Little Mosque on the Prairie
Maybe it was the title, maybe my earlier posts (and preoccupation) regarding Muslims — but I was really looking forward to this new Canadian TV show, the Little Mosque on the Prairie. This is a novelty, because I have to confess: not watching too much TV I always find out about shows (Canadian or not) way long after everybody starts talking about them. Somehow I found the show’s website last week, and I made a note in my calendar to watch it!
While watching it we laughed a lot. I mean it was really much, much better than I expected. When I moved to this country I did watch all kind of shows and programs; considered it part of my “learning curve”, and payed special attention to what the CRTC would consider “Canadian content”. But let’s not go there…
Anyway, this show or, at least, the first episode was a refreshing half hour. Healthy humour and irony (including self-irony), good dialogue and funny characters.
Now I am curious how will they keep it up for the next episodes because they’ve raised the bar quite high. Let’s hope they got enough ammunition for the rest of the episodes.
And when this show is over, we should probably watch the “Little Church in the Desert” show from Saudi-Arabia…
Update. Just got an email from ABC News: according to them more than 2 million watched the premiere last night. (click on the link to watch a short video)
You could have mentioned the name of Zarqa Nawaz the creator of this show. She is a well-known film maker:
CBC
National Post
Readers and viewers are welcomed to share their experiences from within their community at Little Experiences:
http://littlemosqueontheprairie.wordpress.com
“Little Mosque” depends of offensive stereotypes for its humour.
Also, while at times funny, I do wonder about how “real” the situation is. I once saw a show about how the Nazis made two propaganda films about the conflict between the British and the Irish. The films, at least according to those who were interviewed who had seen them were quite good. The only problem was that the people in the movies were not Irish. What I mean by that was that the culture of the Irish portrayed in the films in no way reflected actual Irish culture as I guess the Germans who wrote, produced, and acted in the movies never took the time to get to understand the traditions and feel of the Irish people. It just wasn’t important to them because in the end it had nothing to do with the Irish. It was as one commentator of the movies said “Germans talking to Germans”.
And that is kind of what I am getting with the “Little Mosque” show. In the end it isn’t really about small town Saskatchewan or Muslim communities living within small town Saskatchewan. In the end what it comes down to is just Liberal Urbanite Canadians talking to Liberal Urbanite Canadians, with their political message being far more important to them than whether or not the situation portrayed reflects a real situation in the country accurately enough.
By the way, why does “The She Mayor” remind me so much of the mayor on South Park?
Some will sell their religion for a small fee. Becarefull of what may be funny and borderline making fun of our “deen” religion. I have never seen a show where Christian or Jews make fun of their religion.
Fred Tupper is very smart.
He is right to be concerned when a foreign element comes into his community and tries to take over.
Look at what happened in Antelope, Oregon, USA during the 1980s.
Yeah, first it was all about tolerance and diversity and all of that. But pretty soon they took over, changed the name of the town and most of the original inhabitants were forced out.
Fred Tupper knows that Mercistan is a real possibility (or is it Merciabad). Especially with She Mayor in the the corner of the Muslims with the hope that she can count on them as a solid voting block for her. In the end though, when the Muslims do gain overwhelming numbers in the community, she might just find herself pushed aside as they are going to want one of their own as mayor. But then again, when it reaches that point She Mayor would probably convert to Islam though I believe the Muslims would see her conversion to Islam for what it is – a lame political ploy.
Rambo777: I have never seen a show where Christian or Jews make fun of their religion.
Hmmm. Then you didn’t really see anything in this world ;)
Just one of the favorites – Life of Brian
I loved watching Little Mosque. It was agreat show. Why isn’t it on any more? Has it been discontinued? I certainly hope not.