Line #45 Series/TheDetour


1	[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/the_detour.png]]
2
3	''The Detour'' is a comedy series on Creator/{{TBS}} created by Creator/JasonJones and Creator/SamanthaBee of ''Series/TheDailyShowWithJonStewart'' fame. The series stars Jones as Nate Parker Jr., a businessman with his wife Robin (Creator/NatalieZea) and kids Delilah and Jared.
4
5	In the first season, Nate takes his family on a road trip from their native Syracuse to Florida. Along the way, they suffer through a series of mishaps and disasters. The second season features the Parkers moving to [[BigApplesauce New York City]] and struggling to fit in there. The third season follows their move to Alaska. The fourth (and final) season, which premiered on June 18, 2019, begins with Delilah on the run and the rest of the family traveling the globe trying to track her down.
6	----
7	!! ''The Detour'' contains examples of:
8	* AbortedArc: Season 2 strongly implies that Edie [[spoiler:is pregnant by her co-worker]] after the two had their ''fling'' off duty. Season 3 seems to [[{{Retcon}} retcon]] it with her being artificially inseminated with [[spoiler:Nate's]] sperm instead.
9	* AbusiveParents: Nate's parents had a loud divorce and his mother (played by Samantha Bee) was emotionally abusive.
10	* PoorMansPorn: Or rather, Poor Woman's Vibrator. Delilah, in discovering ''herself'', [[spoiler:finds pleasure in constantly revving up a motorbike, but never actually ''going'' anywhere]].
11	* AllForNothing: The Season 1 finale. [[spoiler:Partway through the season, Nate's motivation for reaching Florida has changed from trying to get his job back to being a whistleblower and exposing a dangerous flaw in the hand sanitizer they manufacture. Right as the family's about to interrupt the press conference being held, a group of activists beat them to the punch, only to be mocked because that batch of hand sanitizer was never intended for public distribution in the first place; all Nate can do is silently walk away, glad that at least he didn't publicly embarrass himself.]]
12	* ArtisticLicenseHistory: ''The Conquistadors,'' a roadside dinner theater with a glaringly offensive conquistador theme. The nightly show features MonochromeCasting telling a sanitized history presenting the conquistadors as heroes and natives as savages.
13	* CallBack: In "The Trip", Nate and Robin make the same drive to Florida just as in the first season. Nate recalls their misdeeds from the first season, but Robin brushes him off.
14	* CatchPhrase: Nate and his "Get some!" Robin even lampshades it:
15	-->'''Robin:''' Oh God, don't say "get some," please don't "get some," please don't "get some," please don't "get some..."
16	-->'''Nate:''' GET SOME!
17	* DiegeticSoundtrackUsage: Nate, while mapping out his survival plan in "The Funeral", ends up speaking the lyrics to the theme.
18	* DreamSue: Edie's dream in season 3 episode 4 in which she wins over [[spoiler:Nate]].
19	* FakeOrgasm: In "The Tub", Robin suspects Nate of faking an orgasm while making love. He claims he did but didn't ejaculate. "It's a thing [he's] been working on."
20	* TheFoodPoisoningIncident: Montezuma's Revenge[[note]]several workers at The Conquistadors contaminated the oysters as retaliation for the glaringly offensive restaurant theme and humiliating theatrics. This causes Nate to have a PottyEmergency and the kids to [[VomitIndiscretionShot projectile vomit in the car]][[/note]].
21	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
22	** Multiple off-hand references in season 1 episode 5 set up TheReveal that [[spoiler:Dr. Rob is actually a pedophile.]]
23	** Another off-hand reference to the sweet tea "tasting like chemical." [[spoiler:Oksana has been slowly poisoning Dr. Rob with antifreeze in his sweet tea.]]
24	** Delilah tells Edie at one point that if anyone is going to break up her family, it will be her. [[spoiler:She does exactly that in the finale.]]
25	** In season 2 episode 7, Edie displays traits similar to [[spoiler:Robin and Vanessa]]. It is later revealed that [[spoiler:Edie is their [[LongLostRelative Long-Lost Sister]]]].
26	-->'''Edie''': Oh, do not [[spoiler:tell me to relax]], ever.
27	-->'''Edie''': I don't know what to do. I'm such a [[spoiler:shit show]].
28	* FormerlyFit: If The Road is anything to go by, Nate used to be in great shape before the kids were born.
29	* FramingDevice: The first two seasons have the story revealed through federal interrogation of the Parkers.
