Steven Conrad is the writer and director of this series. Conrad has mainly worked as a screenwriter. He sold his first script before he was old enough to drink. That screenplay was Wrestling Ernest Hemingway (1993), which was about two older men, two retirees, who are both lonely and trapped in their empty lives. The two form an unlikely friendship. As a result, we see them doing weird or quirky things. We see one of them ordering the same thing every day from the same place. We even see them riding a unique kind of bicycle, a tandem bicycle. The sport of baseball is a significant factor. I raise all of this because all of those same elements become integrated into this series. The third feature produced from one of Conrad's screenplays was The Weather Man (2005), which was about a TV weatherman who is estranged from his wife and having issues with his son, as he struggles to get a new job or find purpose for himself. I raise this because that same dynamic exists in this series as well. It's simply interesting to see themes and even character beats repeat themselves in a certain writer's work.
Jason Bateman (Ozark and Arrested Development) stars as Clark Forrest, a weatherman for WTGK 10 in St. Louis. He seems to make a good amount of money. He has a nice home. He's married with children. Yet, for the majority of this series, we never see his wife and kids. We only see Clark at his job or mainly interacting with a man who becomes his best friend. Despite being successful and married, Clark seems lonely otherwise. For example, he goes by himself to a nearby Jamba Juice where he orders the same drink every day and drinks it alone, while staring out the window. He also likes to go on bike rides on his recumbent bicycle. All of that changes when he attends a corn-hole event at his friend's house.
David Harbour (Stranger Things and Thunderbolts*) co-stars as Floyd Smernitch, a man who used to work in sales and finance who instead became an American Sign Language interpreter. As an ASL interpreter, he did work for WTGK, which introduced him to Clark. The two became friends and bonded over the fact that they've become bored in their lives, particularly over them not really having sex with their wives much any more. They talk openly and honestly all the time. They ride the recumbent bicycles together. They do other exercising together like what looks like yoga or something similar.
There are a lot of strange things about Harbour's character that raise a lot of questions as to why or how he got to the point that he's so bored and frustrated in his life. For starters, seemingly before he got into sales, he did nude modeling when he was younger. He did full-frontal nudity in fact and for some reason he still possesses the Playgirl magazine where his nude photos were published. He takes modern R&B and Hip Hop dance classes. He's even done gymnastics. He seems like he can be very outgoing and personable. He also doesn't necessarily have a problem talking or even asking for things that he might want that would be in general awkward things to ask for, things even of a sexual nature. He's described as an extremely nice guy, so he might be conflict avoidant, but it seems strange how things could have become so strained between him and his wife.
Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me and Bloodline) also co-stars as Carol Love, the wife of Floyd. She had been married before and has a son from that previous marriage. She seems incredibly bored and frustrated too. Mainly, it's due to the financial issues that she and Floyd have. They have back taxes to pay. They have to pay for school for her son. Floyd's car broke down. There's also a long list of other bills and things, which have her constantly worried and passive aggressive regarding what Floyd should or shouldn't be doing. She has a side job as an umpire. She's a fan of baseball. She'll go to a Cardinals game for example, but Floyd doesn't like the fact that she wears the umpire's uniform in the house for extended periods of time. He says it's a sexual turn-off for him. The fact that Floyd has gained so much weight and is leaning toward obesity is what turns her off to him ultimately.
When Floyd learns about a dating app where he can have sex with other people, he doesn't seem to have much resistance to the idea of cheating on his wife. He has vision problems because he accidentally arranges a date with a man instead of a woman. When he learns of his mistake, he doesn't end the date or admit his mistake. He even allows the man to kiss him without any resistance. If Carol is passive aggressive, then Floyd can just be passive passive and allow stuff to happen, even if it's stuff he doesn't want. This also aligns with how Clark behaves. He has a passive, soft, and practically meek way about him as well. This may also translate in how he prefers to have sex. Without stating it explicitly, it's implied that Clark likes BDSM or role-play that involves his sexual partner dominating him in certain ways.
Richard Jenkins (Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story and Olive Kitteridge) plays Donoghue Homer, a county detective who is investigating the murder connected to the three aforementioned people. At first, he thinks it's an open-and-shut case, but, thanks to his partner, Jodie Plumb, played by Joy Sunday (Wednesday), a special crimes police officer, Detective Homer learns about all of the sexual preferences and sexual situations that all three of these people have. He's a long-time detective who used to work in Chicago and some of the things that he learns about Clark, Floyd and Carol shock him to some degree. He comments that he doesn't understand what's going on out in the suburbs.
What's interesting is that despite the title, the series mostly takes place in the suburbs of St. Louis. This reinforces this idea that the suburbs aren't necessarily this safe and wholesome place where nothing bad, or weird, or even sexually adventurous happens. Of course, this is a point that has been made countless times with countless films and TV shows. In fact, a comedy series came out this year called The 'Burbs (2025), which is a remake of a film of the same name that makes that same point. That comedy series doesn't go into all the frank, sexual stuff that this show does.
Unfortunately, the Detective Homer and Officer Plumb characters don't help. Their characters drag down things. Police procedural or murder mystery programs get green-lit on television more easily, but I would have rather this series take the same route as Big Little Lies (2017), which was a murder mystery but the police investigation part was very minimal, if practically nonexistent. That series even operated in a way that you didn't even know who had been murdered until the very end. I suppose knowing who's dead and following the police provides some forward momentum, as well as some stakes, but, even that wasn't enough to overcome my preference to stay with the Floyd character and not bother with Detective Homer or Officer Plumb.
Rated TV-MA.
Running Time: 1 hr. / 7 eps.
Available on HBO Max.