"DTF St. Louis's impressive first episode, "Cornhole," possesses the very traits that made Lasdun's article a riveting piece of long-read true crime. The article chronicles how the writer's dentist, Dr. Gilberto Nunez, was arrested and tried for the murder of a friend, whose wife he'd been sleeping with. Its evocations of landmarks that dot American suburbia paint a vivid portrait of humdrum living: dentist offices, karate schools, Olive Gardens, a fateful weekend at Mohegan Sun Casino."
"In spite of the grisliness of the crime, it's hard not to laugh a little when, for example, the lurid text messages of perfectly grown adults are read aloud. It all screams '90s-era Coen Brothers, and frankly, I'm shocked neither is involved in the series. Its creator is Steven Conrad, screenwriter of The Pursuit of Happyness and The Secret Life of Walter Mitty."
"DTF St. Louis sands down the specifics of Lasdun's article, for what I would wager are legal reasons, but its spirit remains the same. The new seven-part series stars Jason Bateman and David Harbour as new colleagues who reveal a shared acknowledgement that their sex lives with their wives are unfulfilling."
DTF St. Louis began as an adaptation of James Lasdun's 2017 New Yorker article "My Dentist's Murder Trial" but evolved into an original series exploring suburban dysfunction and infidelity. The article detailed how a dentist was arrested for murdering a friend whose wife he was involved with, set against mundane American landmarks like dentist offices, casinos, and Planet Fitness locations. The series, created by Steven Conrad and starring Jason Bateman and David Harbour, captures the article's darkly comedic tone while sanding down specific details for legal reasons. The show follows two colleagues who bond over their unfulfilling sex lives and discover dating apps, maintaining the original's exploration of middle-aged ennui and the desperate search for excitement.
Read at Esquire
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