Wednesday, January 10
Little Mosque on the Prairie: all that ham should be haram
"There are a lot of imams going around (suggesting) people watch (it)," said Mohamed Elmasry, president of the Canadian Islamic Congress and an imam himself.Meanwhile, CAIR-CAN's press release was hopeful and positive but added, "Whether or not this comedy will gain wide appeal remains to be seen. This will be determined, by-in-large, by the quality of the comedy presented and whether or not Canadians as a whole feel they can relate to the material presented."
"I believe it's about time for Muslims to laugh at themselves -– we are a latecomer into comedy." (...) "Elmasry hopes the show –- the brainchild of Zarqa Nawaz, herself a Muslim –- will have a 'spillover effect south of the border' and inspire similar TV fare.
"'I think they should learn from Canadians, that this is the best remedy to a high level of anxiety among American Muslims,' said Elmasry."
Glad somebody mentioned that. Good intentions are fatal to art in general and comedy in particular. Little Mosque's pilot has good intentions up the wazoo, but too much of the acting hovered around "high school assembly" level -- you'd think all that ham would be haram...
Ditto the writing (although I'll cop to smiling at the old imam's list of temptations: wine gums, "liquor-ish"...) A second pair of eyes might have tightened it up: "It may have been God who said, 'let there be light,' but it's me that pays the electric bill" is twice as long as it should be ("God said 'let there be light,' but He doesn't pay the electric bill.")
As others have noted, the non-Muslim characters are buffoons, and not even convincing ones -- the right wing radio host sounds more like Michael Savage than any Canadian broadcaster in existence, while the handyman popped his eyes, blustered and stumbled around like a white version of Amos and/or Andy.
The airport sequence was the worst. If I overheard a young Muslim male in my check in line say the word "suicide" into his cell phone, I'd alert security, too -- and if you wouldn't, for shame. Joking about bombs in the airport then being outraged when the cops question you? Fly much?
TV pilots are notoriously bad. The first episode of Cheers makes you wonder how the show got picked up. Little Mosque shows some promise: it's weirdly reassuring to finally see Muslims poke fun at their own religious practices (like how to determine the beginning of Ramadam) the way Catholics (Father Ted) and Jews (you name it) have done for ages.
But watching it felt more like a duty than a pleasure. I give it 2 out of 5 crescent moons.
UPDATE: note Professional Writer(tm) John Doyle's use of the word "terrific" twice in the same sentence, then squeezing in that "hegemony" right at the end -- take THAT, America!! Surely the Chimpy McHitlerburton Death Squad Cabals are now shaking in their (sweatshop manufactured) boots with fright.
