NBC’s newest addition “Outsourced” strives to stay afloat in Fall season’s sea of comedy with it’s social commentary and culture clash of East meets West.
The opening credits are similar to a Baliwood production - chock full of grungy posters and Hindi music that is refreshing and energetic. The soundtrack of the show fills an American living room with the foreign sounds of Indian music - something Americans in some select areas may not be used to. At the end of once scene in the show, a haunting Hindi rendition of Devo’s “Girl You Want” can be heard trailing into a commercial break.
“Outsourced” brings the “Must-See TV” audience, Thursdays at 8:30 p.m., into the call center for Mid America Novelties located in Mumbai, India. The setting of the show is beautiful and interesting -- as it puts the viewer in in office where the windows peer out into the day-to-day life of the bustling cityscape of Mumbai. The set is filled with a background of extras who are going about their day -- from sacred cows walking the streets to street vendors carting around their wares and foodstuffs -- you can smell the curry outside the walls of this office area.
The writing of the show shows promise, if one can look past the usual clichés of the culture clashes. The show does attempt to point out the major differences in cultures by showing the audience that there is more at play than just the usual American commentary.
In the shows second episode, “Measure of a Manmeet”, Todd Dempsy (played by Ben Rappaport) has been transplanted into a foreign land where he feels the need to connect with the culture of his employees while struggling to keep his job at the same time. Todd has been instructed by his boss to give performance reviews with each of his employees. He later finds that he has to perform evaluations of his employees, and give the axe to the ones who don’t produce enough sales numbers.
Manmeet, played by Sacha Daiwhan, has been taking the opportunity to connect with the female callers looking for novel items by flirting with them. Instead he finds himself getting lost in the conversations he has and the relationship he makes with women from as he puts, “exotic places Des Moines, Fresno, Chattanooga”. Once his cover has been blown, and his job is at risk, Manmeet confides in his manager about the social norm of pre-arranged marriage in his cultural stating that he doesn’t have to worry about his caste, or what his father does for a living.
While the likable character of Todd as the open-minded and culturally aware manager thrives to understand his employees and work at figuring out their culture and how to manage them, the viewpoint of the tightly wound and culturally clueless Charlie Davies character -- played by Diedrich Bader -- a call center manager at another American-based company, adds some more comic relief in terms of bringing the audience back to norm.
Charlie can be found giving Todd advice about how to deal with his people during his lunch breaks. But the wit of his conversations usually show the callousness that comes with men who live in caves -- the type of American who has never tried a cuisine other than a Lean Cuisine purchased in the frozen section.
As Todd shows his concern about having to cut a member of his team loose, Charlie seems to draw the line between inter-office relationships. He says to Todd, “You’re too close to your employees. Guys who work for me, I don’t even know their names.”
Charlie then goes on to point at his members from across the lunchroom rattling off his nicknames for the guys in the office, “..there’s Indy, wore a hat to work one day. And there’s Roger Ebert.”
Todd replies, “He looks nothing like Roger Ebert!”
Charlie then says, “Watch this” and waves to the man. The man responds by giving Charlie two thumbs up.
While the shows writing can show glimpses of promise, brought to life with the great performances by a mostly Southern Indian cast, most of the laughs can be rooted in laughing at the Indian culture and the way that they speak and their lack of intelligence in all things Americana - which the writing seems to lean on but not fully stick with. But then again, NBC’s Thursday night lineup mostly consists of the back-asswardness that seem to make America entertained -- the mindless and unethical characters that are loved on such shows as “The Office”, “30 Rock” and “Community”.
The timing of this new show may be appropriate -- as more and more American-based companies are turning to the more cost-effective route of outsourcing customer relations to overseas locales. But, the timing of the cliche jokes can be rather heavy handed in the eyes of the viewers during such times of unemployment.
Having the tables turned on the American, and putting Todd’s character on the other side of having to figure out the culture of the West is a welcome and refreshing twist on Thursday night television, while still keeping it fresh.
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