---
title: "DTF St. Louis"
year: 2026
kind: "series"
canonical: "https://film.one/tv/dtf-st-louis"
fi1m_id: "dtf-st-louis"
imdb_id: "tt34385331"
tmdb_id: 206828
wikidata_id: "Q135984044"
fi1m_score: 78
critics_score: 75
critics_reviews: 7
published: "2026-09-11"
updated: "2026-09-17T20:50:41.919143+00:00"
region: "US"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# DTF St. Louis (2026)

Created by Steven Conrad · MPA TV-MA · Comedy, Drama

## Identity

DTF St. Louis

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/tv/dtf-st-louis
- **Type:** Series
- **Fi1m ID:** dtf-st-louis
- **IMDb ID:** tt34385331
- **TMDB ID:** 206828
- **Wikidata ID:** Q135984044
- **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt34385331/, https://www.themoviedb.org/tv/206828, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q135984044

**Fi1m score: 78** · Critics 75 from 7 reviews

*In a sentence:* A dating app is a complicated way for two middle-aged men to admit they need a friend

> Steven Conrad’s suburban murder mystery is worth watching for its awkward friendships and the warmth of David Harbour’s performance. The investigation is less compelling, and the pace sometimes slackens, but the comedy has enough bite to keep us interested.

## Synopsis

Two middle-aged men explore affairs through a local dating app, and an unusual friendship becomes entangled with a suburban love triangle and a murder mystery. Jason Bateman plays Clark Forrest, David Harbour plays Floyd Smernitch, and Linda Cardellini plays Carol Love-Smernitch, the central trio in Steven Conrad’s comedy-drama. Set against an ordinary Midwestern backdrop, the story follows the wish for connection and the prospect of reinvention as sex, secrecy and betrayal complicate the men’s lives. Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday also appear in the seven-episode miniseries.

## Review

*DTF St. Louis* is a good dark comedy with a murder mystery that too often holds it up. Writer-director Steven Conrad follows two middle-aged men exploring affairs through a local dating app, with friendship becoming as important as sex. The appeal is in how awkwardly those appetites sit together, and in the care taken over people who could easily have been reduced to dirty jokes. We recommend it for the company, with some patience required for the investigation.

Jason Bateman plays Clark Forrest, David Harbour is Floyd Smernitch, and Linda Cardellini completes the central triangle as Carol Love-Smernitch. Bateman and Harbour make the friendship convincing enough for the jokes about midlife dissatisfaction to carry some weight. We were more moved than we expected by Harbour’s performance. He makes Floyd’s wish for company seem painfully ordinary, even when Conrad’s dialogue is working hard to sound peculiar. Cardellini supplies enough comic force for the love triangle to compete with the men’s friendship.

James Whitaker’s cinematography and Laura Fox’s production design make useful comedy out of the ordinary Midwestern setting. Sex and betrayal need not look glamorous, and here the banal surroundings help make them funny. We understand why reinvention might appeal to these people, while doubting that a change of partner will solve much. Conrad lets the setting do some of the satirical work rather than asking the dialogue to explain every dissatisfaction.

The writing is less sure when it moves from coarse humour into tenderness. Conrad wants room for absurdity, romance and the hurt beneath the men’s behaviour, which is a reasonable ambition for a comedy about middle age. The coarse humour and the gentler scenes do not always sit comfortably together, and some of the eccentricity begins to feel laboured. Alex Wurman supplies the music, though the most persuasive emotional work comes from the actors. They make it possible to care without demanding approval.

The more persistent difficulty is the investigation. Editors Ross, Koepke and Scheidegger handle a story whose flashbacks are more engaging than its murder-mystery passages, and the returns to detection can feel like an interruption. Those passages follow a more familiar course than the peculiar friendship at the centre, slowing a series that is already happy to take its time. Across seven episodes, there is room to indulge the characters, but also too much opportunity to let a scene linger.

Among dark comedies about badly behaved adults, this stands out for taking loneliness seriously without making everyone solemn. It is often funny about the lengths people go to for company, and Harbour gives those lengths a sadness that the plotting cannot supply. Come for that untidy friendship, and do not expect the investigation to hurry.

*Fi1m score 78, published 11 September 2026.*

## What the critics say

Most critics respond warmly to DTF St. Louis, with praise clustering around Steven Conrad’s writing and direction, the lead performances and a darkly comic treatment of middle-aged dissatisfaction. David Harbour receives particular attention, while the blend of murder mystery, sexual intrigue and male friendship is widely seen as less predictable than its premise suggests. The warmer reviews find grounded concerns about loneliness and connection beneath the suburban oddness.

Reservations centre on pace, tonal consistency and the strength of the mystery itself. Collider admires the central trio and sharp comedy but finds the investigation more conventional and less engaging than the flashbacks. The Hollywood Reporter is cautious about the shift from coarse humour to sentiment, with its judgement explicitly provisional. The Telegraph offers the coolest assessment, finding thoughtful material weighed down by slow pacing and quirkiness. The spread runs from enthusiastic approval to mixed responses, rather than outright rejection.

## Straight answers

**How long is DTF St. Louis, and what is it rated?**

*DTF St. Louis* is rated TV-MA by the MPA in the US. It is a comedy and drama series.

**Where can I watch DTF St. Louis in the US?**

*DTF St. Louis* is streaming on HBO Max, Hulu, The Roku Channel and Amazon Prime Video in the US, and it is also available to buy from Amazon Prime Video. Availability is checked daily; the links above go straight to each service.

