Temporary Monsanity Shows Outsourced Improvement

One of most controversial shows on television right now is on NBC, and if you guessed right, it is it’s freshman show Outsourced, based after the movie of the same name.  The controversy comes more from the simple fact that it divides audience members at first glance of racial and cultural stereotypes.  Also, despite it’s decent ratings, Outsourced continues to be a thorn in almost most TV critics side.  Myself though, while not impressed with the pilot episode, has stuck with it.

At first glance, the show does seem like a stereotype, and the first episode is filled with general culture clash snafus. But, like anyone else, I didn’t really find it funny.  The only difference was, that something kept me drawn to the show.  Despite not being funny, the show hit a nerve, something that I really don’t feel happens in television comedy, and that is interesting characters fused further by a great cast.  Something kept drawing me to want to watch the following episode despite not finding anything in the so-called comedy funny, reminding me something like NBC’s previous hit show scrubs, minus the laughs.  So I kept watching.  After the past two episodes, I am glad I’ve stuck with the show, as it is officially found it’s groove, and yes, it’s funny. 

While most of the culture clash stuff is out of the way, there are a few things that crop up, such as holidays that have provided great source material for the cast, both Indian and American. 

Diedrich Bader’s Charlie was the shows only major MVP for generating laugh out loud moments, until last week’s Home for the Diwalidays episode.  This week is no difference with each joke hitting the target.  I’m not sure what the writers have done (hired new ones?) but not only is the show been consistently funny, it has retained what charm (whatever that is) that kept me watching in the first place. 

This week’s episode Temporary Monsanity saw Parvesh Cheena's Gupta and Sacha Dhawan's Manmeet again team-up with Bader for a game of laser tag during a monsoon, which is leaving everyone trapped in the building. Meanwhile, Ben Rappaport's Todd Dempsy works through not being home at Thanksgiving time, which is frustrating not for the fact he is on another continent, but for the fact that he is competing with his brother for his parent’s affections.  The company promises the managers if they beat a sales record they can go to Hawaii, so Todd blindly promises his parents that is their gift he got them.  Obviously this isn’t the case, so when he actually pushes to make upsells to beat the record, the Monsoon hitting India naturally takes out the power, which is right around the time Charlie is in alpha-male hunting mode, hunting Gupta and Manmeet.  A particularly humorous moment was when Todd sends Gupta down during the power outage to ‘get supplies’ for his co-workers, where he knows Charlie is in hiding, waiting for him, like in a monster movie. 

The hilarity in the situation of how cruel the pilgrims were to the Indians was brought up many times, including an end scene where Gupta and Charlie create a cease fire enough to literally break bread, only for Charlie to tell Gupta ‘the rest of the story after they celebrated Thanksgiving dinner.’ 

With the continued growth in the show via the writing, one can only expect they can keep going, as so far, Outsourced may make my Must See TV column!

So what did you think of Outsourced which airs on Thursday at 9:30 on WCMH NBC 4, examiners? Did you enjoy it? Did you hate it? Let us know your thoughts about the show and we may read your comments on Nick’s podcast, the Good, The Bad & The Geeky!  You can comment below or send your thoughts via e-mail or heck, if you have twitter, tweet us! Also, If you like what you hear, please subscribe on iTunes!