Storyline for DTF St Louis on HBO Max

Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman) is a weatherman at a local St. Louis television station; Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour) works as a freelance ASL interpreter, and he’s trying to bond with his teenage stepson Richard (Arlan Ruf).

The two of them meet when Floyd works as an ASL interpreter during a remote report Clark gives during a massive storm.

Floyd pulls Clark back, keeping him from being impaled by a flying stop sign.

Inside a convenience store, they become fast friends.

Floyd even tells Clark about his Peyronie’s disease (look it up).

Two weeks later, Floyd and his wife Carol (Linda Cardellini) are hosting a cornhole party/cookout, and Clark is there with his wife Eimy (Wynn Everett).

However, he certainly seems to be taken by Carol, and the feeling seems to be returned.

After a montage of Floyd and Clark bonding, we see the Smernitches come over the Forrests’ house.

There, Floyd tells Clark that since Carol has started umpiring Little League games, all he can envision is his wife in umpiring gear, completely turning him off.

Clark tells Floyd about an app called “DTF St. Louis,” where married people discreetly match and meet for sex (“DTF” means exactly what you think it does).

Episodes of DTF St Louis on HBO Max

The first episode of DTF St. Louis is a bit disjointed, story-wise, but both Clark and Floyd are such awkward, beta-male stereotypes in their scenes together that it keeps you watching.

But halfway through the first episode, things kick into gear when Floyd is found dead in the poolhouse.

And even though detectives Plumb and Homer are constantly arguing as they look into Floyd’s death, things start to coalesce around Clark, and then we realize that what we saw earlier was only pieces of the story of Clark, Floyd and Carol.

The second episode lays things out better, as Clark and Carol talk to Homer and Plumb about their affair.

Of course, when we have non-linear storytelling, there’s a huge risk that the back and forth and withholding of information will annoy viewers rather than draw them in.

But with the second episode, the disjointed nature of the first one has more context.

In essence, the first half-hour of the first episode is more of an overview of the story Clark and Floyd’s friendship, with the idea that the details that get filled in later are surprising at times and explain things at others.