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Each of writer/creator/director Steven Conrad’s series has been distinctive, which is to say, unsettling and off-kilter. Patriot; Perpetual Grace, LTD, and the tough-to-stream Ultra City Smiths each has a style and tone that sets it apart from anything else on television, and also each other. They’ve also all struggled to break out amid a bustling streaming pack, though that may well be changing: only a few episodes in, Conrad’s new HBO series DTF St. Louis is building buzz.
The shows follows Floyd Smernitch (Stranger Things’ David Harbour), a married sign language interpreter with a fading sex life and a weird penis (it’s a plot point) who saves the life of local meteorologist and recumbent bicyclist Clark Forrest (Jason Bateman). The two become friends, and Clark introduces Floyd to a dating app for married people looking for side action. They both sign up, but within a few weeks, Floyd is found dead, and the police investigate it as a murder (no spoilers: this all happens within the first act of the first episode). Linda Cardellini stars as Carol, Floyd’s wife, who’s also having an affair with Clark.
To DTF‘s credit, I’m not sure there’s another show exactly like it, but the 10 I’ve highlighted below all manage to juggle a similarly smart, quirky, and slightly surreal tone while unraveling plots rich in secrets and lies in unexpected settings. Stream DTF St. Louis on HBO Max, then sample these other series between episodes.
Patriot (2015 – 2018)
Shot through with a vein of black comedy that wouldn’t feel out of place in a Coen brothers movie, Patriot is the story of a beleaguered intelligence officer who just cannot catch a break. Michael Dorman is John Tavner, tasked with ensuring that the leading candidate for the presidency of Iran doesn’t win. An elaborate plan to support a more moderate rival candidate sees him taking on a non-official cover identity and getting a job at a Milwaukee piping firm. After he blows the interview, he needs to eliminate his hapless competition for the job, then borrow urine for the drug test, efforts that wind up exposing him to extortion, and things spiral from there. As the screwups began to stack higher and higher, John’s situation becomes ever more precarious (and darkly hilarious—his musical talent means that a lot of exposition comes in the form of extremely specific folk songs that he performs at open mics under yet another assumed name). The show comes from DTF St. Louis’s very own creator Steven Conrad, so while the genre isn’t a 1:1 match, the tone certainly is. Stream Patriot on Prime Video.
Deadloch (2023 – )
Both a twisty crime procedural and a brilliant satire of the genre, this Australian import follows Dulcie Collins (Kate Box), the fastidious senior sergeant of the police force in the fictional town of Deadloch. When a body turns up on the beach, Dulcie is joined by Madeleine Sami’s Eddie Redcliffe, a crud, generally obnoxious detective brought in to help solve the case. Their unraveling of the web of secrets in the tiny Tasmanian town is addictive, and as an added bonus, cop thriller tropes are mercilessly mocked throughout. A new season is dropping soon. Stream Deadloch on Prime Video.
The Chair Company (2025 – )
Tim Robinson and Zach Kanin followed up their Netflix sketch show I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson with this… cringe comedy/thriller? Somehow this surreal, genre-defying caper broke HBO Max records, and deservedly so. Robinson plays Ron Trosper, a middle manager in charge of building a new shopping mall. A collapsing chair during a public presentation sends Ron on a quest to uncover a massive conspiracy—he’s convinced that the broken chair is just the first rung in a ladder of sabotage. The show sends us along with him on a darkly funny, sometimes horrific, journey down a rabbit hole that still, nonetheless, feels like a reflection of a modern American work culture that’s no less nuts than Ron’s conspiracy of chairs. Stream The Chair Company on HBO Max.
The Shrink Next Door (2021)
A dark comedy that also happens to be based on a true story, this miniseries stars Will Ferrell as Marty Markowitz and Paul Rudd as his therapist, Dr. Ike Herschkopf. Over the course of nearly thirty years, the good doctor ingratiated himself into Marty’s life while collecting payments of several million dollars. Ferrell and Rudd play against type, leaning into the show’s central mystery: how the hell does a reasonable person give someone so much control over their existence? It’s by no means grim, as the show also recognizes that there’s a core absurdity to the relationship between the two. Stream The Shrink Next Door on Apple TV+.
