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What could be funnier than a British Indian accountant who is moved to a call center in Mumbai to make it profitable? Quite a lot actually.
Kenny Gupta (Sanjeev Bhaskar) is this British Indian accountant. He is sent to work in a call center in Mumbai and to make it profitable. Not exactly the most ideal comedy situation. When I saw the adverts for this series, I hoped that it would tackle the stereotypes of ‘foreign’ call centers (UK perspective). It did, but it created a new stereotype of the way British people respond to these calls.
For example, there is a scene of a young Indian worker who rings up an English client in the hope of ‘giving him a free phone’. You can probably guess the reaction. The worker gets frustrated at the client (I thought it was supposed to be the other way round myself) and states that he is trying to give him a free phone, at which point the worker hangs up. This seems to be making the point that all English people are ignorant and rude, which maybe true in some cases, but in a lot of cases, this is not the case (puts away cases).
In reality, from UK perspective, this scenario is a rare occurrence. Usually, the client will get annoyed, as you do not get anything in this world for free. Occasionally in the UK, a client will be abusive to a foreign call center worker, and this is wrong. But the way the show targets this issue is completely ridiculous. ‘Foreign’ call centers may well get stereotyped, but portraying British people like this does not give any justice, so there is no need for a cheap shot at stereotypical comedy.
Another part which wound me up was when we’re told that Manchester is suffering from flooding. Now I myself am from Liverpool, and for some reason Manchester and Liverpool don’t get along, but I found a comment that was made by Kenny Gupta generally about northerners offensive, obviously aimed at the southern audience to make them laugh. Bad move.
The whole episode was terribly written, with cheap jokes all over the place, and to be honest, I did not laugh once. Sanjeev Bhaskar is a very successful comedian, even listed in the 50 funniest acts in British Comedy by The Observer. But this must be one of, if not the, lowest point of his career. The characters are very weak. At the start of the episode, Kenny Gupta is portrayed as a ‘work less, play harder’ person, one of the jokes being that he couldn’t remember which day he’d been drinking on because he’d been drinking all week. Mildly amusing? I think not.
Kenny’s right hand man, and call center manager Dev Raja (Nitin Ganatra) tells him that he needs a ‘bendy’ secretary, which Kenny refuses, buy Dev goes ahead and organises interviews with attractive women. While Kenny is out of his office, Dev brings in the women for interview (this is all in the same day by the way), along with a couple of other male employees to begin the interview process, which shortly turns in a disco. At which point Kenny returns completely annoyed that Dev didn’t listen. Completely ludicrous.
Kenny is joined by Terri Johnson (Daisy Beaumont) from London, who starts the episode being taken the wrong way from the airport on purpose by an office worker, due to the fact that Dev and Kenny think she's a man who's come to see how they are working. But how funny is that, Terri can be spelt Terry in the masculine form. A barrel of laughs. Seriously that's probably the high point of the episode.
When she finally arrives at the center, Dev tries his lines on her, at which point she responds with force and threatens to do 'painful' things which cannot be written. Of course, the swearing is monopolised at this point as the majority of what she says is bleeped, making it hilarious that she swears so much. Not.
This is the first episode of this ‘comedy’ (if you can call it that) series. As you can probably tell, I did not enjoy it one bit. It did not make me laugh, it wasn’t clever, it was offensive in some respects and ludicrous. With a first appearance like that, I cannot say I will be watching the whole series, as it can only get worse.
This show was written by Allan McKeown, the guy who was the executive producer of the likes of Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Auf Weidersehn Pet. Well all I can say is, Auf Weidersehn McKeown, you just lost your comedy credibility.
Rating for First Episode: 3/10
Predicted Rating for remainder of Series: 4/10
Kenny Gupta (Sanjeev Bhaskar) is this British Indian accountant. He is sent to work in a call center in Mumbai and to make it profitable. Not exactly the most ideal comedy situation. When I saw the adverts for this series, I hoped that it would tackle the stereotypes of ‘foreign’ call centers (UK perspective). It did, but it created a new stereotype of the way British people respond to these calls.
For example, there is a scene of a young Indian worker who rings up an English client in the hope of ‘giving him a free phone’. You can probably guess the reaction. The worker gets frustrated at the client (I thought it was supposed to be the other way round myself) and states that he is trying to give him a free phone, at which point the worker hangs up. This seems to be making the point that all English people are ignorant and rude, which maybe true in some cases, but in a lot of cases, this is not the case (puts away cases).
In reality, from UK perspective, this scenario is a rare occurrence. Usually, the client will get annoyed, as you do not get anything in this world for free. Occasionally in the UK, a client will be abusive to a foreign call center worker, and this is wrong. But the way the show targets this issue is completely ridiculous. ‘Foreign’ call centers may well get stereotyped, but portraying British people like this does not give any justice, so there is no need for a cheap shot at stereotypical comedy.
