![]() ![]() (The network has given the show the ultimate vote of confidence, ordering a second season in advance of its premiere.) Not only do individual chapters start with some enormous foul-up and then go back to illustrate how the family got there, but the overarching plots – both about Nate’s work and why the feds are after him – are spooned out in such a way as to lend a nice serialized component to the broader hijinks. Yet if it’s not exactly highbrow or subtle, the episodes and narrative arc are structured in a more ambitious way than initially meets the eye. ![]() That includes questionable parenting decisions – frequently leaving the children understandably horrified – plenty of blurred nakedness, hilarious misunderstandings and a whole lot of errant bodily fluids. ![]() Jones and Bee have already exhibited an admirable fearlessness in their comedy, and “The Detour” takes similar chances, pushing boundaries without tumbling over them taste-wise. In the seven episodes previewed, those interludes include an inadvertent trip to a strip club, Robin getting ridiculously high in a hotel and stealing Nate’s pants, a bout with food poisoning (think “Stand By Me”), and the whole brood taking refuge at a sumptuous bed and breakfast that appears, and inevitably is, too good to come without strings attached. Then there’s the little matter, in subsequent episodes, of the grilling he’s receiving from law-enforcement authorities, suggesting things have even gone far worse than even their more bizarre adventures would indicate. Gradually, the show uses various devices – jumping ahead and back – to establish a broader framework, with Nate having been fired from his job and clearly pursuing some sort of mission related to that. ![]()
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