TV REVIEW: 'OUTSOURCED'

Kudos for a Sitcom Featuring a Predominantly South Asian Cast

By: Parimal M. Rohit

September 22, 2010

(NBC) Four years after John Jeffcoat’s Outsourced was released as an independent feature film, NBC picked up the production and adapted it as a television pilot and series. The new comedy, which will be part of NBC’s Fall Lineup on Thursday evenings at 9:30 p.m., is produced by Universal Media Studios and In Cahoots Productions. Starring Ben Rappaport, Rizwan Manji, Sacha Dhawan, Rebecca Hazelwood, Parvesh Cheena, and Anisha Nagarajan, the television adaptation of Outsourced is about an American manager who is transferred to Mumbai to oversee and manage relocation of a novelty company’s call center that relocated there from the American Midwest.

Trying to capitalize on a series of Indian/South Asian actors portraying prominent characters on several of its other programs — such as Vik Sahay (Chuck), Aziz Ansari (Parks and Rec), Danny Pudi (Community), Mindy Kaling (The Office), and Parminder Nagra (ER) — NBC clearly believes it is onto something big with the first-ever sitcom on prime-time network television to feature a predominantly South Asian cast. While such a novelty will indeed draw audiences to watch the first episode on September 23rd, the true test for NBC and the Outsourced crew is whether the show is comedic enough to retain audiences for a second week and ultimately justify the sitcom being picked up for the remainder of the season.

It is easy to join the bandwagon of film and television critics, many of whom believe the sitcom will indeed last into its Back Nine, let alone be considered for a second season come Fall 2011. While the producers stand their ground in reportedly saying Outsourced features several relatable universal themes for audiences all across the United States to enjoy the sitcom as a solid comedy independent of its predominantly South Asian cast, there are two potential flaws allowing the bandwagon of negative criticism to grow large by leaps and bounds.

For starters, in and of itself, critics point out Outsourced is just not funny.

On the one hand, the show’s creators, which include a team of South Asians in both the creative and production departments, believe audiences will be able to look past the strong cultural overtones of the sitcom and see Outsourced as the ultimate tickler of one’s funny bone. After all, other ethnic-themed sitcoms like The Cosby Show, The Jeffersons, or The Fresh Prince of Bel Air each had universal appeal and were comical to broader audiences despite an African-American-friendly script and cast. The true test for Outsourced is whether the show’s punchlines are universal enough to draw enough laughs despite the facade of being uttered by or toward someone with an Indian accent. The question is begged – take away the Indian accents, are the punchlines as funny?

To be sure, the creators of Outsourced are not catering into and viciously promoting a negative stereotype about the natural vocal mannerisms of those residing in India. According to members of the production and creative teams, Outsourced is more of an office-themed comedy than a mockumentary on common stereotypes about India. That being said, it is unclear whether audiences will find humor where they should – the office politics and relations between others – and instead think Outsourced is all about poking fun at accents.

Of course, anyone can say “but-for” something (or the lack thereof), a show would not work. For example, “but for” Matt LeBlanc’s “Joey” character on Friends, sure, the show would probably drop several significant points on the laugh-out-loud scale. Accordingly, if there is very real and substantive humor in delivering climactic punchlines in Indian accents, ideally it is enough to keep audiences drawn into the show long enough to justify NBC’s backing of Outsourced.

Jokingly poking fun at foreign accents, no matter how innocent, oftentimes is best told in situational settings, as such humor gets old real fast. If Outsourced falls victim to such tired humor, its shelf life will be far too short for NBC’s liking.

Thankfully, Outsourced is not so shallow as to think poking fun at accents is funny enough in and of itself to sustain a 13-episode run on primetime network television. After all, if it were that easy, the creators of The Simpsons might as well have made a spin-off series on Apu.

Hypothetical scenarios and “but-for” arguments aside, the other potential criticism with Outsourced is it may appear to possess a white-man-saves-the-world premise. Specifically, Rappaport’s character (Todd) is portrayed as a typical Midwestern white man who is a able-bodied and capable manager who must go to India to teach a group of people how to operate a call center and become accustomed to American norms and traditions.

Again, nothing wrong with providing comic commentary on glaring cultural gaps, yet Outsourced seems to be leaning a tad too heavily in one direction. Sure, Todd must also learn the ways of living in India, yet the very nature of his character — a typical American with Midwestern values — leaves the door too easily open for interpretation. At least in the pilot, it is not clear whether Todd is indeed that “white man who comes to save the day” or someone who is forced to take on a job he is reluctant to take and genuinely struggles in a new environment, irrespective of where those new environs are actually located, be it India or Indiana.

Even more, Todd oftentimes appears abrasive and clueless about Indian culture, making the humor appear more condescending instead of a genuine attempt to make fun of the differences between East and West. Indeed, Outsourced, at times, gives the impression of West making fun of East instead of poking humor at West and East trying to genuinely understand each other and work together despite their glaring differences.

Accordingly, should some of the show’s appearances outweigh its actual substance, Outsourced may not find the audience it hopes to find despite NBC’s good intentions and noble efforts. The show’s producers and writers, a few of whom spoke with Buzzine, did make every attempt to make Outsourced as universal as possible by focusing more on office culture than ethnic culture. With that, there is definitely hope for Outsourced to do quite well if the universal themes of office humor shine through, just as the show’s creative and production teams are planning for.

All the above said, Outsourced is definitely worth the watch.

At the very least, kudos for a sitcom featuring a predominantly South Asian cast finally arriving to network television. Here’s to making sure Outsourced, while pioneering as the first sitcom of its sort in the United States, is most certainly not the last effort at a South Asian-themed program for mainstream audiences.

'Outsourced' airs today, September 23rd, at 9:30 p.m. (8:30 p.m. Mountain) on your local NBC affiliate.