"Detour," Season 4 is Still Obsessed with Boys

Last summer I watched Season 1 of The Detour (2016-), about married couple Nate and Robin (Jason Jones, Natalie Zea)  and their kids (12-year old Delilah, and 11-year old Jared) on a mishap-filled road trip from Syracuse, New York to Florida.  

 I liked the misunderstandings that humiliated the social justice warriors by making them appear racist or homophobic.

I liked the gradual unraveling of the "perfect" nuclear family, as both Nate and Robin reveal game-changing secrets.

I didn't like Jared's body constantly under display, his pubescence a constant topic of discussion.  The character was 11, and actor Liam Carroll 13.  Why so many references to his penis?

Season #2 wasn't about a road trip -- they moved to New York.  And none of the big questions were answered.  It was like Lost, more and more convoluted, with flashbacks that turn out to be flash-forwards, and questions inside of questions.  I stopped watching halfway through.

I gave Season #3 a pass, although heard that they were now hiding out in Alaska.

Season #4, which premiered June 18th, drew me back in with the promise of globetrotting adventure:  Delilah has gone missing, and left word that she doesn't want to be found.  But she keeps sending video clues, so the family jmps on the nearest plane.  First up: Paraguay, Tibet, and New Zealand, with references to Japan and Peru.

Location shots, I assumed.  Maybe some interesting shots of Lhasa.  So I watched.

Nate and Robin are no longer social justice warriors who inadvertently say or do things that seem racist.  The show itself is racist.  The "natives" they meet always try to con them.  Paraguay is full of drug lords, and there are no cars, so they have to travel on horseback.

In a Tibetan monastery, the monks chant "Let's Be Weird," a song they found on youtube.  And by the way, in Tibet they speak Tibetan, not Chinese.

Jared, now 13, has gone hetero-horny, and kisses lots of bikini-clad girls in a dream sequence.  In real life, he gets a Tibetan girlfriend, only to discover, to his horror, that she is 10 years old (don't worry, the actress, Tiffany Alycia Tong, is an adult).  It's not clear how far he's gone with her, but after his discovery he is desperate to get away.

The obsession with Jared's body continues.  In a cringeworthy scene, Nate and Robin are sleeping with Jared between them, naked to share body heat (they're on a mountain in Tibet, after all), when Jared gets an erection.  Nate thinks it's "weird" to have his son's erect penis pushing against his penis, but if they turn Jared around, he will be pushing against his mother's vagina, even more "weird."

Robin points out that boys that age get erections randomly; it doesn't mean that he is attracted to either of them.  And they're being good parents by keeping their son safe.

Am I the only one who didn't think this was funny?

Liam Carroll is now 17, old enough to be a "dreamy" teen idol, and above the age of consent in some states, if you're interested in seeing him drink water with his shirt off.

Or posting a comment about his feet to his instagram page.

But Jared is only 13, and I still don't want to hear about his penis.

Sacralization of the Family:  Lots of "Famiy is everything!" rhetoric

Gay characters: No.

Beefcake: No.  No adult beefcake, I mean.

See also: The Detour

Eurotrip: Hunkage, Homophobia, and a Gay Subtext

While on the treadmill at the gym, I watched most of Eurotrip (2004), a standard young adult comedy of the era, which means recent high school graduates obsessed with boobs and proving that they're not gay.

During the summer after high school, Scotty (Scott Mechlowitz, left)) freaks out when he discovers that his German penpal, Mike, thinks that he's hot.

Hey, Scott, I hate to break it to you, but lots of guys think you're hot.  Deal with it. Gay guys have to deal with ladies liking us all the time.

Scott angrily breaks off all contact.  But upon discovering that Mike is actually Mieke, a girl, he determines to go to Berlin and apologize.









To his credit, his goofy friend Cooper (Jacob Pitts, center) is more tolerant.  He is fully prepared to accept Scotty's "coming out."  And even when he hears that Mieke is a girl, he says "He's the girl, you're the girl, sometimes you're both girls.  Whatever works for you.  I'm not gonna judge."

But he leaves his tolerance behind at the Cleveland airport.

In Europe, the duo hook up with the boobalicious Jenny (Michelle Trachtenberg), and her studious twin brother Jamie (Travis Wester, right).  Think Fred, Shaggy, Daphne, and a male Velma.  Their misadventures take them to London, Paris, Bratislava, Berlin, and Rome, with ample opportunities for gross-out humor:

Jenny and Jamie accidentally make out with each other.

