Welcome to a new Wildcard Wednesday! This week, I’ve got another Sitcom Potpourri, featuring brief commentary on a few short-lived series and picks for the episodes that I think best represent them, based on what I’ve seen. For this post, I’m looking at three flops from the 2010-2011 season that NBC scheduled near Parks And Rec in its Must See TV Thursday lineup.
OUTSOURCED (September 2010 – May 2011, NBC)
Premise: An American adjusts to life as the executive manager of a company call center that’s been outsourced to India, with a staff entirely made up of Indians.
Cast: Ben Rappaport, Rizwan Manji, Sacha Dhawan, Rebecca Hazlewood, Parvesh Cheena, Anisha Nagarajan, Diedrich Bader, Pippa Black
Writers: George Wing & John Jeffcoat, Paul A. Kaplan & Mark Torgove, Robert Borden, Linda Videtti Figueiredo, Michael Pennie, Sonny Lee & Patrick Walsh, Michael Loftus, Vera Santamaria, Laura Gutin, David Gross & Greg Lisbe, Geetika Lizardi, Luvh Rakhe, Pete Holmes, Amit Bhalla, Terry Mulroy
Thoughts: An ensemble workplace comedy with a high-concept fish-out-of-water culture clash twist in its otherwise low-concept rom-com-leaning premise, Outsourced is a solidly designed show on paper, mixing comedically distinct characters with clear relational dynamics and an overarching, narratively ordained comic tension that together should create a rich, full situation from which many laughs and stories are derivable. Unfortunately, this ultimately isn’t a good sitcom in practice, failing to explore its situation and lacking in leads who have the definition or dimension necessary to support these intended constructs. Primarily, the American anchor is terribly dull, without any of the flaws or quirks necessary to yield hahas, and he’s given an overly generous portrayal that prevents the show from being able to genuinely explore a cultural divide. That is, instead of making him an awkward and offensive Michael Scott, at whom we cringe because he’s unaware of these different societal expectations (which makes sense, since he’s a fish out of water), he’s basically always correct and well-intentioned even when he’s initially ignorant. This keeps him from being the butt of the joke and puts that burden more exclusively onto the Indian characters and their customs — that’s what we’re supposed to laugh at — and this not only opens up the show to criticisms about cultural insensitivity, it also limits an ability to explore the basic premise, for if Americanism isn’t going to be comedically up for spoofing through its primary personification, then the cultural divide tension is weakened by at least 50%, especially when Americanism is also depicted as the “norm” that Indian customs are operating against. Now, I want to be fair – this is an American show (inspired by an American movie) that’s intended for American audiences, so its perspective is going to be American, and for any comedy about clashing cultures, there has to be a willingness to accept exaggerated cultural depictions – it’s bringing an American to India and we need to be laughing about it.
But the problem with Outsourced is, again, its failure to make the American lead as comedically and narratively ripe as the Indian world around him, which reveals a partiality that opens the show up to extra scrutiny, especially as a sitcom that’s now failing on behalf of both character and premise. Oh, I suppose the show thinks it’s spoofing Americanism through the tacky products they’re selling in the novelty business – and it does use the cultural ignorance of Diedrich Bader’s broader American character as the cringey butt of some jokes – but that’s incidental to the primary situational construct of the fish (the lead) in the water (the Indian world around him). Accordingly, this series’ inability to play to its premise well – exacerbated by the fact that it moves away from the cultural clash angle as the season progresses, following some harsh feedback – means it has to put more stock on the low-concept characters and their relationships. And Outsourced is hit and miss here. Each of the Indian guys in the office is pretty well-defined and capable of bringing specific yuks, but not everyone can say the same – especially the lead’s primary and immediately obvious love interest, whose cultural obligation to accept an arranged marriage despite her growing feelings for the American (who nevertheless bides his time with another white woman in the building) is supposed to be a manifestation of the cultural divide, but again only reveals the show’s core flaws: its inherent “normification” of the American POV at the expense of comedy and drama, while the leads (both intended lovers) don’t have the comic definition necessary to be explored or explore the premise well within story. Their shared attraction feels formulaic because it, and they, lack specificity, and it’s yet another example of the show failing to deliver on its decent setup because it isn’t able to do right by its premise or its main characters. And I think that’s a shame – for this is the most promising sitcom here in this post, and with a few tweaks, it could have been something special.
Episode Count: 22 episodes produced and broadcast.
Episodes Seen: All 22.
Key Episodes: #4: “Jolly Vindaloo Day” (10/14/10)
#5: “Touched By An Anglo” (10/21/10)
Why: #4 offers the funniest version of the culture clash, as the employees make up a fake Indian holiday to get a day off of work, taking advantage of their American boss’ ignorance to their ways, while #5 is interesting because Todd’s American friendliness puts him at odds with a shyer member of the Indian staff, who is not used to the close personal contact – a genuine play to the premise using the characters. Those are the only two I can really single out favorably.