Another part which wound me up was when we’re told that Manchester is suffering from flooding. Now I myself am from Liverpool, and for some reason Manchester and Liverpool don’t get along, but I found a comment that was made by Kenny Gupta generally about northerners offensive, obviously aimed at the southern audience to make them laugh. Bad move.
The whole episode was terribly written, with cheap jokes all over the place, and to be honest, I did not laugh once. Sanjeev Bhaskar is a very successful comedian, even listed in the 50 funniest acts in British Comedy by The Observer. But this must be one of, if not the, lowest point of his career. The characters are very weak. At the start of the episode, Kenny Gupta is portrayed as a ‘work less, play harder’ person, one of the jokes being that he couldn’t remember which day he’d been drinking on because he’d been drinking all week. Mildly amusing? I think not.
Kenny’s right hand man, and call center manager Dev Raja (Nitin Ganatra) tells him that he needs a ‘bendy’ secretary, which Kenny refuses, buy Dev goes ahead and organises interviews with attractive women. While Kenny is out of his office, Dev brings in the women for interview (this is all in the same day by the way), along with a couple of other male employees to begin the interview process, which shortly turns in a disco. At which point Kenny returns completely annoyed that Dev didn’t listen. Completely ludicrous.
Kenny is joined by Terri Johnson (Daisy Beaumont) from London, who starts the episode being taken the wrong way from the airport on purpose by an office worker, due to the fact that Dev and Kenny think she's a man who's come to see how they are working. But how funny is that, Terri can be spelt Terry in the masculine form. A barrel of laughs. Seriously that's probably the high point of the episode.
When she finally arrives at the center, Dev tries his lines on her, at which point she responds with force and threatens to do 'painful' things which cannot be written. Of course, the swearing is monopolised at this point as the majority of what she says is bleeped, making it hilarious that she swears so much. Not.
This is the first episode of this ‘comedy’ (if you can call it that) series. As you can probably tell, I did not enjoy it one bit. It did not make me laugh, it wasn’t clever, it was offensive in some respects and ludicrous. With a first appearance like that, I cannot say I will be watching the whole series, as it can only get worse.
This show was written by Allan McKeown, the guy who was the executive producer of the likes of Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Auf Weidersehn Pet. Well all I can say is, Auf Weidersehn McKeown, you just lost your comedy credibility.
Rating for First Episode: 3/10
Predicted Rating for remainder of Series: 4/10
Saw it last night on ITV, was not impressed in the slightest. Good review though.
What could be funnier than a British Indian accountant who is moved to a call center in Mumbai to make it profitable? Quite a lot actually.
Kenny Gupta (Sanjeev Bhaskar) is this British Indian accountant. He is sent to work in a call center in Mumbai and to make it profitable. Not exactly the most ideal comedy situation. When I saw the adverts for this series, I hoped that it would tackle the stereotypes of ‘foreign’ call centers (UK perspective). It did, but it created a new stereotype of the way British people respond to these calls.
For example, there is a scene of a young Indian worker who rings up an English client in the hope of ‘giving him a free phone’. You can probably guess the reaction. The worker gets frustrated at the client (I thought it was supposed to be the other way round myself) and states that he is trying to give him a free phone, at which point the worker hangs up. This seems to be making the point that all English people are ignorant and rude, which maybe true in some cases, but in a lot of cases, this is not the case (puts away cases).
In reality, from UK perspective, this scenario is a rare occurrence. Usually, the client will get annoyed, as you do not get anything in this world for free. Occasionally in the UK, a client will be abusive to a foreign call center worker, and this is wrong. But the way the show targets this issue is completely ridiculous. ‘Foreign’ call centers may well get stereotyped, but portraying British people like this does not give any justice, so there is no need for a cheap shot at stereotypical comedy.
Another part which wound me up was when we’re told that Manchester is suffering from flooding. Now I myself am from Liverpool, and for some reason Manchester and Liverpool don’t get along, but I found a comment that was made by Kenny Gupta generally about northerners offensive, obviously aimed at the southern audience to make them laugh. Bad move.
The whole episode was terribly written, with cheap jokes all over the place, and to be honest, I did not laugh once. Sanjeev Bhaskar is a very successful comedian, even listed in the 50 funniest acts in British Comedy by The Observer. But this must be one of, if not the, lowest point of his career. The characters are very weak. At the start of the episode, Kenny Gupta is portrayed as a ‘work less, play harder’ person, one of the jokes being that he couldn’t remember which day he’d been drinking on because he’d been drinking all week. Mildly amusing? I think not.
Kenny’s right hand man, and call center manager Dev Raja (Nitin Ganatra) tells him that he needs a ‘bendy’ secretary, which Kenny refuses, buy Dev goes ahead and organises interviews with attractive women. While Kenny is out of his office, Dev brings in the women for interview (this is all in the same day by the way), along with a couple of other male employees to begin the interview process, which shortly turns in a disco. At which point Kenny returns completely annoyed that Dev didn’t listen. Completely ludicrous.
