What happens when you mix workplace comedies like Office Space and The Office and combine them with true-life stories like the ones depicted in The Wolf of Wall Street? You get Telemarketers, the new original documentary coming to HBO.
The story follows two unlikely friends who find themselves working in a telemarketing firm. With a camcorder in tow, they capture what's happening behind the scenes at one of the boiler rooms where the calls originate. When the veneer starts to wear off, they decide it's up to them to take down this predatory industry.
Telemarketers comes from the team of Benny Safdie (Good Times), Josh Safdie (Uncut Gems), and Danny McBride (The Righteous Gemstones).
Here's what we know about Telemarketers.
Telemarketers release date
Telemarketers is a three-part documentary series. The first episode premieres Sunday, August 13, at 10 pm ET/PT on HBO and subsequent episodes will follow weekly.
As of this writing, we don't have a release date for the UK, but as soon as one is available we'll have it for you here.
Telemarketers plot
Here's the official synopsis from HBO: "Telemarketers chronicles the darkly comedic, unexpected 20-year journey of two unlikely office buddies, who stumble upon the murky truth behind the work they’ve been doing at a seedy New Jersey call center – persuading people to give money to charities – and vow to expose the crooked American telemarketing industry from within. As amateur sleuths looking to shine a light on the billion-dollar scam, with raucous insider access, raw eyewitness footage, and a comedic cast of call center characters, the film is a madcap story of an unruly, low-wage environment and two long-time office buddies who find themselves hot on the trail of a sobering look at the dark side of American capitalism and the misuse of consumer trust.
"When Sam Lipman-Stern began a telemarketing job in New Jersey in the early 2000s as a 14-year-old high school drop-out, he believed he was raising money for police and firefighter charities, unaware that most of the money was ending up in the pockets of his crooked employers. With his video camera, Sam documents the riotous office as he and a motley mix of ex-cons, drug dealers and veteran telemarketers work the phone lines in an anarchic boiler room filled with booze, drugs, and debauchery, bound by humor and camaraderie.
"When the federal government shuts the company down after an investigation into its shady practices where they falsely told consumers that 100% of the money went to the charity (when in fact only 10-15% went), Sam and Pat Pespas, a larger-than-life top salesman struggling with addiction, begin to question the industry’s business practices. They realize they are unwitting cogs in a wheel perpetuating a massive scam on unsuspecting Americans. With rowdy humor and dogged enthusiasm, Telemarketers follows Sam and Pat as they emerge from the bottom rung of the hourly workforce to become tenacious, self-appointed whistleblowers who make their way to the halls of the United States Senate, determined to expose an industry gone awry from the inside."
Telemarketers trailer
From the early moments of the Telemarketers trailer, it's hard to tell if you're watching a sequel to Office Space or something completely different. One thing's for sure: even the trailer is gripping and sure to draw you in. Take a look below:
How to watch Telemarketers
Telemarketers is an HBO original series, so you'll need a subscription in order to watch it. If you don’t have a subscription to HBO already through your cable TV provider, you can subscribe as a standalone service or add it to a Hulu, YouTube TV or Sling TV package. The documentary can also be streamed on Max.
