Checking in with the Mosque at Christmas

IF YOU WERE one of the two million who initially checked out Little Mosque on the Prairie for the curiosity factor, and one of the million two or three who've drifted away since, this week is a good time to check back.

Wednesday night at 8pm on CBC, two back-to-back special episodes offer strong evidence how Mosque has found its feet this season. There's sweet family stuff, for sure, but also some solid comedy storytelling -- and a confidence of presentation that was often missing from the first season's eps.

In the first season of Mosque, they'd occasionally offer up Muslim-centric situations that could be funny - like a debate about whether to have a barrier in the mosque or a search for Muslim swimming gear - but weren't. It's almost like gold stars were due just for putting it on screen, and there wasn't a lot of room left for funny.

The subtle but important evolution of the show is put to good use in the two special episodes, Eids a Wonderful Life, and 5 Year Plan.

In the current iteration of Mosque, the main characters are good natured, well meaning townspeople who face the problems we all face -- and who just happen to be Muslims.

Believe it or not, that's a very important difference. It winds up making the show more inclusive, and welcoming all at once.

In the first episode, Eids A Wonderful Life, Sarah (Sheila McCarthy) is missing a few of the trappings of Christmas that she's been without since she married Yasir and converted to Islam. Simultaneously, we learn that this year, the Islamic holiday of Eid al-Adha falls close to Christmas. The mosque plans its annual Eid dinner the same night as Rev. Magee's Christmas Carolly Ring Ding Sing a Long.

There's a fight over parking. And Rayann and Sarah get a little carried away with trying to spruce up the Eid dinner with some Christmas decorative touches.

In the other plot, Layla and Babur quarrel when Layla is asked to read from A Christmas Carol at her school holiday concert. Babur suggests they inject a story of Eid, and the eager-to-be-inclusive Principal (Patrick McKenna, in a funny turn) jumps at the idea.

Even the character of Fatima -- who I was lukewarm on back in January, does nice work with a special little co-star.

What's nice about the episode is the way it deals with some pretty universal themes -- the way that non-Christians sometimes feel looking at all the pomp and accoutrements of the Christmas celebration, and how little quarrels become big ones. And it's not like there are Muslim jokes missing. Amar gets a joke off about who would have thought that Christians and Muslims couldn't live side by side in peace. (He's talking about Parking,) and in the Babur and Layla subplot, they have a lot of fun (but respectful fun) about the difficulties of dramatizing a Muslim story when you can't depict the prophet on stage. (It's funnier than it sounds.)

Sure, there are a couple of sweaty jokes -- like the machinations needed to get Babur into an outfit where he looks like Santa (entirely by accident,) but on the whole, it's a feel good half hour that will make you laugh a little and smile a lot.

As I said on Q last week, one of the things I love most about Canada is that we're so inclusive, we'll do a Christmas special for people who don't celebrate Christmas. And that's true, far as it goes. The better Christmas treat is that what started out as a show about how Muslims were different and viewed differently, has become a show about a community -- where the people at the centre of that community are utterly recognizable, though they have slightly different beliefs.

In the end, everything comes together and there's even a touch that seems cheesy, but so isn't. Go on. I dare you not to feel warm when you hear "Peace Train." Let that bounce around on several levels.

The second show, 5 Year Plan, involves everyone's reminiscences of what they were doing five years ago. We get to see Amar as a lawyer in Toronto, living with his overbearing parents (and we get a taste of a great Bollywood style dance number that I wasn't going to mention, except it's in the commercials.) We see Babur newly arrived in Mercy, and a visit from his estranged wife that will determine whether his daughter gets to live with him. Like the first episode, it's warm and surprisingly touching. You could watch this show with your kids. I would watch it with my kids. Of course, that would mean having to go out and get some kids, and that's probably a little too ambitious just for an hour of television.

Check in with Little Mosque. The characters have settled in, there's a confidence in the storytelling, and the show really has come a long way. I rate it a bit of a Holiday treat.

Although I could have used more of the Elf with the eyepatch.