'Outsourced' Premiere Episode

Outsourced tries to offer a new spin on the workplace comedy but only ends up combining familiar sitcom shenanigans with a few one-dimensional characters and ethnic stereotypes. It goes all the way to India just to offer up the same old thing.

NBC deserves credit for developing a comedy focused on a minority group not typically depicted on TV, and for looking outside the U.S. for subject matter (although the source material here is a 2006 American independent film). But just because Outsourced has certain noble intentions doesn’t make it funny or entertaining, and at this point all it does with its unusual focus is channel the same kind of humor we’ve seen on plenty of workplace sitcoms before, along with giving various ethnic stereotypes about Indians plenty of screen time.

It’s possible that later episodes of Outsourced will flesh out the characters and allow them to transcend the one-dimensional types that come across in the premiere. Any good show will reveal layers to its characters over time. But there’s very little in the first episode of Outsourced that indicates an interest in Indian culture beyond the broad strokes that Americans have seen in small doses in other movies and TV shows. American middle manager Todd Dempsy (Ben Rappaport) comes to India to manage a call center for a novelty company without any clue about the local culture, and he’s the perfect point of view for the show to use to explore India from an outsider’s perspective. Instead, Outsourced remains bound by the call-center office, and the locals who work with Todd represent a range of Indian and foreigner stereotypes.

Even if you downgrade expectations for Outsourced and just hope for a clever, funny show that takes place in a unique working environment, it still mostly falls short. Jokes about sales quotas and where to sit in the lunchroom are hardly creative or new, and while the cast is generally likable, none of the characters stand out as memorable or noteworthy. Given its attention-grabbing and somewhat controversial subject matter, Outsourced ought to have creative ambitions to match. Instead, it merely strives to be passable entertainment, and it barely even hits that mark.

Disclosure: A review screener was provided by the network. For more information, please see our Ethics Policy.