TV Review: “Outsourced”

Todd vs. Nature

In Thursday night’s episode “Temporary Monsanity” Todd (Ben Rappaport) bites off more than he can chew as he tries to attain the unreachable in a man vs. nature scenario.

After a video chat with his parents back at home in Kansas City. He find out from his braggart brother that he has won “top salesman of the month“ and is giving them his prize for their 30th wedding anniversary –  a luxurious trip to Colorado. In a knee-jerk reaction trying to impress his parents he fibs about beating the sales mark at his job and unselfishly gives them his prize – a trip to Hawaii.

The running joke for the show continually has Todd continuing to put his foot in his mouth and feed on it for a bit.  The jokes fly as the show rides on the laurels of cultural ignorance and showcases the differences between the culturally-starved manager and the Indians that make up the staff of the office. This meaty subject gives the writers fodder to create a sharp and witty banter of one liners that stab at the norm of each culture.

Todd finds himself having to rally the staff to get them behind him, but first has to explain what Black Friday and Thanksgiving is all about in his own terms:

“They are an odd couple these Pilgrims and Indians. So if the Indians give the Pilgrims shelter, what did the Pilgrims give the Indians?” Asha asks.

“Less land to worry about? Actually they prefer to be called Native-Americans.” Todd says.

Gupta asks, “Why?”

Smartly Todd replies, “They find to term Indian derogatory.”

Cut to intro credits.

Pilgrim vs. Indian
The interoffice competitiveness of Todd and his Assistant Manager Rajiv (Rizwan Manji) brings a familiar storyline to viewers, but what makes the show unique is how it is riddled with the social mores of each characters culture.

While Rajiv is vying for his position and doing his best to out-do him as the leader of the office, he is also meeting the requirements of his culture. The show gets into the ways of the Indian culture by showing how holding a higher position paves way to better odds in landing a position as husband in an arranged marriage and also the acceptance of his in-laws.

After going into Todd’s trash and finding the sales incentive email that rewards the Assistant Sales Managers with a HDTV for beating the highest mark, Rajiv takes the opportunity to continue his rise to the top as he continues to throw elbows.

He gives his workers a sense of false hope by using his power to get the workers to break the record by offering them fools gold; free health insurance for the person who breaks the record, including coverage for their entire family. This lights a fire under the turkey’s working on Black Friday.

“They don’t even get that in the U.S.!”, Gupta exclaims.

Loss of Power
After a monsoon cuts all power to his office, he comes clean to his staff. He can’t go on with the shenanigans of having to put his staff to work through the night, trying to catch the unreachable carrot being dangled in front of them. But, the staff fully understands his dilemma – the pressures of parent approval and their culture are relateable.

Trying to cheer Todd up, Manmeet (Sacha Dahwan) tells a story of how his parents have high expectations of him too. He explains how he got stuck at work and misses his brothers graduation and how his parents’ acceptance is like day and night. “It seems unfair to push me to work hard and blame me when I do. Sometimes parents are wrong.”

As the deadline nears and Todd fails to meet the sales goals, he gives into defeat. But the staff steps up for him and offer to buy up novelty items to surpass the golden number. He thanks them for helping, but he must face the music and come clean to his parents.

The show continues to show promise by feeding off the diverse relationship between Todd and his likable staff in it’s ninth episode. The lovable characters of “Outsourced” still need more developing but names such as Gupta (Parvesh Cheena), Manmeet (Sacha Dahwan), Rajiv (Rizwan Manji) and Asha (Rebecca Hazelwood) may possibly become household names soon enough.