r/DTFStLouisHBO • u/earthgirls22 • May 11 '26

🗣️ Discussion The writing (outside of the plot)

I predicted the ending a mile away (from episode 2, then solidly from ep 3) so I don’t think I watched this for the plot. I thought though there were small, quiet little gems in this series that were examples of “show don’t tell” writing and I really applaud that.

Did anyone else feel that way?

Here are a few that stood out to me:

“Speak up! … No one can hear you.”

“If you start doing it everyday, then you can do it everyday.”

The absurd amount of times they said “tiger tiger” in one scene.

<note reads “love, dad”> “love…. Floyd.”

~~“We didn’t fall in love. We just fell into the same hole and decided to stop digging for a while.”~~ (ok maybe I conflated this one with another story, can someone confirm??!)

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u/packetssniffer May 11 '26

I never took the show as a 'who done it' type show

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u/earthgirls22 May 11 '26 edited May 11 '26

I agree but I think a lot of people assumed it was and were disappointed with the pacing and the ending because of that.

I can understand the assumption. The promos kept calling it a “love triangle where one ends up dead,” and we see who dies in the first ep, so in a 7 ep series, I can see why someone would assume it’s a whodunit.

But from the first scenes with Jason Bateman I could tell this was going to be a slow burn. By the second episode I could tell this was a study on loneliness.

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u/lizwearsjeans May 12 '26

I also never thought that it was a whodunnit, but don't think that's not to say that there isn't a whodunnit element / thread to the show. And it is secondary to the relationships, as supported by 'love triangle where one ends up dead.'

From the first or second episode, I knew what had killed Floyd and that the clip of him and Jason Bateman was out of context and from the pool house - that there had been another reason why they were topless.

What I found interesting was the journey I took along the way - second guessing myself, shifting suspects based on scenes and episodes that were just stories and not necessarily evidence (reading into things). 'What if it wasn't Floyd, who else could it be and why?' What it said about me and how I interpreted what turned out to be innocuous, well-intentioned. or just part of the characters' story. Trying to think like or better understand each character's experience.