Suburbs as contested American ideal

In the new HBO miniseries “DTF St. Louis,” Jason Bateman plays a weatherman living with his wife and kids in a sleepy town just outside of St. Louis. He befriends a coworker, Floyd Smernitch (David Harbour), and the two sign up for a dating app that specializes in clandestine affairs. By the end of the first episode, Smernitch is dead. So begins a whodunnit set against the backdrop of suburban America and the discontents simmering beneath. On this episode of Critics at Large, Vinson Cunningham, Naomi Fry, and Alexandra Schwartz survey how the setting has been used over the decades, from the films of Douglas Sirk and the stories of John Cheever in the nineteen-fifties and sixties to the fantasy of that era seen in 1985’s “Back to the Future.” Today, the locale is being assessed anew. Like “DTF,” the recent docuseries “Neighbors” strips the suburbs of their glamour, focussing instead on petty grievances and property disputes. “They are small stakes, but of course, everything that is quintessentially American—property, the right to violence, the right to protect land—are all intensely operative in this space,” Cunningham says. “And if something goes wrong, somebody pays for it.”

Read, watch, and listen with the critics:

“DTF St. Louis” (2026—)
“‘DTF St. Louis’ Peers Into the Suburban Male Psyche,” by Vinson Cunningham (The New Yorker)
“The Swimmer,” by John Cheever (The New Yorker)
“Judy Blume: A Life,” by Mark Oppenheimer
“Wifey,” by Judy Blume
“Back to the Future” (1985)
“All That Heaven Allows” (1955)
“Desperate Housewives” (2004-2012)
“American Pie” (1999)
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer” (1997-2003)
“Adventures in Babysitting” (1987)
“The Five-Forty-Eight,” by John Cheever (The New Yorker)
“Neighbors” (2026—)
“All Her Fault” (2025)
“Friendship” (2025)

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Critics at Large is a weekly discussion from The New Yorker which explores the latest trends in books, television, film, and more. Join us every Thursday as we make unexpected connections between classic texts and pop culture.