Outsourced Season One   Starring: Ben Rappaport, Anisha Nagarajan, Diedrich Bader, Parvesh Cheena, Pippa Black and Rebecca Hazlewood Distributor: Fabulous Films / Fremantle Media Enterprises RRP: £24.99 FHED3066 Certificate: 12 Release Date: 05 August 2013

When Todd Dempsy returns from his management course, ready to take over the call centre for a novelty toy company, he finds that the work has been outsourced to India. Still wanting the job, Todd relocates and finds that cultural differences can sometimes cause unexpected problems...

Outsourced (2011) was a comedy show which ran for a single season. The show was adapted from John Jeffcoat‘s film, which shared the same name. The show was developed by Robert Borden for the NBC network. The show was nominated for a couple of awards.

I’m a bit bemused that the show was cancelled as it wasn’t half bad, especially for a first season, it had many positives going for it. I did approach the show with some reservation, the opportunity to reduce the series to racist stereotypes was there but the greater part the show dodged that bullet.

That is not to say that it does not contain caricatured stereotypes. The sitcom has been a staple of television since the fifties. These are not shows designed to push the format, rather they consist of situations well known to the audience - home, families, work - with characters which the audience can recognise. Therefore you get the central character, who is normally the butt of jokes, but otherwise a relatively normal person. You can throw in a grouchy character, a character that is a bit of an idiot and usually a love interest. In this way the show is no worse or better than its competition.

The central character is Todd Dempsy, a well-meaning manager who is out of his depth in a new country. Ben Rappaport plays the character with an easy going charm. His foil is his deputy manager, Rajiv Gidwani (Rizwan Manji) who is desperate to get rid of Todd so he can be the manager, which would give him the social standing to marry the love of his life.

He is befriended by both Manmeet (Sacha Dhawan) and Charlie Davies (Diedrich Bader), the former is an Indian employee, who spends more time on the phone flirting than he does selling and is enamoured with all things American. Charlie is the manager of another call centre and a bit on the wrong side of eccentric; he obsesses about hunting and Tonya (Pippa Black) - who is more interested in Todd.

The buffoon of the centre, Gupta (Parvesh Cheena) is a good natured if ineffective person; he is the butt of many of the jokes. The main characters are rounded off with Madhuri (Anisha Nagarajan) a woman who is so painfully shy that her voice is barely audible and Asha (Rebecca Hazlewood) who is one of the most complex characters in the show. If Madhuri represents the more traditional view of Indian women, then Asha represents the difficult transition into a more modern, liberal world. There is an attraction between Todd and Asha, but she has agreed to an arranged marriage, so is unavailable to him.

The entire twenty-two episodes are spread across three DVDs. Given that the show was cancelled it was a surprise that the cast would come back to provide some of the extras. Disc one contains a full length commentary for the pilot episode featuring Ben Rappaport, Sacha Dhawan, Alexandra Beattie (Producer) , Robert Borden (Head Writer) and Ken Kwapis (Director). It gives you a bit of the background to the show until it settles down into a good natured chat about making a show set in India. There is a Gag Reel (4 min, 28 sec) with the actors fluffing their lines and a couple of Deleted Scenes (2 min, 42 sec).

Disc two has a full length commentary for episode eleven; A Sitar is Born, with contributions from Parvesh Cheena, Anisha Nagarajan and Robert Borden. There are five, short Deleted Scenes (6 min, 11 sec). Disc three has a full length commentary for episode twenty-two with Rizwan Manji, Diedrich Bader, Victor Nelli jr and Robert Borden, once again a good natured piece, sounding more like a bunch of friends getting together to remember better times with humour. Between the three commentaries, pretty much all of the main cast have returned to contribute. The disc wraps with three more Deleted Scenes (2 min, 46 sec).

The show did grow on me with its gentle comedy and engaging characters, it’s not the most intellectually challenging television, but I can think of worse ways of spending my time than immersing myself in the world of Outsourced.

8

Charles Packer