"Outsourced"

[Lord Ash]

Okay, I know it is a silly sitcom...

But am I the only one who sort of enjoys it? I find the guy who plays Gupta to be amusing, I like both the actors and the characters who work at the call center, and I love the assistant manager Rajeev... I find him to be wonderfully slimy and underhanded, and the actor who plays him really pulls it off with such wicked humor.

Now, I do not adore the actor who plays the main character, and the show does have a ways to go, but I can't help but hope it succeeds, especially given its extraordinarily unique setting and cast. Does anyone else enjoy "Outsourced" at all?

[Jfrosh]

Okay, I know it is a silly sitcom...

But am I the only one who sort of enjoys it? I find the guy who plays Gupta to be amusing, I like both the actors and the characters who work at the call center, and I love the assistant manager Rajeev... I find him to be wonderfully slimy and underhanded, and the actor who plays him really pulls it off with such wicked humor.

Now, I do not adore the actor who plays the main character, and the show does have a ways to go, but I can't help but hope it succeeds, especially given its extraordinarily unique setting and cast. Does anyone else enjoy "Outsourced" at all?

Outsourced is one of the few sitcoms I have DVR'd along with The Office (I just can't give up on it) and Modern Family. I agree that it is not great, but different and enjoyable. Gupta is my favorite and you are correct that Rajeev is delighfully wicked. In fact I really enjoy all of the "Indian" cast members, the American and god forbid the Australian actors, not so much.

[theAlaskanBear]

Outsourced is my guilty pleasure -- the show I enjoy but don't admit to watching. I think it is just different enough, and just funny enough (in a predictable, stupid sort of way). Oh and Rebecca Hazelwood can have my babies?

[DukeUsul]

I saw the commercials for it and said - no way that one lasts. For how long can you make stereotypical Indian jokes before you run out? Of course, now I'm watching it every week and finding it amusing.

Like theAlaskanBear said, it's a guilty pleasure.

[Lord Ash]

I haven't found the show to be terribly mean or anything towards Indian culture. Sure, it pokes fun at aspects of it, but ALL shows do that... "Raising Hope" pokes fun at white trash, "The Office" pokes fun at office culture... but I don't find "Outsourced" to be particularly mean about Indian culture.

[DukeFan83]

I haven't given it a chance for two big reason. First, it just looked like a ripoff of The Office, and I can just watch the Office. Secondly, I do not find the idea of Outsourcing very funny as a concept. Call me a bitter, grumpy American, but that's how I feel. To me, it's like a making a sitcom out of people in a natural disaster. No one's laughing about that, either.

[theAlaskanBear]

I haven't given it a chance for two big reason. First, it just looked like a ripoff of The Office, and I can just watch the Office. Secondly, I do not find the idea of Outsourcing very funny as a concept. Call me a bitter, grumpy American, but that's how I feel. To me, it's like a making a sitcom out of people in a natural disaster. No one's laughing about that, either.

Definitely different humor than The Office. It's more gag humor and silly-season stuff.

I feel like you should give it a shot though.

I am about as much of an economic protectionist as there is -- but the show isn't so much about making outsourcing funny or teasing americans, but rather putting human faces on the people on the other end of the situation -- the workers who work not to steal american jobs but to support their families and have dreams of their own.

The one constant throughout the season has been the show making upper management (the guys who decide to outsource) look like sleaze. Like a scene where he is on a corporate retreat in Hawaii and is telling the protagonist he has to find ways to save more money...or making the call workers work through Diwali, etc etc.

So the show, thus far, has not been about legitimizing outsourcing. It's mostly a comedy built around cultural gaffes.

[DukeBlueNV]

watch 'Community' instead :cool:

[brevity]

watch 'Community' instead :cool:

They're both NBC shows. Not really an either/or.

As for Outsourced, I'm biased, so I have to watch. It's not a great show -- and I have a hard time imagining it would ever become one -- but it's disposable fun and works better as a half-hour comedy than it did a movie (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outsourced_%28film%29).

It would be nice for NBC to make an all-brown version of their magazine ads for their Thursday night lineup: Danny Pudi of Community, Maulik Pancholy of 30 Rock, Mindy Kaling of The Office, Aziz Ansari of Parks and Recreation, take your pick from Outsourced. They'd have to replace Jay Leno with the Indian version of Jay Leno, who (1) would work harder and be funnier than Jay Leno, but (2) would eventually get booted... in favor of Jay Leno.

(I just read the new Bill Carter book (http://www.amazon.com/War-Late-Night-Early-Television/dp/067002208X).)

[theAlaskanBear]

I didn't realize Outsourced was a movie. I'll take your word about it.

I would recommend seeing Rocket Singh, Salesman of Year.

[Rich]

I watch it. I don't know when it's on and I don't DVR it, but when there's nothing else on, either at that time or on my DVR, I watch it OnDemand. It's a nice lighthearted comedy that I like to watch when everyone else is in bed. I don't know how long it will be on, and I may not even know if/when it goes off, but at some point I will miss it.

[DukeFan83]

Fair enough. It does makes me happy that they're putting a human face on the Indians who are "stealing our jobs." I'm really not against those people--most of the time they are nice to me when I call / whatever. I just hate the sleaze at the top that is doing it. Now, Community is hilarious. Have you seen the paintball scene yet?

[Lord Ash]

Argh! Cancelled!

Honestly I think it is a shame... I really enjoyed that the show was based in the Indian culture, which I felt was rather fresh and different and fun. Many of the characters had begun to develop some depth, and many of the actors were really figuring their characters out; the guy who played Charlie was finally getting how to play his character as not completely crazy-serious but finally laughing a little at his own jokes, which made the character a lot more likeable... and even the main actor wasn't annoying me as much anymore. Shoot! I'll really miss Rajeev...:(

[brevity]

Argh! Cancelled!

Tell me about it. I'll still credit NBC for its token brown casting of the other NBC comedies -- and Chuck -- but this hurts the cause ("cause" being something between mainstream acceptance and world domination).

While I'm not confident that the show could have done that much with a second season, I'll miss it all the same. A breeze to watch, and the best music on television.

[Lord Ash]

Tell me about it. I'll still credit NBC for its token brown casting of the other NBC comedies -- and Chuck -- but this hurts the cause ("cause" being something between mainstream acceptance and world domination).

While I'm not confident that the show could have done that much with a second season, I'll miss it all the same. A breeze to watch, and the best music on television.

Ohhh good call. My wife actually had a little dance she would do to the opening:) And yeah... I enjoyed a comedy that was set someplace other than the traditional white American middle class-ish setting.