Could ‘DTF St. Louis’ Be The Next ‘White Lotus’?
The new HBO series ‘DTF St. Louis’ appears to share some similarities with ‘The White Lotus.’ Here’s a closer look, plus how to watch with Sling.
David Harbour is going to die.
Typically, this would constitute a SPOILER warning, but the trailer for the new HBO series DTF St. Louis – which premieres Sunday, March 1 at 9pm ET on HBO and HBO Max – reveals this information just six-seconds in. The detective suggests he will die from a heart attack, but the investigator for the special crimes unit isn’t so sure.
https://youtu.be/u1XHd5rIvmY?si=KWLeC162jEDhVtFN
An HBO series in which a death is revealed early in the first episode and the audience is slowly clued into how it occurred? This setup probably sounds familiar to fans of The White Lotus. And that’s not the only thing the two shows have in common. Here’s a preview of DTF St. Louis, and why HBO could have another White Lotus franchise in the waiting. To watch HBO with Sling, use the link below to add HBO to your Sling Orange, Blue, or Sling Freestream subscription. To watch with HBO Max, subscribe to HBO with Sling and sign in using your Sling credentials.
Both Series Open With a Fatal Ending
As mentioned above, we can expect David Harbour’s character Floyd Smernitch to die early in the series (full transparency - we have not watched any of the limited-series’ 7 episodes prior to writing this). Although each of The White Lotus’ three seasons begin under similar circumstances, the major difference is that in The White Lotus, viewers are not clued into who dies. That leads to a lot of theorizing about who will be the one to permanently check out in the final episode. Considering how surprising the deaths often turn out to be, this speculation arguably detracts from the show’s primary pleasures – watching dysfunctional rich people rationalize and cope with their unhappy circumstances in the midst of paradise. So by revealing the DTF character who dies early on, we can expect the series to lean much more into a whodunit format, at least compared to The White Lotus’ novel “whowilldoit” structure.
Each Has an Impressive Ensembles
Like The White Lotus, DTF St. Louis boasts an estimable ensemble cast, albeit one that’s considerably smaller. In addition to David Harbour, versatile actors Jason Bateman (as local weatherman Clark Forrest) and Linda Cardellini (as Floyd’s wife Carol) round out the central trio. DTF also features the always excellent Richard Jenkins as the detective investigating Floyd’s death, Joy Sunday (Netflix’s Wednesday) as special crimes investigator Jodie Plumb, and Peter Sarsgaard in an undisclosed role that Indiewire says is best left unspoiled.
The Plight of the Middle-Age Horndog
We’ve gotten this far without revealing what the acronym “DTF” stands for (sorry, but you’ll need to Google it for yourself). But if you’ve watched the trailer, you get the gist that this is a very horny show, unapologetically. Here too we have some overlap with The White Lotus, where middle-age romantic desires are played for both comedic and dramatic effect. While it remains to be seen exactly what tone DTF St. Louis will strike – Indiewire describes it as “very, very funny” – the show’s creator, writer-director Steven Conrad, expertly mashed up noir with puppetry in his overlooked AMC series Ultra City Smiths, suggesting he can strike a balance between a variety of moods and genres.
‘DTF’ Looks Scalable
With a fourth season on the way, The White Lotus has firmly established itself as one of the most talked-about series of the early 2020s, but it was initially pitched as a limited series that could be produced during the restrictive COVID lockdowns of 2020. Its success led to HBO greenlighting the series for more seasons, and given the malleable premise, ensemble cast, and location-specific title, DTF St. Louis could easily move onto another city should it prove to be a hit.
To watch the premiere of DTF St. Louis on Sunday, March 1, as well as the first three seasons of The White Lotus on HBO with Sling, use the link below to subscribe to HBO with Sling!