TBS’s new comedy, The Detour, has promise. Jason Jones and Samantha Bee–a dream team from Jon Stewart’s The Daily Show–have created a sometimes funny, sometimes just okay sitcom about a family and a road trip gone awry.
The conceit is like many before it: family goes on a long road trip in a less-than-excellent car and has many mishaps and adventures along the way. The family may be wacky or offbeat, but they love each other and pull through (National Lampoon’s Vacation, we’re looking at you). Nate (an always funny Jason Jones) is taking his wife, Robin (Natalie Zea), and their 11-year-old twins, Delilah and Jared (Ashley Gerasimovich and Liam Carroll) from upstate New York down to Fort Lauderdale, Florida. While the family thought they were going to fly there, Nate has surprised them with a road trip (you discover the real reason why within the first few episodes). Obviously hijinx ensue: stops at strip clubs thought to be diners, drug use, encounters with rural yokels, and lots of family arguing. And, Jason Jones really is the glue and the star of the show. His harried husband and father role combined with his madcap scheme to fix his work situation makes for entertaining television.
The Detour begins to hit it’s stride after the pilot episode. The jokes and comedic scenes become a little more natural and sophisticated than in the pilot episode which is great considering The Detour starts off as a little too self-aware of itself as a snappy comedy. The kids are a little too witty and fresh with dialogue (for instance, Delilah says to her mom early on, “You’re so quick to give up on pushing. I guess that’s why we weren’t born vaginally.” While that line is clever, it seems unbelievable that a normal 11-year-old would say something like that.); Robin is a little too much of a “hip” mom (so much so that the chemistry between Nate and Robin or Robin and the kids is somewhat lacking at first).
Despite the initial bumps in the road, The Detour does have an intriguing plot development. We see Nate in somewhat mysterious interrogation in flash forward scenes which creates more of an original arc than just the family road trip. It strings us along, urging us to discover what has really happened on this family road trip–hopefully, we’ll find out and have many more laughs along the way.
*The Detour airs on TBS; Mondays 9/8c
Photo Credit: TBS
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