The summer
of 2015 featured the release of Vacation,
a movie starring Ed Helms and Christina Applegate that was meant to be a potential
reboot of that series. It pretty much flopped, as reviewers said it was mostly
disgusting for the sake of being disgusting, and not all that funny.
However, a
show that really captures that National
Lampoon’s Vacation vibe to me has somewhat flown under the radar – The Detour, from Jason Jones and
Samantha Bee. The Canadian couple created it as part of their deal for TBS to
lure them from Comedy Central, with Jones in one of the four lead roles. He
plays the head of household, with Natalie Zea as his snarky wife.
The
standouts of the show are the kids though, played by Ashley Gerasimovich as
Delilah and Liam Carroll as Jared. They’re twins, with Jared being a doofus,
and Delilah being smart and snarky – both subtly take after their parents. Unlike
many shows with Cute Kid characters, both have fully formed personalities that
are fairly realistic for their ages. They are actual leads, not just there
because they needed some kid actors for the show.
The show
focuses on the four lead characters, but there are some strong guest
appearances, although not on the level of other shows. Mindy Sterling, a.k.a.
Frau from Austin Powers, pops up in
the first episode as a trucker, and she’s good in about three minutes of screen
time. The intros and outros of each episode are typically a police interrogation
of Jason Jones that are wonderfully meta. There is also a midseason arc about
an older gentleman and his Eastern European wife that is absolutely ridiculous.
However,
again, the bread-and-butter of the show is its focus on the dynamics of the family.
It’s a realistic portrayal, and on the mature and crude side without crossing
over into farcical grossness. The first season is available On Demand for free
under the ole TBS section, and I imagine it’ll migrate its way over to a
streaming service soon enough. And thankfully, it’s already
been renewed for a second season!
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