Bodkin (2024)
Less domestic in its concerns than DTF, this one is nonetheless firmly in dark comedy/murder mystery territory. Bodkin takes us to the title’s rather quirky Irish coastal town. Will Forte plays Gilbert Power, an American podcaster who arrives to investigate the cold case of three people who went missing during a Samhain celebration three decades prior. He’s soon joined by Dove Maloney (Siobhán Cullen), a Dublin-born journalist who’d been living in London, and aspiring journalist Emmy Sizergh (Robyn Cara). It’s very nearly a satire of the genre, with an engaging mystery at its heart nonetheless. Stream Bodkin on Netflix.
Perpetual Grace LTD (2019)
A cult favorite that didn’t last long, this was another distinctive Steven Conrad series (co-created with Bruce Terris) that felt like nothing else on TV. Jimmi Simpson (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) plays James, a disturbed and depressed former firefighter in rural New Mexico who gets roped into a scheme by Paul (Damon Herriman), the son of local pastor “Pa” Brown (Ben Kingsley). Pa is a bad guy, ripping off his parishioners via a shady rehab center. Paul figures that he can get James to infiltrate the center and ingratiate himself, robbing the shady pastor while a similarly crooked local sheriff (Luis Guzman) gets Pa out of the way. It’s a juicy and addictive neo-noir thriller, with the type of wonderfully stylized dialogue that you’ll recognize from DTF. Buy Perpetual Grace LTD from Prime Video and Apple TV.
Landscapers (2021)
Another in the truth-is-stranger-than-fiction genre, this dark comedy does several things that make it quite a bit more interesting, and far more weird, than the usual true crime narrative. The first great choice is in its casting: Olivia Colman and David Thewliss play Susan and Christopher Edwards, a mild-mannered couple who were discovered to have murdered Susan’s parents and buried them in the back garden, even while sending off Christmas cards to the “vacationing” parents. The show smartly doesn’t try very hard to decipher motives, instead interrogating our need to understand people like Susan and Edward. Stream Landscapers on HBO Max.
The ‘Burbs (2026 – )
A bit sillier than DTF, this fun, loose adaptation of the 1989 Tom Hanks film nonetheless covers much of the same ground: secrets, infidelity, and murder in unlikely places. Keke Palmer’s Samira and Jack Whitehall’s Rob move back to his impossibly safe and tidy hometown, their new house across the street from a dilapidated Victorian eyesore that may or may not have been the location of a murder a couple of decades before—a girl who only wanted to get out. As Samira adjusts to new motherhood as well as life on the cul-de-sac, she learns that even the nicest of her neighbors (played by Julia Duffy, Paula Pell, Mark Proksch, and Kapil Talwalkar) have secrets, and comes to suspect that her husband knows more about the missing girl than he’s letting on. Stream The ‘Burbs on Peacock.
Dead to Me (2019 – 2022)
Christina Applegate and Linda Cardellini (also in DTF) make for an all-time-great TV pairing in this dark, twisty comedy about a couple of women who become united in tragedy and lies. Applegate is Jen Harding, a realtor whose husband was killed in a hit-and-run incident; she’s not dealing very well, and takes a bit of inspiration from Cardellini’s Judy, who has maintained a cheery disposition following her fiancé Steve’s death from a heart attack—easier to do given that Steve’s still secretly alive. And then we discover that Judy has a storage unit with a car that looks suspiciously like the one that killed Jen’s husband. That’s all just part of the first episode, and the show only gets wilder from there. Stream Dead to Me on Netflix.
How to Get to Heaven from Belfast (2026 – )
Probably the most batty, surreal show on this list (which is saying quite a bit), How to Get to Heaven comes from Irish playwright and Derry Girls creator Lisa McGee, though that earlier and justifiably beloved show won’t quite prepare you for McGee’s latest. Three high school friends from Belfast reunite after learning that their fourth bestie has died unexpectedly—except that maybe she didn’t, a mixed blessing given that they all have secrets that they were hoping to bury. Now they’re off to investigate the mystery of the maybe-murder, and find themselves immediately in way (way way way) over their heads. The tone is all over the place in a way that somehow really works. Stream How to Get to Heaven from Belfast on Netflix.
