HBO’s new limited series DTF St. Louis arrives as a compact, shape‑shifting drama: part dark comedy, part character study, part procedural. Across seven weekly episodes, the show drills into small‑town habits, secret lives and the messy fallout when a provocative dating app collides with a sudden death.
What it is and when to watch
– Premiere: Sunday, March 1, 2026
– Where: HBO and streaming simultaneously on HBO Max
– When: New episodes every Sunday at 9 p.m. ET/PT
– Episodes: Seven total; Episode 1 — “Cornhole” (Mar. 1), Episode 2 — “Snag It” (Mar. 8). Remaining titles will be announced closer to air dates.
Premise, tone and structure
DTF St. Louis centers on a fictional St. Louis community rocked by the murder of Floyd Smernitch. The local dating app—called, naturally, DTF St. Louis and aimed at married people seeking affairs—pulls together a tangled web of desires, loyalties and resentments. The series doesn’t hand you the whole story at once: its timeline is deliberately fractured, moving back and forth through flashbacks and recorded interrogations so secrets emerge piece by piece.
That fragmented storytelling lets the show alternate between uneasy laughs and darker emotional beats. There are moments of male bonding and suburban absurdity alongside scenes that examine betrayal, reputation and the consequences of online anonymity. It’s a tonal balancing act—some viewers will appreciate the slow unwind of character detail; others might chafe at the withheld chronology.
Cast and creative team
Created by Steven Conrad, the miniseries leans on an experienced ensemble:
– Jason Bateman
– David Harbour as Floyd Smernitch
– Linda Cardellini
– Richard Jenkins (Detective Donoghue Homer)
– Joy Sunday (Detective Jodie Plumb)
Bateman brings his trademark dry irony, Harbour undercuts expectations with a vulnerable turn, and Cardellini plays a woman navigating practical responsibilities and emergent sexual agency. Jenkins and Sunday anchor the investigative thread as detectives who dig through app records, alibis and fractured relationships.
The inciting incident and the investigation
The show opens on Floyd’s killing, which sets the procedural wheels in motion. Floyd was entangled in a sexual triangle with his wife, Carol Love‑Smernitch, and Clark Forrest, a local TV weatherman introduced to the app by Floyd. As detectives sift through digital traces and communications, the app functions as both catalyst and evidence: it accelerates secret encounters and creates a tangle of motives that complicate the inquiry.
HBO has signaled that the series emphasizes character revelations over a tidy procedural resolution; expect scenes that probe motive, opportunity and the emotional fallout as much as they pursue forensic answers.
Why it matters (and what to expect)
DTF St. Louis is asking questions about how online platforms reshape desire and small‑town reputations. Its inventive structure slowly reframes suspects and sympathies, forcing viewers to reassess what they thought they knew about each character. The payoff is a close study of human contradictions—people who are at once likable, foolish and culpable.
Practical note
HBO is keeping some episode titles and guest appearances under wraps to preserve narrative surprises. More casting and episode details will be released ahead of each Sunday premiere. Louis isn’t a straightforward whodunit or a light satire. It’s a genre‑bending miniseries that uses a murder and a controversial app as the engine for a story about intimacy, secrecy and the social textures of a Midwestern town. If you like mysteries that unfold through character work and tonal risk‑taking, this one’s worth tuning into on Sundays at 9 p.m. ET/PT.