PERFECT COUPLES (December 2010 – April 2011, NBC)
Premise: Three friendly couples navigate the daily ups and downs of their relationships.
Cast: Kyle Bornheimer, Christine Woods, David Walton, Mary Elizabeth Ellis, Hayes MacArthur, Olivia Munn, Nicolette Robinson
Writers: Jon Pollack & Scott Silveri, John Quaintance, Joe Port & Joe Wiseman, Tad Quill, David Walpert, Barbie Adler, Nick Adams, Jen Kirkman, Lindsey Shockley, Justin Hurwitz
Thoughts: Perfect Couples is one of network TV’s many post-2004 derivations of Friends. Heck, it was even co-created by a former Friends scribe — with an ensemble of six attractive 30(ish)-year-old buddies who together comprise three separate romantic couples, thus naturally creating a Friends-ian storytelling apparatus of relationship-led rom-com fare, usually in three two-character plots-per-episode. So, although this is also a then-standard single-cam in accordance with NBC’s post-Earl Thursday night brand – and it’s notably suburban-set instead of urban-based — it really feels like stuff we’ve seen before. This lack of imagination in the premise isn’t an issue though — there are finite premises in the low-concept space. The problem is the character work, which lacks specificity. Most of the leads have elemental differences in personality that are perceptible when they’re juxtaposed, and there’s a noted effort to define each of the couples against each other – one is somewhat wild, one is somewhat uptight, one is somewhat “normal.” But they pretty much all end up sounding the same and doing things that it would be possible for any of the characters to do. With the exception of David Walton’s character — who plays a little bigger and therefore has his own comic energy — nothing stands out as being fresh and unique, let alone individualized or special. It’s just formula and cliché, slightly updated for 2010 with a single-cam design and, again, a suburban backdrop. Subpar.
Episode Count: 13 episodes produced, 11 of which were broadcast (2 premiered on Hulu)
Episodes Seen: All 13.
Key Episode: #3: “Perfect Proposal” (01/27/11)
Why: Intended to air second but really shown third after a later entry was bumped up as a special premiere preview, this episode attempts to define the three couples in relation to each other and, outside the pilot, does the best job of implying that they’ll indeed have individualized definitions, which… sadly, never really bears out beyond this in future plot.
THE PAUL REISER SHOW (April 2011, NBC)
Premise: Paul Reiser is a former television star looking to get back in the industry.
Cast: Paul Reiser, Ben Shenkman, Omid Djalili, Duane Martin, Andrew Daly, Amy Landecker
Writers: Paul Reiser & Jonathan Shapiro
Thoughts: A broadcast network Curb Your Enthusiasm knockoff for a sitcom vet who also plays a version of himself in a similar single-cam semi-improvised semi-autobiographical framework, The Paul Reiser Show is yet another series that simply treads too much familiar ground, and without enough freshness or excellence generated from the specific elements of its own situation to suggest any individual promise. Part of the issue is Paul Reiser himself — he’s certainly a likable and funny sitcom presence who has the chops to carry a show, but he doesn’t himself have the precise comedic persona of Larry David or an actual characterization that can be suggested from this foundation. Accordingly, this show has more to do if it wants to make meaningful sitcommery attached to his centralized depiction, especially if it asks him to be a flawed comic antagonist in the Curb vein. Another issue is that this broadcast network look and tone inherently robs the show of Curb’s HBO-ian rebellious abandon, which suggested a certain behind-the-curtain sensibility that both corroborated the premise’s semi-autobiographical implication and enabled some truly outrageous, uncomfortable, inappropriate things to occur — enhancing the comedy. This all feels too safe, sanitized, and false in comparison. And that only further reduces its capacity to tap into anything unique that would render it worthwhile. I’m afraid it’s just a watered down version of something more original and better.
Episode Count: Seven episodes produced, only two of which were broadcast.
Episodes Seen: The two broadcast episodes.
Key Episode (of Seen): #1: “Pilot” (04/14/11)
Why: The pilot guests Larry David and is therefore winkingly explicit about its inspirations.
Ultimately, I say forget all of the above, but perhaps there are some lessons to be learned by studying Outsourced. And if you want more of my thoughts on other short-lived forgotten sitcoms, pick up my new book — Great American Sitcoms of the 1950s, available now!
Come back next week for a new Wildcard! And stay tuned Tuesday for more Parks And Rec! Oh, also — this is your last week to share your thoughts on (mostly) 2000s sitcoms in my latest reader survey! Read more about it here, and fill it out here!