HBO’s new dark dramedy DTF St. Louis dives into middle-aged desire through deception, suburbia and murder. The series follows three characters forced to confront the fallout when loneliness, ego and curiosity spiral into something far more dangerous than they anticipated.

Creator Steven Conrad said he was deliberate about escalating the stakes early, especially after the first episode’s major reveal.

“If bad choices lead to worse choices, and then worse choices, then you’ve got a real show on your hands,” Conrad told Blavity’s Shadow and Act. “I was hoping to demonstrate with this particular challenge, quiet lives that can no longer stay quiet for any number of reasons, leading to out of control consequences, setting it in a place that seems normal to someone who doesn’t live there, someone who’s passing through, and hoping to share that there are these dangerous passions, appetites, kinks, everywhere we look, behind every door. No one’s normal, it just looks that way from across the street.”

A love triangle gone wrong

DTF St. Louis centers on married couple Floyd (David Harbour) and Carol (Linda Cardellini), along with their friend Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman), a local meteorologist whose on-air charm masks deeper impulses.

“I think she’s written as a suspect in the audience’s mind,” Cardellini said. “I think the way that it is guided, you will suspect her, which I think is the beautiful thing about how it happens, right? There’s turns on different people, and the twists are almost, ‘Who’s the next person you’re going to think did it, right?’ But Carol is less [well-known] when you first meet her. Floyd is such an open heart.”

She added, “Carol is more sort of cloaked in this mystery, and I think it’s helpful for the story, but I also think that’s the person she is. She’s not as open-hearted. She’s been hurt, she’s had a different life than they have, and she’s trying to survive the best she can, trying to figure out what she needs and how to have power in any situation.”

Bateman reflected on how Clark’s self-assuredness creates more danger than Floyd’s naivety.

“You’ve got to be careful how much you think you’ve got figured out, because there’s always something else to learn, and I think in my life, if I’m living it right, I’m constantly pushing towards something that I know less and less about,” he said.

“Clark is certainly doing that, maybe a little bit too fast, a little bit too much, and against somebody who he cares deeply about in Floyd,” Bateman continued. “He tries to sort of make up for that by bringing him into this DTF site, hoping that he’s going to find somebody that can bring him the gains that Clark is getting with Floyd’s wife. He’s trying to be generous and kind of altruistic with that move, but that ultimately ends up getting a bit damaging.”

Two detectives who refuse to give up on the case

By the end of the premiere, Detectives Jodie Plumb (Joy Sunday) and Donoghue Homer (Richard Jenkins) are investigating a murder, and the deeper they dig, the less straightforward the case becomes.

“She really does her best to approach everything with curiosity, and therefore, understanding,” Sunday said. “I would say, this also might not be a concept that Jodie necessarily believes in, just because of how she feels the system at large works. I think, at the end of the day, what she’s seeking is truth, and for everyone to benefit from that.”

Jenkins described his character as a seasoned detective forced to confront his own assumptions.

“I think he really thinks he has the answer in the beginning. It’s a kind of sad commentary on where he is as a cop. It’s his last case, and this is what he’s learned over the years, to assume things that are not necessarily true. But he does. When the evidence is put in front of him, he sees it. He doesn’t keep denying it, as he says to her, ‘You’re not supposed to bring in the evidence I haven’t asked for, and I didn’t ask for this.’ But at the same time, the next thing he says, ‘Okay, this is real.’ So there’s hope. He changes because of her.”

DTF St. Louis airs new episodes on Sundays at 9 p.m. until the season finale on April 12.