What I’m Watching: The Detour (Season Finale)

The Detour: Season 1, Episodes 9 and 10 “The Track” and “The Beach” (B/B+)

These were admittedly silly episodes, but this show does manage to reign its ridiculousness in and end up in a pretty great place. Gupta, played by Maz Jobrani, who I first saw on a show far crazier than this, “The Knights of Prosperity,” provided a very legitimate defense for Nate’s antics thanks to the flashbacks to his senseless presentation about “What’s right is right” and his subsequent behavior on the track. Robin going in and impressing him with the fact that she’s actually intelligent despite his later classification of her as fifty was a lot of fun, and the way that she kept saying everything out loud to him without him actually hearing and processing it was particularly entertaining. Though it does make the whole season feel like an enormous waste, the reveal that nothing was ever afoot and that the hand sanitizer was meant exclusively for doorknobs and not for humans helped put it all in perspective and let Nate and his family return to some sense of normalcy. Delilah and Jared’s role in everything at the conference was fun too, and I really do think that they may well be the best current TV kids. The ending revelation that Robin isn’t even close to who she says she is provides the framework for the second season that I’m sure will be just as fun as this one with a different focus, which will be Robin trying to put her life back together the same way that Nate had to in this season. I’m looking forward to it! This show has been a nice, fun surprise.

Season grade: B+
Season MVP: Natalie Zea as Robin