Little Mosque on the Prairie - Yet Another Blog Review

On Tuesday night after Rick Mercer, the CBC debuted a new half hour sitcom called “Little Mosque on the Prairie”. The hype about the show has been hard to miss, with various journalists wondering if the comedy about Muslims living in rural Saskatchewan would attract audiences or offend everyone in this delicate and apparently humour free “post 9-11 world”. Nothing sells better than controversy, but the assumption that Muslims would not be able to laugh at themselves and all white Christians are big balls of religiously intolerant rage was getting a little old. After watching the first episode I think it’s safe to say that no one - Muslim, Christian, or otherwise - will be pulling an Elvis and shooting their TVs in disgust.

Although the show did not cause amused shouts of “oh no you didn’t”, it did manage to get a few laughs from me and Anson. Little Mosque is quite a feat for the old Canadian Broadcasting Company for two good reasons. One, it’s a show people actually want to watch ( as long as it’s not on opposite Heroes) and two, it’s really not bad. Historically Canadians absolutely suck when it comes to sitcoms. We like our comedy either political (Rick Mercer), sketch (Kids in the Hall) or hilariously drunken and vulgar (Trailer Park Boys). Little Mosque exists in that rarely seen land of stock characters, snappy banter, and corny jokes more at home in American prime time than on the CBC.

So does the show succeed? Sure, I guess. I will watch it again. This is definitely a show that could improve with time and familiarity. The writing tries a bit too hard to make fun of every viewpoint, the pacing is stiff and many of the jokes just fall flat. In terms of characters, the attractive guy playing the Imam has comic potential but is still too exaggerated in a “look at how outraged I am! You called me a terrorist so I will throw up my hands and make a funny face to the camera!” kind of way. The hicks in town can be amusing, like the bumbling neighbour who stumbles into the mosque during prayer, or they can be completely one dimensional like the intolerant DJ who just comes off like a less interesting (if that’s possible) and less intelligent (almost impossible) Rush Limbaugh. Some of the characters have definite room for improvement, but that’s what you expect from a premiere episode anyway.

Little Mosque on the Prairie shows promise, but it’s not halalarious just yet (I stole that from another review. Another good line? "This show is Allah in the family"). I’m just proud to live in a country that takes a chance on corny jokes even if the person telling them has brown skin and the women wear head scarves. Hopefully the CBC will stick to their schedule and keep Little Mosque after Rick Mercer so that it can build up a fan base. With time, luck, and the growth of talent already evident, this little show may become Canada's next Corner Gas.

One final note. During the show they aired ads for a website that advocates fair employment for immigrants. I thought the ads were pretty good and the message was effective. Just in case you’re interested, the website is www.hireimmigrants.ca.