Kenny is joined by Terri Johnson (Daisy Beaumont) from London, who starts the episode being taken the wrong way from the airport on purpose by an office worker, due to the fact that Dev and Kenny think she's a man who's come to see how they are working. But how funny is that, Terri can be spelt Terry in the masculine form. A barrel of laughs. Seriously that's probably the high point of the episode.
When she finally arrives at the center, Dev tries his lines on her, at which point she responds with force and threatens to do 'painful' things which cannot be written. Of course, the swearing is monopolised at this point as the majority of what she says is bleeped, making it hilarious that she swears so much. Not.
This is the first episode of this ‘comedy’ (if you can call it that) series. As you can probably tell, I did not enjoy it one bit. It did not make me laugh, it wasn’t clever, it was offensive in some respects and ludicrous. With a first appearance like that, I cannot say I will be watching the whole series, as it can only get worse.
This show was written by Allan McKeown, the guy who was the executive producer of the likes of Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Auf Weidersehn Pet. Well all I can say is, Auf Weidersehn McKeown, you just lost your comedy credibility.
Rating for First Episode: 3/10
Predicted Rating for remainder of Series: 4/10
Kenny Gupta (Sanjeev Bhaskar) is this British Indian accountant. He is sent to work in a call center in Mumbai and to make it profitable. Not exactly the most ideal comedy situation. When I saw the adverts for this series, I hoped that it would tackle the stereotypes of ‘foreign’ call centers (UK perspective). It did, but it created a new stereotype of the way British people respond to these calls.
For example, there is a scene of a young Indian worker who rings up an English client in the hope of ‘giving him a free phone’. You can probably guess the reaction. The worker gets frustrated at the client (I thought it was supposed to be the other way round myself) and states that he is trying to give him a free phone, at which point the worker hangs up. This seems to be making the point that all English people are ignorant and rude, which maybe true in some cases, but in a lot of cases, this is not the case (puts away cases).
In reality, from UK perspective, this scenario is a rare occurrence. Usually, the client will get annoyed, as you do not get anything in this world for free. Occasionally in the UK, a client will be abusive to a foreign call center worker, and this is wrong. But the way the show targets this issue is completely ridiculous. ‘Foreign’ call centers may well get stereotyped, but portraying British people like this does not give any justice, so there is no need for a cheap shot at stereotypical comedy.
Another part which wound me up was when we’re told that Manchester is suffering from flooding. Now I myself am from Liverpool, and for some reason Manchester and Liverpool don’t get along, but I found a comment that was made by Kenny Gupta generally about northerners offensive, obviously aimed at the southern audience to make them laugh. Bad move.
The whole episode was terribly written, with cheap jokes all over the place, and to be honest, I did not laugh once. Sanjeev Bhaskar is a very successful comedian, even listed in the 50 funniest acts in British Comedy by The Observer. But this must be one of, if not the, lowest point of his career. The characters are very weak. At the start of the episode, Kenny Gupta is portrayed as a ‘work less, play harder’ person, one of the jokes being that he couldn’t remember which day he’d been drinking on because he’d been drinking all week. Mildly amusing? I think not.
Kenny’s right hand man, and call center manager Dev Raja (Nitin Ganatra) tells him that he needs a ‘bendy’ secretary, which Kenny refuses, buy Dev goes ahead and organises interviews with attractive women. While Kenny is out of his office, Dev brings in the women for interview (this is all in the same day by the way), along with a couple of other male employees to begin the interview process, which shortly turns in a disco. At which point Kenny returns completely annoyed that Dev didn’t listen. Completely ludicrous.
Kenny is joined by Terri Johnson (Daisy Beaumont) from London, who starts the episode being taken the wrong way from the airport on purpose by an office worker, due to the fact that Dev and Kenny think she's a man who's come to see how they are working. But how funny is that, Terri can be spelt Terry in the masculine form. A barrel of laughs. Seriously that's probably the high point of the episode.
When she finally arrives at the center, Dev tries his lines on her, at which point she responds with force and threatens to do 'painful' things which cannot be written. Of course, the swearing is monopolised at this point as the majority of what she says is bleeped, making it hilarious that she swears so much. Not.
This is the first episode of this ‘comedy’ (if you can call it that) series. As you can probably tell, I did not enjoy it one bit. It did not make me laugh, it wasn’t clever, it was offensive in some respects and ludicrous. With a first appearance like that, I cannot say I will be watching the whole series, as it can only get worse.
This show was written by Allan McKeown, the guy who was the executive producer of the likes of Birds of a Feather, Goodnight Sweetheart and Auf Weidersehn Pet. Well all I can say is, Auf Weidersehn McKeown, you just lost your comedy credibility.
Rating for First Episode: 3/10
Predicted Rating for remainder of Series: 4/10