The Much-Improved Outsourced

NBC's Thursday night comedy Outsourced just wrapped up its first season and it's still up in the air whether or not it will get a second season.

The show has received mixed reviews with much of the negative coming from the show's extremely rocky start and, in some cases, the assumption that any story involving cultural misunderstanding is racist. Personally, I was intrigued by the premise. Somewhere between my experience in call centers and my love of travel I just had to find out what they would do with the show.

The main character, Todd, tries very hard to navigate his new surroundings, and he slowly manages to not offend his employees every time he opens his mouth. This isn't an easy feat since the call center sells novelties of all kinds to American consumers: He not only needs to them to accept that people will actually buy the junk they sell, but many of the product are sexually explicit in nature and he needs them to be able to sell those products without being scandalized. As the cultural misunderstandings become more specific, the show actually manages to teach the audience about Indian culture and not just make cheap jokes about the broader differences.

Madhuri

The show's weak start introduced the characters so hastily that it was hard to see past the parade of stereotypes. However, after a few episodes the characters had depth and it was possible to take an interest in their stories. For example, Madhuri is quiet and shy, and in the first few episodes she appears as more of a prop than a character, but as the show progresses she becomes one of the most loveable characters, and not just because she has huge eyes: she makes herself so inconspicuous that she is effective as both a spy and a gossip.

The two-part season finale was a high point and even dedicated some to develop the character of Ajeet, the lone Muslim who previously had no lines and mostly just stormed out of the room angrily whenever he was (presumably) offended.

I haven't completely made up my mind about the show. It has shown steady improvement, but if it doesn't get renewed it will disappear as a mediocre 1-season show. If it does get renewed, it will have to maintain the quality of the later episodes to be considered a truly worthwhile show. Even at its best, it's not the best comedy on TV, but it's certainly better than the worst by a long shot. It's worth checking out, but I wouldn't consider it to be required viewing for a TV Elitist.