The Detour

The Detour has already been renewed for a second season, so the show has time to develop into something more interestingly amusing.

The Detour is pretty consistently funny but the humor tends to be filled with sexual innuendo that some viewers will find offensive. For others, it will be just fine.

I can't say I have completely made up my mind myself, though on balance I'm more yea than nay, and the series' intelligent dopiness is something of a going style in comedy. Certain things do strike me odd.

The family blunders its way into all sorts of awkward situations, with the two children (Ashley Gerasimovich and Liam Carroll) repeatedly being set up for psychological scars. Let this be your gauge for deciding whether to watch. ... All in all, it’s a low-aspiration enterprise.

The Detour is sharply written--Jones and Bee co-wrote the pilot--and uses flashbacks to help progress storylines. It’s dark at times, and, at other times completely and hilariously over the top.

In the episodes made available to the press, it often seems that the train is about to come off the track, thanks to one twist or bit of cleverness too many, but just as often, the series rights itself at the last moment. What seems to come out of left field often connects in an unexpected fashion.

Since the setup feels more like a movie than a full-blown series, The Detour tries to create a more layered story by introducing an overarching plot about Nate (Jones) losing his job, stealing prototype material, and being part of a federal investigation. It’s as wackadoodle as the rest of the story, and lands just about as unevenly.

The Detour is ruthlessly adult stuff--surely too frank and out-there for some viewers--but it’s intrinsically honest, convulsively hilarious and oddly endearing.

The fun and challenge of The Detour is how it seems to be going for comedy in every direction, from delicate character comedy to sight gags to gross-out humor to full-fledged farce.

Unfortunately, The Detour too often confuses the obvious for the outrageous, and mistakes hacky-ness for hilarity.

A ribald but bumpy road-trip comedy that wants to be more than just a slapstick retread of “National Lampoon’s Vacation” (which already got a retread last year in theaters). But after several episodes, the show can’t quite find its way.

The Detour isn’t always in full command of its absurdities, but the killer lines keep coming.

For a show going in as many different directions as The Detour does, the pieces of the narrative seem to be connecting well past the half-way point in the first season. The episode-to-episode continuity adds up nicely if you like your comedies heavily serialized and there are hints that some of the elements that feel disparate and chaotic could also tie together.

The Detour may try too hard in places--"Why are we in Penis-ylvania?" asks the son (Liam Carroll), who, like his mother (Zea) thought the family was flying, not driving, to their Florida vacation--but the wackiness is balanced by the genuine moments its characters share.

The writing and performances combine to make The Detour worth the trip.

If The Detour can only deliver that level of sophomoric humor consistently for the rest of the season, it just might be worth your time.

Even with the occasional fits and starts, The Detour looks like one of those shows that’s worth going out of one’s way to find.