**What should I watch after DTF St. Louis?**

After *DTF St. Louis*, try [*Burn After Reading*](https://film.one/film/burn-after-reading) (2008, Fi1m 72): Another dark comedy in which private dissatisfaction produces spectacularly bad decisions. Then [*Force Majeure*](https://film.one/film/force-majeure) (2014, Fi1m 84): Domestic discomfort examined with cold patience and a cruelly accurate comic eye; and [*The Apartment*](https://film.one/film/the-apartment) (1960, Fi1m 91): A warmer comedy about loneliness, infidelity and the practical arrangements behind romance.

### Reviews we read (8)

- **The AV Club**, Tim Lowery (A-): The critic praises Steven Conrad's writing for turning a familiar premise into something unique and wonderful, highlighting the blend of whodunit, satire, romance, and bromance with absurd humor and heartfelt moments, especially David Harbour's performance. They single out the assured direction and memorable quirky elements like the title sequence and dialogue. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/dtf-st-louis-review-tv-hbo)
- **IndieWire**, Ben Travers (85/100, inferred): The review calls the series a stellar suburban murder-mystery that is more than meets the eye, praising its genre-flipping approach and how it gets at unexpected truths behind a dead body, forbidden affair, and unusual friendship. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/shows/dtf-st-louis-review-hbo-jason-bateman-series-1235181446/)
- **Variety**, Alison Herman (85/100, inferred): The HBO limited series is a perversely hilarious spin on an erotic thriller, combining sex, murder and betrayal against an exquisitely banal Midwestern backdrop to uncanny, off-kilter and ultimately hilarious effect. [Read](https://variety.com/2026/tv/reviews/dtf-st-louis-review-hbo-1236674805/)
- **Radio Times**, Abby Robinson (80/100, inferred): The darkly comic murder-mystery feels fresh and uninhibited by familiar formulas, surprising viewers with its weirdness while maintaining a soft underbelly of grounded human concerns about connection, midlife malaise and reinvention. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/app/why-you-should-watch-dtf-st-louis-apple-tvs-super-weird-crime-show-with-a-soft-underbelly/)
- **The Hollywood Reporter**, Daniel Fienberg (60/100, inferred): The critic finds the series intriguingly inconclusive so far, with two conflicting tones of coarse and semi-funny shifting to sentimental and semi-moving. Positive-ish about the seen episodes but skeptical about the prognosis for the rest. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-reviews/dtf-st-louis-review-jason-bateman-david-harbour-hbo-1236516647/)
- **The Telegraph** (50/100, inferred): The review describes the series as a ponderous study of male friendship and middle-aged malaise, centered on two men exploring affairs through a dating app amid a murder mystery. It notes thoughtful elements but highlights the slow pace and quirky elements. [Read](https://www.telegraph.co.uk/tv/0/dtf-st-louis-sky-atlantic-review/)
- **The Guardian**: The critic finds the series an addictive dark comedy about middle-aged malaise, swinging via a local dating app, and murder. They single out the strong performances by the leads and the confident writing and direction by Steven Conrad for praise. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2026/mar/02/dtf-st-louis-review-david-harbour-jason-bateman-linda-cardellini-addictive-tale-of-middle-age-swinging-and-murder)
- **Collider**, Aidan Kelley (75/100, inferred): The critic praises the sharp dark comedy, witty writing, and strong performances from Jason Bateman, David Harbour, and Linda Cardellini as the core trio in the suburban love triangle. The murder-mystery elements feel weaker and more by-the-numbers, slowing momentum compared to the flashbacks. [Read](https://collider.com/dtf-st-louis-review-hbo-david-harbour-jason-bateman/)

## Details

- **Created by:** Steven Conrad
- **Creator:** Steven Conrad
- **Director:** Steven Conrad
- **Writer:** Steven Conrad
- **Cinematography:** Jim Whitaker
- **Editor:** Kevin D. Ross, Max Koepke, Whitfield Scheidegger
- **Music:** Alex Wurman
- **Production design:** Laura Fox
- **Costume design:** Molly Maginnis
- **Producer:** Christina M. Fitzgerald
- **Cast:** Jason Bateman as Clark Forrest; David Harbour as Floyd Smernitch; Linda Cardellini as Carol Love-Smernitch; Richard Jenkins as Donoghue Homer; Joy Sunday as Jodie Plumb; Arlan Ruf as Richard Smernitch; Anabel Kane as Third Jamba Juice Teen; Peter Sarsgaard as 'Modern Love' / Christopher Spurce
- **Certificate (MPA):** TV-MA
- **Release (the US):** 1 March 2026
- **Genres:** Comedy, Drama
- **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u1XHd5rIvmY

## Where to watch in the US

- HBO Max: streaming, uhd
- Hulu: add-on, hd
- The Roku Channel: add-on, hd
- Amazon Prime Video: add-on, uhd
- Amazon Prime Video: buy, hd

*Checked 2026-09-11.*

Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, ID, IE, IL, IS, IT, LT, MX, MY, NL, NO, PA, PE, PH, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TH, TR, UA, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country.

## If you liked this

- *Patriot* (2015): For more awkward humour and lonely people caught in unnecessarily complicated trouble.
- *Burn After Reading* (2008), Fi1m 72: Another dark comedy in which private dissatisfaction produces spectacularly bad decisions. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/burn-after-reading.md)
- *Force Majeure* (2014), Fi1m 84: Domestic discomfort examined with cold patience and a cruelly accurate comic eye. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/force-majeure.md)
- *The Apartment* (1960), Fi1m 91: A warmer comedy about loneliness, infidelity and the practical arrangements behind romance. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-apartment.md)
- *Happy Valley* (2014): For crime rooted in ordinary lives, with humour that never softens the hurt.

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/tv/dtf-st-louis