“It was all fun and games until I whipped out the trunk.” – Charlie Davies
Brian Billick, former head coach of the Baltimore Ravens and master of what is known in the sports world as “coach speak,” loved to use the phrase “it is what it is” during interviews. For example, a reporter would ask something like, “Kyle Boller has thrown seven interceptions through eight quarters of football this season, do you continue to have confidence in him as your starter going forward?” And Billick would inevitably respond, “It is what it is.” Really, it’ s a meaningless phrase, but it’s a way of managing expectations.
Which brings us to Outsourced. Outsourced is what it is. It’s a bad but not awful show that consistently makes me chuckle three or four times an episode. It is lowbrow and predictable and if you are hoping for it to morph into a show that seriously examines the nuances of Indian culture, keep hoping. This isn’t Slumdog Millionaire with a laugh track. And if you are a hater who thinks this is the worst show in the history of television and you are hoping it gets canceled next week, keep hoping.
It is what it is and what it isn’t is racist, despite initially being accused as such by critics. The show has a genuine affection for its Indian characters even if it refuses to take their country/customs/names/food/religion/etc. seriously. I want to put this issue to bed once and for all. I don’t want to have to defend this show from accusations of xenophobia every week. The only character on Outsourced who is portrayed as remotely xenophobic is Charlie and he is a complete maniac. Yes, the show often relies too heavily on stereotypes for laughs but that isn’t because it is racist, it’s because it isn’t a very good show.
Now, let’s talk about last night’s episode, “Jolly Vindaloo Day,” shall we?
The Vindaloo Day from the episode’s title comes from a holiday that Rajiv invents in order to get Todd out of the office for a day. Todd is dumb, but not stupid. He has seen the word “vindaloo” on a menu before. Rajiv explains the holiday’s origins with a lovely tale about a time before time in which all food was bland and a savior named God Vindaloo from whose forehead burst a geyser of spices. “Is that why some people have that dot on their forehead?” Like I said, Todd’s pretty dumb a lot of the time.
Todd tells Charlie about the new holiday he has discovered and Charlie is skeptical. Upon further research they find out that there is no Vindaloo Day and after they run a little surveillance Todd assumes that Rajiv, with the office to himself, is trying to help a headhunter poach the call center of its best talent. Todd confronts Rajiv in front of the head hunter, who turns out not to be a head hunter at all. Rajiv is pretending to be manager of the call center in order to impress the father of Vimi, the woman he wants to marry and Todd totally blows up his spot.
Now that Vimi’s dad knows that Rajiv is a lowly assistant manager he plans to arrange a marriage for her to a guy named Harsheet. Every time Todd hears the name Harsheet he can’t help but start snickering (you know, ‘cuz it sounds like “horse s—“), which in turn makes me crack up. Not exactly my proudest moment. Rajiv goes into a deep depression. When Rajiv starts to miss work, Todd goes to his house to give him a good old fashioned American pep-talk. It works, of course, and Rajiv marches over to Vimi’s house and professes his love to her father. He is not impressed, but she is and promises to tell her father that Harsheet dishonored her by trying to grab her ass. That should be enough to put the kibosh on any arranged marriage between the two.
The B-plot of the episode revolves around a dispute between a tech company call center crew and Manmeet, Gupta and Madhuri over a table in the cafeteria. The whole thing is pretty dull. It really could have and should have been funnier than it is if not for the laziness and lack of creativity on the part of the writers. The tech call center crew spews a bunch of American cliches like “You got served!” and “Your mouth just wrote a check your ass can’t cash.” Really annoying stuff.
Worst of all, Diedrich Bader, the funniest member of the cast, is completely squandered. (Although he does get a pretty good line in when he says, “That’s a good idea, make up silly code names” after Manmeet and company introduce themselves using their actual names.) The Mid-American Novelty guys recruit Charlie to help them get revenge after the tech crew calls in a bunch of fake orders. Charlie’s plan involves arson and crossbows, while Gupta and Manmeet were thinking more along the lines of itching powder. The episode ends with our heroes ceding control of their table, only to have it and all of the chairs surrounding it collapse as soon as the staff from the evil call center sit down to start their meal. Red goopy stuff and brown lumpy stuff goes flying everywhere!
This review originally appeared on TV Geek Army.