RIOTUS

Gotta be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever noticed or paid attention to Steven Conrad before. He’s written some stuff I like, but that was kind of before I paid attention to everyone who worked on a film or show. The olden times of seeing a commercial or trailer or even a poster and thinking, ” Hey, that looks interesting, and I like these actors, so I’ll check it out. The same can be said about this show, DTF St. Louis, starring David Harbour, Jason Bateman, and Linda Cardellini. All three actors I like a lot, shoot, Linda Cardellini, I’d watch it off the strength of her alone. I’ve liked her ever since she was Lauren in Boy Meets World and then later ER. Now this show is about what initially feels like a show of middle-aged married people going through some midlife crisis, and marriage trouble completely flips all that into an entirely different show – a murder mystery! Completely taken off guard, I had to watch all the episodes I had access to.

Jason Bateman plays Clark Forrest, a local TV news weatherman. He befriends David Harbour’s Floyd, the new American Sign Language interpreter who works at the same station, and Floyd interprets for him on TV. They make a fast friendship as Floyd feels like he might be depressed and feeling unsure of his life and the security in his marriage with Carol (Cardellini). The two end up bonding over Clark telling Floyd to try out an app called DTF St. Louis to spice things up a bit. Things get funky when it fast forwards a few weeks, and we see Floyd is dead in a park, and Clark is brought in as a suspect. The show is then about two investigators.

Here, Richard Jenkins as Detective Donoghue Homer plays the veteran, arrogant, seen-it-all big city detective paired with the calm, detail-oriented younger Jodie Plumb, a special crimes officer from the suburban town where Clark and Floyd live. Played by Joy Sunday, Jodie takes over the scenes she’s in easily, thanks to her presence and big eyes, which you can see are paying attention to every detail, every bit of information, and any little tell that a person can give when she’s talking to them. As much as you’re invested in learning about the friendship between Clark and Floyd, my attention was very much drawn to Det. Homer and Officer Plumb’s rivalry and growing dynamic of respect as the old detective soon learns to listen to the younger one, as he thinks this is an open-and-shut case, slowly opening up into something that isn’t so cut and dry.

Linda Cardellini’s Carol is a huge draw to this story as she plays so many different roles depending on which character you’re seeing her through. While from her own, she’s a bit of a mystery for the first four episodes of the show, she plays the mom and wife who has to be the more responsible one in the relationship, and does more of the emotional labor. Just through her facial expressions, you can see her frustration, but her love for Floyd is there. It’s not enough, and her interactions with Bateman’s Clark are fun as she’s just so much cooler than he is. You can see why he’s infatuated with Carol, and I won’t go into what happens, but it works. It’s her scenes with Joy that excite me for how the season will end and make me want to finish the series.

While I still need to see how the series ends for me after watching over sixty percent of it, I can easily say this show is worth watching. The show is shot well and edited in a way that adds to the mystery the show is telling. At times, the show can feel dreamlike, and at others, a primetime network family drama, and then right into a detective show. I like the changes in tone as it does so seamlessly and effortlessly. DTF St. Louis is another great series to HBO‘s Sunday night lineup. Its mix of family drama and mystery makes it feel fresh and new to me as a viewer and continues this great run of new shows on the network/streaming service.