A Look Back at NBC’s Outsourced
For the last few weeks, I’d been checking Hulu constantly, waiting for the next episode of Free Agents to appear. When it never did, I finally looked up what was going on and was dismayed to see that the series had been canceled. After only four episodes, canceled! Yeah, it was having a hard time finding its true voice, but it was already funnier than Up All Night and Whitney. How does something like Free Agents get canceled after four episodes when the year before, NBC let a turd like Outsourced run for the entire season?!
Oh, Outsourced… now that brings back memories of a missed opportunity. See, I was really excited for Outsourced, being an ex-expat and all. The show was about an American guy going to work at a call center in India. Working in a foreign country is a comedy gold mine! There are so many misunderstandings, embarrassing moments, and awkward situations to exploit. I’ve been through that. I can totally relate. And when Outsourced focused on Todd’s struggles to adapt to Indian culture, it worked well. Unfortunately, that constituted only about 5% of every episode.
Outsourced, it turned out, wasn’t so much about India as it was about a kooky work place with on-again, off-again romances mixed in. Setting the story in India simply felt like an excuse to hire a bunch of no-name Indian actors. The streets outside the call center didn’t even feel real; everybody spoke English! I don’t care if English is really that prevalent in India. I do, however, find it hard to believe that the locals would talk to each other in English when no Westerners were around. I’m sure they only did this so the viewers at home wouldn’t have to read subtitles, but it absolutely destroyed the show’s credibility.
I’m glad Outsourced didn’t get renewed for a second season, but I’m also sad that something like this will probably never get picked up again by another major network. There was so much untapped potential here, so many funny expat stories to tell and so much cross-cultural information to teach. What better way to learn about a country than to watch a bumbling American slowly fall in love with it for 30 minutes every week? That’s a show I want to see. That’s a show we could really use. Alas, Outsourced wasn’t it, and we’ll never get the one we deserve.
Responses to “A Look Back at NBC’s Outsourced”
Comments RSS Feed – All CommentsMom — 30 October 2011 @ 3:52 pm
Maybe you need to write the show… set in China, not India.
Hopfrog — 31 October 2011 @ 6:47 pm
I remember seeing the promos for the show and couldn’t help but think, how in the hell can NBC put out a comedy about Americans losing their jobs overseas when so many are unemployed. I never even bothered to watch a single episode and knew a show with that premise and in this climate was doomed to failure.
It is my understanding that English on the streets of some Indian cities is actually the norm, so I went to wikipedia and learned the show is set in Mumbai and again, to Mumbai’s wikipedia entry which says “English is extensively spoken and is the principal language of the city’s white collar workforce”.
But the interesting part to me, is that yes, I think you are spot on that there is so much potential in expat misadventures by Americans overseas and I am not surprised that this is the only thing you found endearing about the show. What a terrible choice to vehicle this though, outsourcing American jobs… lol, wow, I still shake my head at this idea. Now if they had done a show on an expatriated teacher or peace corps volunteer, then maybe a concept like that would have had a chance.
Clark — 1 November 2011 @ 8:43 am
But English wasn’t just reserved for the white collar workers on the show. *Everybody* spoke English. The “Bambaiya” street language that Wikipedia also mentions was nowhere to be heard.
Nate — 12 November 2011 @ 5:51 pm
Guess you’re all wrong. It’s back. And it was a great show! It’s funny to me that it’s only white people that seem to find the show racist. All my Indian friends think it’s hilarious.
Clark — 14 November 2011 @ 9:52 am
It’s back? I can’t find any information that suggests it got renewed. I didn’t think it was racist, though. I just didn’t think it was funny *or* very informative.
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