Let’s see–what new fall show shall we hate today?
I know! NBC’s Outsourced (Thursdays, 9:30 ET, DISH 241)!
Image from hollywood.com
First of all, let’s discuss the brilliance of NBC greenlighting a show about shipping jobs overseas in a tanking economy. After sweating all day to cling to one’s primary source of income, who doesn’t want to come home and kick of his or her shoes to thirty minutes of that?
It’s based on a movie, which is another red flag; successful movie- to- TV show transitions pretty much began and ended with Buffy and M*A*S*H. (And… okay, I will give you Stargate, Lois and Clark and maybe the cartoon version of Ghostbusters, but only if you buy me many, many drinks first. The jury remains out on Parenthood and Terminator: The Sara Connor Chronicles.) I shake my fist at the heavens with the rest of you: Why are there only 2.1 new ideas in Hollywood? And why do most of them seem to involve Bill Paxton?
Outsourced was a sweet little indie movie, and of course the TV suits screened it, stepped back, placed their chins in their hands, and decided amongst themselves what was sweet and indie about it, so that they could kill it. In exactly the same way $#!* My Dad Says bears absolutely no resemblance to what brung it to the cultural dance, Outsourced somehow manages to be both tiresome and newly offensive all at once. There was more subtle cultural homage in this year’s ice dance competition.
First of all, the network trumpets this dreck as follows: “…the Midwest meets the exotic East in a hilarious culture clash.” Really? Exotic, now– this is how we’re excusing the sacred cow jokes? (Yes, there are several. Come on. You knew they were coming.)
And, I mean… I could excuse just about any wrongheaded premise as long as the show which flows from it is worth watching. But… no. It’s not. Outsourced is about as hilarious, smart, and fresh and the novelties the company it profiles is hawking. Rubber dog poop– this fall on NBC.
