What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 6 “The Game Show” (C-)

I don’t see why this episode needed to exist. This show is becoming increasingly pointless, and while there’s some humor lying somewhere in this episode, none of it managed to win me over. It’s hard to watch a show that isn’t meant to be taken at all seriously or literally, and I’ll have to seriously consider if I can stand a fifth season should this show be renewed for one. We know that Nate is tormented constantly, and so for him to go on a game show where he’s meant to endure humiliation felt like way too much, which it was. I’m not even sure what this is really meant to parody, since a lot of it focused on the Japanese making fun of Americans while Nate was mercilessly targeted and Robin and Jareb somehow got away with doing far less miserable stunts. Robin picking things she thought she’d get to take home but then needed to drop on her husband’s head instead made some sense as an absurd prank, but Nate’s final challenge of singing while receiving some intense distraction from inside the box from someone who turned out not to be Robin crossed a certain line this show shouldn’t have. The fact that Jareb wasted his advertising time flossing and that Nate couldn’t get a word out after his final effort made it feel even more pointless that it already was since we know they didn’t find Delilah anyway. Even just these twenty minutes felt like far too long a useless summary.