Network shows come and go, so really there isn’t any need to cry over one more show axed for one reason or another. But then again, we sometimes see no rhyme or reason to how networks return a few shows season after season even though it has really been quite obvious to everyone else that they should have been cancelled two to three seasons earlier. And any TV addict would be familiar with this.
We the TV viewer understand that ratings, sponsorship and the bottom line are valid reasons why one show gets cancelled or not. But then again, maybe an unfortunate move to a different day or time slot may be the real cause why shows are canned. And in the case of my current favorite show, the move might have been intended to push it to its early demise. But whatever the real reason is, I just wish to say a final goodbye to my much beloved “Outsourced”.
This is for you. You have given me some great laughs and I will surely miss you.
Spinoff
Now, in case you aren’t familiar with the show, my wife recently told me that it was a spinoff of a movie of the same time title.
But to me, it will always be a TV series–a one season series, but nevertheless a series, all 22 comical episodes of it. The first time I saw an episode of the show, I just fell in love with it. And me and my wife couldn’t wait to watch more.
DVD
And in case you don’t know it yet, the Complete Outsourced Season 1 DVD Box Set is already out and available online. But if you just wish to watch complete episodes online, you can still do so at the show’s website on NBC. Just not sure, until when we can actually do that.
If you wish to read my short review on this show, I just wish to start by saying that me and my wife share an affinity with the show’s plot because we too were unceremoniously shipped out to a foreign country and now find ourselves working and living in a different culture in a far away land. And we do have actual friends and family who work for call centers back home.
Review
Now in case you have missed all the pronouncements, “Outsourced” is a comedy about an office manager from Kansas named Todd Dempsy, whose entire call center office was hastily shipped out (read: outsourced) to Mumbai, India. And it is about how he needs to deal with the culture shock, the management and the training of his new local sales team. Todd is played by actor Ben Rappaport.
Among his new staff are the lovable Gupta (Parvesh Cheena), his exact opposite, Manmeet (Sacha Dhawan), and Todd’s new assistant Rajiv (Rizwan Manji) who has been eyeing his position since day one.
To complicate Todd’s new life overseas are other expatriates to India, fellow American Charlie Davies (Diedrich Bader) who runs another American call center, and a love interest and Australian beauty named Tonya (played by Pippa Black) who runs a call center for Koala Air.
Overall, I find the script to be refreshing showing a witty true-to-life rendering of real people that we get meet in the workplace (anywhere in the world). And it presents the inevitable clash of cultures in the globalized world we live in. And whoever put together the casting and the characters have done a marvelous job. Thank you and here’s hoping that this show be resurrected or be picked up by another network or for someone to start an online petition to this effect.