Due to a variety of mishaps, Scotty sets fire to the Papal Apartment in the Vatican and ends up being hailed as the new Pope (But this major act of vandalism and sacrilege doesn't get him in trouble after everyone realizes that he did it "for love.").

There are ample opportunities to see boobs -- lots and lots of boobs -- and also male physiques,usually framed as moments of disgust.  And lots of opportunities for the boys to prove that they're not gay.

They end up on a nude beach that's...gasp...occupied entirely by naked men!

A Creepy Italian Guy on the train starts coming on to Jamie, to his shock and horror.

Cooper thinks that he's going to have a hetero BDSM scene with one Madame Vandersexx, but instead she brings in GUYS and yells "Administer the Testicle Clamps!"

Even throwaway gags:

Scotty: I'm thinking of majoring in German.
Cody: Don't be such a woman.

Even Jenny is ridiculed for being "gay" for telling a story about hetero-romance.

So, you're probably wondering, why did I stick it out?

Other than the fact that the only other choices were Meet the Press and The Andy Griffith Show?

To start off, the movie offered substantial hunkage, which is really all you need on the treadmill at the gym.

 Scott Mechlowicz looked extremely familiar,but I haven't seen him in anything else.  His most notable movie is Peaceful Warrior (2006), in which he plays a gymnast with his shirt off.

I was interested in Jacob Pitts, who so intensely channeled Matthew Lillard (Shaggy in the 2002 Scooby-Doo movie).  He moved from Macbeth on Broadway directly to Eurotrip.  Currently you can see him on tv in Sneaky Pete and The Sinner.  Here's a recent nude.













And I was interested in the character of Jamie.  He seems to have a major crush on Scott, even selling his beloved (and expensive) camera to finance Scott's trip to Rome in search of "true love": buddy-bonding.

And he's the only one of the group who doesn't get a fade-out kiss.  Instead, he's offered a job with Frommer's Guides.  A economic fade-out, but I'll take the gay subtext.

Travis Wester is currently in law school.  I assume the guy he's hugging is his boyfriend.

The Detour

The Detour starts with a dream family -- Dad Nate, Mom Robin, 12-year old Delilah, 11-year old Jared --  heterosexual but gay-friendly, white but conscious of white privilege, middle class but not at all classist, so liberal that if there weren't any injustices left in the world, they would have to invent new ones.  They set out from their home in Syracuse, New York for a vacation in Florida.  For some reason they must drive instead of fly.  And then things start to fall apart.

In addition to the usual road trip stalled cars and colorful small town residents (no one ever takes the Interstate), many of their mishaps involve misunderstandings that make the group appear racist, sexist, classist, or homophobic, their worst nightmare.

At a medieval-themed restaurant, if you're fighting a guy wearing armour, you want to aim at a "chink in the armor," right?

Or their attempt to fight injustice backfire.



In a small Southern town, they think they are fighting against anti-Semitism by helping a Jewish doctor marry his Gentile girlfriend.  But they don't realize that he's actually planning to marry the woman's 15-year old daughter.

Plus we gradually realize that this "perfect" family is not so perfect after all.

Nate (Jason Jones) isn't on vacation, he's been fired.  And he has stolen one of his company's secret inventions, which he intends to sell in Florida.

Robin has a dozen aliases.

They aren't actually married.  The kids may or may not be theirs.

Jared (Liam Carroll) is actually named Jareb (don't ask).

Flash-forward scenes show Nate being interrogated by the FBI.

The first season (2016) is great.  It is lot of fun watching well-meaning intentions blow up in their faces, and watching their "perfect" lives unravel. 

No identified gay characters,but gay people are mentioned.

A substantial amount of beefcake.  Jason Jones has quite a physique, and various guest stars are shown shirtless.

My only quibbles are:

1. Too much hetero kissing.  Nate and Robin are all over each other all the time.
2. Too much gross-out humor.
3. Too much attention paid to Jared's body parts.  He gets as many shirtless and semi-nude scenes as Nate.  Leave the kid alone; he's 11.


In the second season (2017), the group moves to New York, so the "road trip" dynamic is lost, and the mystery in a mystery in a mystery becomes tedious.  This isn't Lost: give us some answers!