Critic’s Rating: 4.5 / 5.0
4.5
After watching DTF St. Louis Season 1 Episode 1, you might be wondering, “Who the hell are these people?”
That’s the question to ask because everything you think you know after “Cornhole” will change in the coming episodes.
This is one of those shows that works hard to upend your expectations, and oh boy, will it ever do that.
I’m reviewing the premiere, having seen the first five episodes and a press conference with the cast and creator, who promised that what I knew from the first five episodes would explode in the remaining four.
So, I thought I’d pass along the sentiment until we got too far into this.
Right out of the gate, you understand the dark comedy of the production. Jason Bateman’s Clark heading to his job as a weatherman on a recumbent bike is a choice.
David Harbour’s Floyd’s sincere attempts to work with his stepson to grow closer, only for his stepson Richard to feel uncomfortable as Floyd’s shirt rises up his belly.
The hurricane-force winds put the two men in the unenviable position of staying alive, leading to Floyd’s awkward admission of Peyronie’s disease, which somehow led him to the field of sign language. I mean, this is funny stuff.
The scenes in which Clark and Floyd’s friendship grows, complete with body squeezes, piano music plunking, and adult asses squeezed onto an old-fashioned swingset, all suggest that somewhat surreal suburban life that we all, deep down inside, fear.
At first, it seems like that fear is driving the storyline, but by the end of the hour, we have to wonder whether Clark was sincere at all about his friendship overtures.
Clark and Floyd aren’t exactly who you’d expect to become friends. Clark is a successful weatherman, and Floyd is a financially strapped sign language interpreter.
What could they have in common? Well, they’re both a little socially awkward. They both seem to be struggling in their marriages.
Clark turns a “safety sesh” for his girls into a chance to ogle the neighbor’s ass for goodness sakes.
But what happens about midway through the episode, as Clark and Floyd are getting down to join DTF, is that you begin to see the sadness inside of them is far more prolific than you thought, and dammit, you begin to feel bad for laughing.
Because these could be real people. They stand out on DTF St. Louis for their absurdity, but that absurdity is more real than anything else we see on TV.
And then Floyd is found dead on the floor of a locker room, his shirt having ridden up over the belly he so wanted to get rid of, kind of the ultimate humiliation for a guy who, for all accounts, seemed like a caring man.
His death introduces us to competing detectives Homer and Jodie, from competing jurisdictions, who will be our travel guides from now on.
They bump heads about who can enter the room when, and then go to great lengths to seriously discuss the Indiana Jones and Dicks centerfold that was beside Floyd when he died.
Who didn’t laugh when Homer said Floyd was into lost cities and treasure hunter men, like it was his private thing?
Expect the detectives to continue on this same trajectory. They’re a significant source of the dark comedy, but they also lend insight.
Homer’s reflection that Floyd died three miles from his home, seemingly to go somewhere else so he could be himself, was touchingly sincere. You shouldn’t have to go somewhere else to be yourself. “It should be an all-day kind of thing.”
But think of how many of us never feel comfortable in our own homes, let alone our own skin. That’s not something to laugh about. It’s tender and deep. DTF St. Louis nestles that depth right beside Jodie’s exploration of penises with the Indiana Jones motif.
That’s what makes DTF so unlike anything else we’re watching right now.
It seems like a stark contrast between farce and depth, but that’s a uniquely human trait. We really do take those wild swings in our everyday lives. We aren’t always talking death and porn, but we could be.
However this unfolds, we’re not looking at criminal masterminds behind Floyd’s death.
Clark was practically dumbstruck at being called into the police station, and with each reveal — his bike on camera, and the warrant for his phone — his face fell.
Jason Bateman acted the hell out of that scene. That was a man who saw his past and future colliding an a magnificently ugly way and having no idea what would come next.
Another brilliant and twisty part of DTF St. Louis is how it doesn’t unfold linearly. It’s done through memories, many of which are mere flashes that will likely be put together like a puzzle in the final stretch of the series.
But they already show that whatever Clark felt for Floyd was as real as what he probably felt for Carol, although we have seen nothing about their time together beyond those flashes.
We know that Floyd found out about the affair. The phone messages suggest Carol broke off the affair with Clark. Everything from Cornhole to the time Clark was trying to explain what a Cornhole thing is to Homer is entirely up in the air.
Great use of music, which, of late, has been my thing. I need music to meet the drama with a splash, and the sunshine motif is ripe for it.
“Let the Sunshine In,” emblazoned on Clark’s billboards around town and featured in the credits, sets the stage, and Ozzy Osbourne’s “Sunshine of Your Love” closing the hour when the walls close in on Clark show they’re having some fun in the music department, and I’m here for it.
We have barely met Linda Cardellini in this first hour, but the welcoming look on her face as she crossed the yard toward a practically salivating Clark suggested she’s holding cards up her sleeve. The earlier conversation suggested she was flirty, and Clark was accepting of it.
But the rest of her so far is a mystery.
And then there is David Harbour, who has taken a sharp turn from the heroic Jim Hopper on Stranger Things to down-on-his-luck Floyd, who is turned off by his wife’s umpire uniform.
It’s a role that once might have gone to Will Ferrell, but Harbour brings genuine warmth along with his flair for comedy.
I almost wept as he read the letter to Richard at the beginning. Harbour put so much emotion into that scene, and how badly Floyd wanted his son to have a better-than-average life and love put him in the crosshairs.
Of course, they’re going to set us up to feel for Floyd when he’s going to be killed. But is that really who Floyd was? Was he deserving of that empathy? I don’t know, but I’m eager to find out.
Carol is coming in like the woman who ruined two men’s lives, so it will be interesting to see who she really is, too.
And I know that I suck at these premiere reviews. I want to be overarching with the story and fail to address enough detail, which is especially important in a mystery. And this is one hell of a mystery.
If you liked “Cornhole,” DTF St. Louis only gets better and more dynamic from here. Clark has to unburden himself while in custody, and the detectives have to explore every other facet of Floyd’s life to uncover who killed him — or if he killed himself.
We can’t really rule anything out.
This is one of my favorite shows in a long time.
They have woven an emotional drama and dark comedy together and allowed it to unfold slowly, with plenty of surprises along the way. The emotional part is important because, without feeling for these characters, the twists don’t matter.
But we do feel for them, and in a way, we can almost place ourselves in their unenviable shoes. There but for the grace of God go I in my search for happiness, companionship, and satisfaction, sort of thing.
Make no mistake about it, aging isn’t done gracefully.
Finding new friends in your 50s is practically impossible. To find one and lose them, no matter how or if it was your fault, stings. Keeping any relationship from falling apart is hard work.
This is going to be a great ride, and I promise I’ll provide a more traditional look at upcoming episodes. I’ll also share a bit from the press conference, so keep your eye on TV Fanatic for more DTF St. Louis.
Now, it’s your turn! What did you think?
Do you feel for these characters, or are they just a means to an end?
Do you have any theories about what happened to Floyd and why?
Vote in our poll and share your thoughts in the comments below. Let’s get this party started!
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