30	* HollywoodAtheist: Robin, to the point her husband and daughter repeatedly have to call her out on it.
31	* InLoveWithTheMark: Agent Edie falls for Nate, going so far as to [[spoiler:impregnate herself with his semen from the sperm bank.]]
32	* IntimateHealing: Played for CringeComedy in "The Search" after Jared ends up almost frozen, his parents have to help up warm up by sleeping naked with him to share body heat, but it becomes extremely awkward for them since he's having an EroticDream and his body starts to... [[RagingStiffie react]].
33	* IronButtMonkey: Nate is especially prone to suffering a series of AmusingInjuries at least OnceAnEpisode, but always manages to shake them off within the same episode.
34	* LongLostRelative: [[spoiler:Agent Edie, the sister of Vanessa and Robin]].
35	* MadeOfIron: Nate. During a fight with [[spoiler:Carlos]], he manages to break the latter's hands by blocking his blows with his head!
36	* MamaBear: Robin, so very much. The second season had her assaulting Carlos when he [[spoiler:threatened to tell Jared that he was his real father]]. She also stayed up all night for two days going cross-country to save her kids from [[spoiler:her father]].
37	* MaternallyChallenged: Robin loves her children, but that's not to say that she's exactly a great role model. In particular, her behaviors strike a nerve with Delilah, who [[spoiler:makes sure to point this out in the audio message she leaves behind when she runs away]].
38	* MissConception: In "The Pilot", Nate and Robin are trying to convince a group of truckers that their kids aren't being kidnapped:
39	-->'''Robin''': They're ours!\
40	'''Nate''': They came out of her!\
41	'''Jared''': Yeah! He planted the seeds in her forehead and the eggs grew and ate the seeds and then the seeds split into two and then they popped out of her tummy scar twelve years later.\
42	'''Trucker''': Son, did these people drug you?
43	* MistakenForPedophile: While attempting to comfort Delilah at her tournament, Nate is mistaken for a pedophile due to an earlier misunderstanding and Delilah's friends gang up on him.
44	* MistakenForRacist: Multiple jokes are made at the Parkers being mistaken for making racist remarks.
45	* MockGuffin: In Season 1, [[spoiler:the bags of hand sanitizer. Turns out they never were intended for human use, and Nate's big plan was AllForNothing]].
46	* PapaWolf: You do not mess with Nate Parker's kids.
47	* PaedoHunt: Protesters, whom Robin and Nate mistake for anti-Semites, frequent the gates of Dr. Rob's mansion to denounce Dr. Rob's planned wedding to a Russian-Jewish woman. [[spoiler:Turns out, they are really protesting the fact that he is marrying a 16 year-old girl.]]
48	* RoadTripPlot: The focus of each season is Nate's family travelling in an RV and trying their best to deal with each other as they attempt to reach a specific location.
49	* TheRunaway: [[spoiler:Delilah]], in "The Escape".
50	* SexinessScore: In "The Search", Jared unknowingly kissed a 10-year-old girl (she was wearing a snowsuit and he couldn't tell) and is freaked out about it. When he tells his parents he "got some from a 10", they assume he's talking about this trope, and Nate congratulates him while Robin admonishes him for rating women numerically.
51	* SexySurfacingShot: In a DreamSequence during "The Search", one of Jared's dream girls is introduced coming out of the water in a tiny black bikini.
52	%%* SirSwearsAlot: Nate.
53	* TakeThat: One Season 2 episode has a not-so-subtle take on the Hillsong Church (called the Mountain Ballad Church in the show), being run by Australians who are clearly grifting their followers and spending lavishly on themselves.
54	* TamperingWithFoodAndDrink: [[spoiler:Oksana has really been slipping antifreeze in Dr. Rob's sweet tea over a long period of time, causing him to eventually have a stroke.]]
55	* TheUnfavorite:
56	** Nobody in the cast of characters likes Vanessa. [[spoiler:Even J.R. sells her out to the USPIS police to protect Robin instead.]]
57	** Delilah constantly feels that nobody in her family cares to listen to her concerns. [[spoiler:This motivates her to [[TheRunaway ditching her family]] at the end of season 3.]]
58	* WhosOnFirst: Jared starts dating a nonbinary person who uses they/them pronouns in Season 3, leading to some confusion with Nate on how many people he's dating. He even lampshades that it's just like the trope.

Context Series / TheDetour