David Harbour series ‘DTF St. Louis,’ shot in Atlanta, is quirky, contemplative

Recumbent bikes. Jamba Juice. Cornhole. A female baseball ump. Old copies of Playgirl. David Harbour and Jason Bateman … rapping?

HBO Max’s seven-episode limited series “DTF St. Louis,” with Atlanta masquerading as St. Louis, is packed with quirky aspects of life not typically featured on a TV show. That’s to the credit of the fertile mind of writer, director and showrunner Steve Conrad.

Despite a provocative title that might suggest a wacky comedic romp, Conrad (“The Pursuit of Happyness,” “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”) had a specific vibe in mind.

Jason Bateman's character in HBO Max's "DTF St. Louis" loves using a recumbent bike because it's better ergonomically than a regular one. (Courtesy of HBO Max)

“Suspense,” Conrad said in a Zoom interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “There’s a magic little quotient you can arrive at if you’re lucky with a series that does an extended narrative like this. There’s a moment you think anything is possible. Then there’s a moment that follows when only one thing is possible: the ending.”

Conrad wrapped the show around dating apps that allow spouses to cheat, dubbing his fictional app “DTF St. Louis.” And like a lot of other shows being greenlit nowadays, this series features not just a love triangle but a murder mystery in suburbia among middle-aged couples.

“Dark passions exist in every person in every neighborhood all over the world,” Conrad said. “So the suburbs was a place I wanted to set this.”

Conrad had Peter Sarsgaard’s character, a man who meets up with Harbour’s character at a diner for a possible fling.“Nobody’s normal. It just looks that way from across the street,” he said.

Bateman plays Clark Forrest, a seemingly “normal” family man with a wife and two kids and a weather forecasting job at a local TV station that gives him a modicum of fame and money. But Clark has some secret sexual predilections on top of a weirdly obsessive love for riding a recumbent bike.

Clark befriends Harbour’s Floyd Smernitch, an underemployed sign language expert who is married to Carol (Linda Cardellini), who has a weird habit of saying “No way, Jose!” Inordinately kind, he works hard to bond with his stepson, worries incessantly about his growing gut from stress eating and finds solace in hip-hop dance.

Carol, an office worker who takes a side gig as a baseball umpire to make extra cash, feels hemmed in by financial and intimacy issues with Floyd.

Georgia Public Broadcasting was cast as the role of the station where Jason Bateman's character, a weather forecaster, works. (Courtesy of HBO Max)

She lures Clark into a tryst with not-so-subtle wordplay, a Jamba Juice encounter and a baseball game. Eventually, Floyd is dead.

Joy Sunday, who made her on-screen acting debut a decade ago on the Atlanta-shot CBS show ‘MacGyver,” and Oscar-nominated actor Richard Jenkins (“The Shape of Water,” “The Visitor”) play the detectives investigating what might have happened.

Jenkins said he loved how Conrad tonally shaped the characters.

“It’s really brilliant the way he writes,” Jenkins told the AJC. “He writes human beings who have no idea they’re exposing themselves as to who they are every time they’re on screen.”

The series jumps time frames without any visual cues, and some scenes are repeated later once the viewer absorbs more context, often shifting its entire premise.

Richard Jenkins and Joy Sunday play detectives in HBO Max's new series "DTF St. Louis," which was shot in metro Atlanta. (Courtesy of HBO Max)

“I almost feel like the flashbacks are often instances of regret in that character’s mind,” Sunday said. “And those moments are not in black and white in your mind. They’re clear as day.”

Although many TV series, like ABC’s “Will Trent,” shoot scenes episode by episode, “DTF St. Louis” mixed things up. “It was like a seven-hour movie,” Jenkins said. “We did our last scene the first day.”

Conrad, a Florida native, fell in love with Atlanta last year during production.

“When I first landed there, I made so many important friends so fast,” he said. “I used to pray for rain so we didn’t have to work that day, so I could walk around and discover new things: a new restaurant, a new record store, a new friend, to say nothing about the best crews in the country. I’d do a ‘DTF Atlanta’ if there wasn’t already the best show called ‘Atlanta’ (the FX show) already out there!”

Although Atlanta is new for Conrad, it’s old hat for Bateman and Harbour. Harbour, of course, saw his career soar courtesy of “Stranger Things,” while later shooting the Marvel film “Thunderbolts” in the area. In metro Atlanta, Bateman has filmed several projects over the years, including the critically acclaimed Netflix drama series “Ozark,” as well as the movies “Game Night,” “Office Christmas Party,” “Horrible Bosses,” “Identity Thief” and “The Change Up.”

HBO Max's "DTF St. Louis" shoots around Underground Atlanta and uses this shot off Decatur Street, between Grady Hospital and the Twin Towers State Buildings, but features a fictional TV station billboard with Jason Bateman as Clark Forrest. (HBO Max/Screenshot)

Some ‘DTF St. Louis’ filming locations

Atlanta Bike Barn: Special crimes Detective Jodie Plumb checks out a lead there regarding Conrad’s recumbent bike purchasing habits.

Buckhead Diner (shuttered in 2021 and now used for location work): Floyd meets a man played by Sarsgaard through the dating app “DTF St. Louis.”

Richard’s Variety Store at Ansley Mall: Floyd buys a $17 Hedbanz game.

Jason Bateman (left) and David Harbour film at Georgia Public Broadcasting studios in Midtown. (HBO Max/Screenshot)

Georgia Public Broadcasting, Midtown: The St. Louis TV station where Clark works as a weather forecaster.

Piedmont Park: Carol is seen jogging there.

Underground Atlanta: Floyd does sign language at an R&B/hip-hop music festival, and a former Subway becomes a Jamba Juice, where Clark and Carol flirt.