Episode 1 of DTF St. Louis opens with Clark Forrest (played by Jason Bateman), a weatherman at a local TV station in Twyla, Missouri. After giving his kids a goodbye kiss as they head off to school, he sets out on his three-wheeled recumbent bike and pedals down the road. As he rides, a billboard featuring his face appears in the distance. Meanwhile, Floyd Smernitch (played by David Harbour) is in a therapy session with his stepson, Richard. As part of an exercise, the two share a hug that lingers for an uncomfortably long time.
Clark conducts a live field report in the middle of an intense rainstorm, with Floyd beside him as the station’s sign language interpreter. When the storm turns severe, they’re forced to take shelter. Later, inside a convenience store, the two properly introduce themselves.
The episode jumps ahead two weeks to a cornhole party at Floyd’s house. Floyd makes small talk with Eimy, Clark’s wife, while Clark strikes up a conversation with Carol (played by Linda Cardellini), Floyd’s wife.
As time passes, Clark and Floyd grow close—working together, exercising, and going on runs. Six weeks later, Clark invites Floyd and his family over. Clark and Floyd then sit on the swings, where Clark brings up “DTF. St. Louis,” an app for married couples looking to spice things up by being “down to fuck” with strangers in St. Louis. They open up about their stalled marriages. Floyd confesses that ever since Carol started working as a baseball umpire, the mere image of her in the uniform has completely turned him off. Clark confesses that conflicting schedules with his wife—her late-night charity work and his 4 a.m. wake-ups—have put a pause on their sex lives. In the garage, Clark privately asks Floyd if he’s open to meeting at an Outback Steakhouse to try out the app. Floyd hesitates, saying he’s unsure.
The episode then shifts to their family moments. At home, Floyd catches sight of Carol’s bare legs dangling from the bed, a seductive image. He suggests sex, but when she steps down, she’s dressed in her umpire uniform—instantly killing his desire. Outside, Richard continues hurling rocks at the house, prompting Floyd to call Clark and ask if he’s still up for meeting at the Outback Steakhouse.
At the Outback Steakhouse, Clark and Floyd set up their DTF St. Louis profiles. Clark suggests listing their location as the “St. Louis area” to sound less suburban than Twyla and to reach a wider audience.
The episode then jumps ahead eight weeks, where at a community pool house, Floyd is suddenly discovered dead.
By morning, two detectives arrive at the scene. Jodie (played by Joy Sunday) asks Homer (played by Richard Jenkins) to step aside. Homer identifies himself as a St. Louis County Sheriff’s Detective, while Jodie reveals she’s with the Twyla Special Crimes Unit. Homer suggests they take turns investigating the crime scene, one at a time. Afterward, Homer shares his observations with Jodie. Beside Floyd’s body lay a Playgirl image of a nude man (Indiana Jones-themed), a set of keys, and a canned Bloody Mary drink. Homer speculates that Floyd left the house early to have some “alone time” before suffering a heart complication. But Jodie insists the image isn’t sexual—labeling herself “porn-positive.” She also notes that the man’s face in the image has been heavily scratched out. Homer proposes that their approach should involve Jodie assisting him in gathering information while he takes the lead.
Jodie then canvases the area for surveillance footage. In the footage, she spots a recumbent bicycle parked at the pool house the morning Floyd died. She shares these findings with Homer. She visits a bicycle shop in Twyla, where the clerk reveals that only two three-wheeled recumbent bicycles have been sold in recent years, both to Clark Forrest. She informs Homer of this, leading him to summon Clark to the police station. At the station, Homer asks Clark if he was at the pool house on the morning Floyd died. Clark denies it. Homer lets him leave, but a police officer hands Clark a notice explaining that they will temporarily keep his phone to review his texts and emails.
As Clark rides home on his bike, flashbacks of moments with Floyd run through his mind. During one exercise session, while stretching together, Floyd had asked Clark if he wanted to continue practicing signing. Clark excitedly agreed to it, but Floyd responded with a sign that’s hidden from the audience—and one that made Clark’s face immediately fall in horror.
After going through Clark’s messages, Homer discovers numerous texts sent to Carol. Sharing this with Jodie, they conclude that Clark and Carol had been carrying on an affair for several months. Homer also shows Floyd’s toxicology report, which confirms that he died from a lethal dose of Amphezyne, which stopped his heart. A large amount of the chemical was found in the canned Bloody Mary drink.
Homer arrives at the news station with a team of officers, catching Clark in the middle of a weather report and arresting him live on air. The episode comes to an end in the interrogation room where Homer asks Clark why he killed Floyd. Clark mentions the cornhole party Floyd had hosted, and a flashback shows him and Carol sharing a flirtatious glance during the party. Then finally, the message that Floyd had signed to Clark is revealed: “I know you are fucking my wife.”
Episode 1 of DTF St. Louis delivers offbeat comedic moments that authentically poke fun at adult suburban life. From Floyd’s stepson taking up throwing rocks at houses as a hobby to Clark cruising around town on his strange tricycle, these quirky and uniquely mundane details work to build a vivid picture of the absurdities inherent within adulthood in the suburbs. However, the episode’s structure can be somewhat confusing, with continuous time jumps revealing certain parts of scenes while others are deliberately withheld, leaving viewers without the full picture. Despite this, the comedy consistently lands, and the world already feels convincingly lived in, thanks to the main actors’ compelling performances. Their work sets up the next episode, where more about Floyd’s death and the true nature of the “DTF St. Louis” app will hopefully come to light.
Rating: 8.5/10