David Harbour and Jason Bateman star in new HBO Max series about a suspicious death
DTF St Louis ★★★★½
Don’t let the suggestive title fool you. HBO Max’s new limited series is a quietly thoughtful and bittersweet viewing experience. This story of best male friends (one of whom is secretly having an affair with the other’s wife) sparked by a suspicious death can be played as a dry black comedy or a suburban black comedy. But even as we move into the mainstream of the genre, the central performances and writing continue to unearth new aspects of humanity, whether flawed or surprising.
Found dead under indecent circumstances, Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) is a portly sign language interpreter who works with his friend Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman), the local television weatherman. Jodie Plumb (Joy Sunday) and Donoghue Homer (Richard Jenkins), two St. The plot quickly establishes that Clark is having an affair with Floyd’s wife, Carol Love-Smernitch (Linda Cardellini). The reason is a separate issue.
DTF St LouisNamed after the hookup app that Clark introduces to Floyd in one of many illuminating flashbacks, the film was written and directed by Steven Conrad. Amazon Prime Video’s previous shows, including the hilarious spy tale PatrioticThere were lashes about absurdity and high circumstances. There are still hints of that here — Floyd’s penile curvature is a recurring theme — but the show, set in 2018, is deliberately everyday. These are ordinary people whose circumstances, dreams and desires, at first glance, turn out to be no different at all.
Central relationships are patiently pieced together so you can see the best intentions and damaging turning points. Floyd initially seems like a cheerful buffoon, but he’s so sincere and hopeful that the audience, like Clark, wants him to succeed, and there’s a plot involving Floyd and his disgruntled stepson that goes from funny to heartwarming. Conrad continues to secretly inject empathy into the deception and subvert expectations. Every conversation between the misfit Plumb and Homer is amusingly inane.
The cast has a lot to work on. Disenchantment, self-loathing, renewal, and buried optimism emerge over the course of long and often delicate exchanges. The great Peter Sarsgaard appears in a small recurring role and it reminds you just how great Sarsgaard is. A visual gag removes personal suffering and vice versa, but either way the effect always resonates. A sad comedy or a funny tragedy? Either way, few recent shows have inspired this level of reflection in me. I’ll be thinking about DTF St Louis for a long time.
DTF St.Louis It will premiere on HBO Max on March 1.
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Craig Mathieson is the TV, film and music writer for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X.
