Party Allah Time!

Which, by the way, is another way better ad line.

Little Mosque on The Prairie is starting to get reviews and not just hype. John Doyle gave it a happy little blurb in next Tuesday's TV picks. (not online) And Toronto's NOW Magazine weighed in with a mostly positive review, for what it's worth.

But more importantly, a friend and fellow soldier in the trenches of the industry ripped me a new one yesterday about this post for Little Mosque. She makes a lot of good points, so I'll reproduce what she wrote below:

I'm just really happy and honestly excited
for the world that every Muslim i'm aware of who's seen the show has really
loved it (including several who work at the post-production place where
they're cutting it; and the 3 intelligent men on the panel on CNN). That's
rather significant. I also feel it's funnier than Corner Gas ,
and more entertaining because it explores new, topically-hot
territory (a tonic to my chronic sitcom fatigue syndrome.)

My friend's in a unique position to judge some of these things since, for a while, she (or is it HE?) was one of them...A network person. Here's what they say about that:

Soon after 9/11 happened, i proclaimed to my colleague at [other Canadian network that is not the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation] we needed a Muslim comedy - we needed
to see Muslims with a sense of humour. i maintain(ed) that this could have
an enormous impact on Muslim/non-Muslim relations. (my colleague basically
dismissed me like i was a joke, myself...) so imagine how heartened I was
last night - just imagine, Denis! me, heartened! - when, after seeing a
series of truly funny clips from the show, the 3 intelligent Muslim men on
CNN said (laughing/smiling) that this kind of show "will have a much greater
positive effect than any think tank or interfaith counsel could ever
have..." - or words to that effect.

i live by the credo that humour can help us overcome almost anything.
so i hope this show succeeds because it would be a kind of victory for Humour.

and yes, let's hope people find it funny. trust me, if Corner Gas is funny,
Little Mosque is funny.

And then s(he) said, "Tell them, Make Jokes, Not War"

Allrighty then. Thanks for sharing.

The only worry I have, of course, is that it's nice that Muslims who see it seem to like it. But for CBC to hit with this show, it can't just appeal to that group. And if they're the only ones watching, it won't exactly strike a blow for understanding, either.

When the reviews roll in, I hope it will be given a fair shot and judged for what it is: this is not supposed to be hip stuff. It's supposed to be family comedy. Or so I gather. The messages get mixed when you mix in words like "edgy" with "family comedy."

I want to say something else here, because sometimes I get worried that I'll write something here that can be co-opted by people whom I have no truck with whatsoever: the CBC bashers. I think CBC, and CBC Management, sometimes don't make the best decisions. I sometimes question their expertise. Lord knows they do give everyone cause to do so.

I don't question, ever, the need for a CBC. Canada, a country that is, and will forever be, dominated culturally by the largest producer of cultural product the world has ever known. The nation has a fragile sense of itself at the best of times. A sparsely populated, huge land like Canada, even in the age of satellite and microwave and download and broadband, needs a strong national broadcaster to knit it together.

And since the private broadcasters in this country don't always stress their hometown bonafides as much as they should, that makes CBC even more important. It should not be a PBS North. It should not be the kind of station that shows only unpopular things that the privates can't make money on. It should be concerned, to some extent, about ratings. And it should try to get them. Just, you know...be smart about it.

I take pride in the fact that every time - how do I say this without attracting the hit aggregators that turn every web discussion that mentions this into a wasteland -- okay, how about this - every time the subject of that one country over there comes up and there's that other people living in the same kind of land that are sort of unhappy with that country and want their own stuff -- you follow my drift here, right? Anyway -- I think it's good that every time CBC News covers that, both sides complain about CBC's biased the other way. I like the fact that when I watch CBC News, it's like watching BBC News, and so much better than CNN News.

And here's my main point: I like the fact that the reason CBC is getting all this pre-press for Mosque in the first place is that it's the only network, certainly in North America, that WOULD have the guts to take a chance on this show.

That's the thing to remember. Whether the execution works, or doesn't. Whether people watch, or don't. I hope it works wonders for CBC. But if it doesn't, I hope they'll get right up on the horse and greenlight another show that's daring. And figure out if they can help execute it better.

Anyway, that's the last thing you'll hear from me about Little Mosque - -unfortunately the timing is really bad for me. I'm going to try to see the show Tuesday when it premieres, but I'm going to be neck deep in work. Please feel free to leave comments and tell me what you thought of it.