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The Philippines now supposedly has the biggest BPO industry in the world. I read an article in Yahoo Philippines about a month ago how the Philippines has overtaken India as the biggest supplier of business process outsourcing in the world. If that's true, that would be amazing! I was once part of that group of people who worked in a call center. Actually, I've worked in two call centers in the past 5-ish years. That's why I was looking forward to watching the series "Outsourced". When I read in an internet article somewhere that they were going to come out with a comedy series about the call center industry, I really had high hopes. I've seen how they could make this series so funny because in my short stint in the industry, I already had so many stories to tell.
Finally, last night, I was able to watch the pilot episode of "Outsourced". From the starting scene though, I kinda felt uneasy. I realized a major flaw in the premise of the series; the main target audience of the show is Americans. As soon as the protagonist walked in the door of an empty office, I knew that there was something wrong. I just don't see how Americans could laugh at being laid off and their jobs sent abroad. Then it got worse, they started showing these Indians who knew nothing about American culture. The lack of knowledge (and the use of racial stereotypes) is where the writers decided to get their laughs from.
I'm not going to go into a rant where I point out that call center agents are trained by their counterparts, be it American, Australian, Japanese or whoever, way before they pick up phones. My only point is that they could have gotten a whole lot of laughs elsewhere. For them to focus on the perceived inferiority of the call center to their American counterparts just completely misses the mark. That would only make the viewers pissed off. I mean who would want to laugh at being laid off and being replaced by someone perceived as less qualified? I think that they should have just focused on the hysterical calls that people get. Trust me, every single call center agent has a story to tell about a weird or funny call. Another case in point: I once received a call about a hysterical client. She was crying because her PC wouldn't turn on. She said she kept pushing the power button but nothing was happening. I asked her to check the power cord. Lo and behold, her PC was unplugged.
Too bad, I just think the series could have been really funny. Maybe if I watch the next few episodes my opinion would change. Maybe they just had a sucky pilot. I'm not sure. I guess I'll tune in again next week to give it one more chance. If things stay the same though, I think I'll just have to look for another show to watch.Oh well...
