Steven Prusakowski
The HBO limited series DTF St. Louis has quickly generated a lot of buzz as a unique, dark comedy exploring middle-age malaise, hookup apps, infidelity, all tangled together by a murder mystery set in suburban St. Louis. (Read all about it in my review). Part of that buzz is how the series is genre-defying. While calling it a dark comedy seems fair, it does not encompass all the series has to offer.
Created, written, and directed by Steven Conrad (Patriot, Perpetual Grace, LTD), the seven-episode miniseries stars Jason Bateman, David Harbour, and Linda Cardellini as three desperate adults whose lives collide leading to unexpected consequences. During a recent press conference all three of the cast and Conrad spoke about the series.
One of the most talked-about elements is how the show defies settling into one genre, mixing drama, some suspense, humor, and grounded in human messiness. Conrad explained the origins of the show, “David (Harbour) and I had started looking around for a show that would essentially be suspense and would have this sort of middle-age, I don’t know, this desperation that you might find in middle-age as its driving force of emotionality… So we took this idea that there would be a set of middle-aged people in a suburban community who over the course of one summer when each of their lives were falling apart in one emotional way or another, they found each other and meanwhile started flirting with this dating app which is not quite a dating app, it’s more of a sexual hookup app… And that promise just seemed not quite stable to me. So, I thought it would be a great place… to hang a series of suspenseful and tense events that might follow from grownups making mistakes and then trying to fix them only to create greater mistakes, only to very serious desperation.”
The cast repeatedly praised Conrad’s writing, Bateman, who plays Clark Forrest (a local weatherman) in the love triangle, called it a “magic trick.” “I just remember racing through those scripts and I just could not believe how unique and original almost every single page was without it ever sort of jumping a shark. I was stunned at how unique all of these pieces of dialog and story moments were with things that build into it in such a tangible, relatable, grounded way. It was like a magic trick in and out of these really exciting things that are said and done.” Harbour, who developed the project with Conrad over four years, emphasized the subversive, emotionally layered quality of the series. “
There’s something that I think Steve’s writing does in this that’s so extraordinary that the best television does… there is a way they do it in The Sopranos, where you have like Tony Soprano, but he’s obsessed with these ducks… And I think that Steve is working on that level where he really wants to surprise you, but in a very grounded way that makes, that sort of opens up a story… even working on this for four years, every time I would get a new script, it would be like Christmas morning.”
The friendship between Bateman and Harbour’s characters was described by one audience member as the “real love story” noting its organic chemistry. “It was kinda easy, right from early discussions with Jason, I felt just a camaraderie. He’s, you know, such a smart guy and so, you know, so silly on one hand, but yet earnestly cares about what he does on the other. I do a lot of work as an actor, but there’s a mysterious element that is always the other person. I just felt a kind of camaraderie and a kind of fun with him. And I started to really just let my guard down. It was a joy to do,” shared Harbour.
Linda Cardellini (as Carol, Floyd’s wife and a part-time Little League umpire is dealing with financial strain and marital dissatisfaction) spoke about her complex role and being part of the series. “When I read it, I just was so moved by it. And I had not read anything like it. It doesn’t move linearly. And Steve’s writing is so beautiful, but there’s like a music to it… she’s so complicated. There’s a lot to Carol that you will find out in the next three (episodes). It’s just very different for me. And it felt a little dangerous and brave for me. To be in the company of this cast, it just was all a real gift. And then being on set every day, I have to say it just was a joy.”
What will certainly stand out is how for DTF St. Louis Conrad captures the awkwardness and peril of middle-age reinvention and the series’ elusive genre categorizing, somewhere between drama and comedy. “I define the difference between those genres for me, it’s less about a joke count or a laugh count, and it’s more about whether the actors are performing like humans. And if they perform like humans and they make you laugh occasionally, that can be comic. But I think that keeps you shy of being considered a comedy. Our show has serious consequences, and there are tolls… there’s a bell that rings a toll at the end, and it’s serious. So, I feel like if you asked me to pick what I might say DTF St. Louis is more consistently and closer to being a drama.”
But be prepared to laugh too.
If you missed the first episode of DTF St. Louis, you can catch a replay of the pilot episode at 7pm March 8th on HBO folllowed by episode 2. The 7 episode miniseries will air new episodes each Sunday throughout it’s run.
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