Daimnation!: "Little Mosque on the Prairie": What to think?

January 09, 2007

"Little Mosque on the Prairie": What to think?

Two views from Globe and Mail columnists:

1) John Doyle is exuberantly ecstatic, for reasons that remind one of his former Globe colleague Heather Mallick:

Today, we celebrate a triumph. What arrives tonight on CBC is the smartest thing the broadcaster has done in years.
Little Mosque on the Prairie (CBC, 8:30 p.m.) is no masterpiece of comedy or social observation. It's hokey as hell. But it's terrifically good-natured, has a few terrific jokes and its mere existence is a grand-slam assertion that Canadian TV is different and that the best of Canadian TV amounts to a rejection of the hegemony of U.S. network TV...

2) Margaret Wente, on the other hand, is dismissive of good old Mother Corpse's latest effort to be relevant:

Like all CBC shows, it has a mandate to instruct and uplift. Here is the moral lesson: Muslims are people too! And guess what! They're harmless!..
Little Mosque is a show only the CBC could make. It is so risk-averse, so painfully correct, it makes your teeth ache. No sacred cows were gored, or even scratched, in the making of this show...

The CBC has made a big deal of how brave it is. "Just doing the series is a risk in itself, but one the public broadcaster should take on if we're to help communicate the authenticity of living in Canada," explains programming guru, Kirstine Layfield. But not that brave. To make sure there is no unforeseen offence, an independent Muslim consultant is on hand to vet it.

In fact, the only possible offence in this show is to the intelligence. Its running gag is that most Canadians see terrorists under every bed. Frankly, most Canadians (even in small towns) are not so dim. And it is a slur to pretend they are...