What I’m Watching: The Detour

The Detour: Season 4, Episode 7 “The Entertainer” (B-)

This was a definite recovery from the previous episode, though I’m still finding this show to be relatively pointless in its pursuit of not too much. Jareb wasn’t even enthralled by his own idea to stage a funeral for Nate so that Delilah would come, and of course she’d end up being the only one who didn’t show up to the miserable affair. Robin was hardly enthusiastic in her delivery of all the comments about Nate, and there wasn’t anyone there with a positive thing to say. Gene’s return was predictably laced with inappropriate advances towards Robin, and when Nate’s mom isn’t the meanest person in the room, there’s a problem. I do like Jere Burns, who I know from “Justified” and who also stars on “Angie Tribeca,” but I found his character of Blu Brown, who almost certainly is not Nate’s father, to be very irritating and over-the-top. This show presents a lot of ridiculous people and situations, and doesn’t shy away from offensive characters whose behavior is clearly deplorable. It does usually take it a bit too far, and that was clearly the case here. No one in the room was particularly happy to discover that Nate was still alive, aside from the ex-girlfriend beloved by his mother who also pretty much started making out with Nate right in front of Robin. I’d rather focus more on stuff like that since it’s fun to see Robin when she’s actually invested in something and not just letting Nate do all the pratfalling for once.