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Film

Little Mosque on the Prairie: Who's Watching it Tonight?

Posted by Jerrold Litwinenko / January 9, 2007

19 Comments

20070109_LMotP.jpgActor Zaib Shaikh plays Amaar Rashid in the CBC's Little Mosque on the Prairie. The show premieres on CBC at 8:30pm tonight.

Not since... ever? has there been so much hype about a new Canadian television show.

The CBC is making news around the world even before Little Mosque on the Prairie makes its much anticipated debut on the boob tube tonight at 8:30pm.

I'll know I'll be watching.

Who else will be?
CNN International, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, The Jerusalem Post, Australia, France, Belgium... and so on.

Feel free to post your thoughts on the premiere here, after to show.

The premiere can also be seen on Wednesday, January 10 at 8 p.m. The second episode in the series airs Monday, January 15th at 9 p.m. and Wednesday, January 17th at 8 p.m.

(image: CBC)

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19 Comments

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Carrie / January 9, 2007 at 08:46 pm
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YES! Toronto is still HATED by everyone.
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Jerrold / January 9, 2007 at 08:53 pm
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Ouch. The "What are you gonna do, deport me to Syria?" joke was a tad offsides.

Ha. The "I don't think the prophet had a telescope from Costco" line was good.

For a premiere, I wasn't blown away but I do expect that once we get to now characters it might become more engaging.

I'll watch episode two.

Overall, it's very... Canadian, and I mean that in the worst way possible. The jokes are just not quite hitting the mark in a way that evokes a real giggle.

Did anyone notice the <a href="http://hireimmigrants.ca/";>hireimmigrants.ca</a> commercial (which was well placed, just before the final segment of the show)?
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Saj / January 9, 2007 at 09:02 pm
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my fave line was "and what's your connection to journalism?"...lol
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Carrie / January 9, 2007 at 09:08 pm
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Oh it wasn't THAT bad! It would have been better if the Imam guy didn't sound like Chippy Chipmunk.
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Jerrold / January 9, 2007 at 09:18 pm
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I like that there are two storylines... addressing the Muslim religion, customs, and culture AND the urban versus rural (ie. Toronto vs small prairie town) adds dimension to the show.
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Michelle / January 10, 2007 at 12:15 am
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Zarqa and Zaib : congrats from old friends in Montreal - you both rocked! Looking forward to more and more and more. p.s. Charlotte wants to know if Costco is paying a product placement fee -- and thinks you should add a Quebecois-transplant to the show just to shake things up a little more :) Enjoy the ride. MS.
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TJ / January 10, 2007 at 12:59 am
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This show was awesome...by the meager clips that I got to watch that is.

Down here in the US media market, you wouldn't see this kind of a show in a million years. Oh how I wish I was in Canada right now or at least had CBC broadcasted down here in the Bible-thumping, red-neck state.

Canadians you have it reaaaal good, and please don't like your Bush-lite Conservative President (or its Prime Minister for you right?) Harper take those freedoms away!
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Sharjeel / January 10, 2007 at 03:03 am
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The hireimmigrants ad was amazing. It hit home more than the actual show did, since my dad has been through exactly the same situ as the engineer from tehran.
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John / January 10, 2007 at 08:16 am
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A friend of mine put it succinctly: better in conception than in the execution.

I'm going to assume it'll get better as the actors and writers settle into their characters and the jokes don't seem to so forced. And townsfolk are less like yokels (although I've lived in some small towns and sadly, they may not be that far off the mark).

Also, why did the janitor have the "Terrorist Hotline" preprogrammed into his cell phone?
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Jerrold / January 10, 2007 at 08:36 am
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"Also, why did the janitor have the "Terrorist Hotline" preprogrammed into his cell phone?" - maybe that's part of the joke?
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RandomTangent / January 10, 2007 at 01:38 pm
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The anti-hype to the hype before the premiere warned me that the jokes would be kind of corny ... and maybe because I was prepared for that, I found the jokes ... actually kind of okay and not too bad. There were groan worthy moments, but on the whole, I like the mix of characters they've set up, even if some of them need to work on their comedic delivery more than others.

All and all, I am reminded of Corner Gas, which I didn't like very much at first but grew on me with time (and gradually improving writing).
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Jerrold / January 10, 2007 at 02:34 pm
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It looks like mixed reviews are the result of the pilot, and that most are willing to give the show a second look next week.

It'll be make it or break it for me :)
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Tanja / January 10, 2007 at 02:49 pm
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I think everyone here needs to think back to what TV show pilot they've ever seen and thought was AMAZING. I, for one, am never so impressed as it's always a bit awkward. It's like the first day at school or at a new job... every needs to be introduced, we have to familiarize ourselves with the setting and get background info on people and things without being too obvious... you have to follow a show to appreciate it. Not judge the first episode like it's the next great Canadian novel.
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EMA / January 12, 2007 at 03:55 pm
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nice show. simple as that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1
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Miss AFG / January 13, 2007 at 12:24 am
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Salamz everyone.
seems like u all liked the show. so did i! it was very funny and educational. but THank GOD i didn't watch it with my parents... i was gonne ... (there was a Kissing part) n other stuff LOL i DONT think my dad would have liked it. i know some of the characters r not muslims... but....i mean the guy could kiss her wife's cheek!!
anyways.. looking forward to see the rest of it. the good thing is that its in the Youtube too!
oh n one more thing i Loved the hireimmigrants.ca commercial. very true(same situation here =[ )
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Carrie / January 13, 2007 at 11:33 am
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haha miss afg, somehow I think the "kissing" issue is a "parent" thing and not a "muslim" thing.
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Cassandra / January 16, 2007 at 02:09 pm
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I was impressed with the show over all. I think for a Canadian sitcom (a genre that dosen't exactly have a tremendous track record), Little Mosque shows promise. I laughed at a few lines, and yes, it was corny, but I think it'll grow into its characters and pacing. All in all, a solid B.

If you're interested in yet another blog review, I wrote about it on my site here: www.midnightherring.net/news.html .
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Jerrold / January 20, 2007 at 10:28 am
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Oops. I forgot to TiVo episode #2!
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Ananthan / January 23, 2007 at 02:34 pm
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It's on mininova.org, if you use bittorrent.

Judging by the number of seeders, it's pretty popular.
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