has a 98% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which shows the disparity between the two releases.
Florida Man is rising up the Irish Netflix charts
However, Florida Man is starting to slowly rise up the Netflix charts, currently sitting at number six, just three places behind Beef. So, fortunately the show is finding some sort of audience.
Ramírez, who also starred in Zero Dark Thirty and American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace, says the title of the series isn't trying to make fun of Florida but rather embraces it.
"It does not make fun of that, it has fun with it, which is completely different," he told AP News.
“It is funny, but it’s dark. It’s offbeat, it’s strange, it’s weird. The absurdity of the situations is where the comedy lies.”
While definitely not the best show to be released by Netflix this month, Florida Man is certainly better than its Rotten Tomatoes score. It might be a little drawn out, but the offbeat dark comedy is absolutely worth a shot.
All 7 episodes of the limited series are available to watch on Netflix now.
