Little Mosque on the Prairie - seriously!!

[chris4336 3]

I have been watching and I like it, more the later episodes 4 and 5 than the earlier ones. Sometimes the way they act is not really in line with the teachings of Islam, but I think that makes it more realistic. My fiancee was pretty disappointed that they showed the couple kissing and butt pinching and stuff like that - he said it would have been nice if they had made it so that Muslim families could watch it together, and he could never watch that stuff with his family. Its a cheesy show but I enjoy watching it.

[Sofiyya 1,687]

So has anyone else had a chance to watch this? 5 of the 8 episodes are on youtube now and i think the rest will be put up as the episodes are aired on TV. The user mydien put the episodes up w/ NO commercials.

I enjoyed it. Light hearted, nothing offensive. Not the best comedy ever, but I am very happy to see positive depictions of Muslims. So much that we see is negative. Even in Sleeper Cell. While there are scenes with normal good Muslims in that show it is still mostly a story about the terrorists. And...I hated the ending of Sleeper Cell season 2. I want a season 3 because I felt let down by the last ep of season 2, but unless they pull a major plot twist on us or find another Muslim undercover agent has infiltrated another sleeper cell....I don't see it happening.

BT

I didn't like "Sleeper Cell" at all! A bunch of us watched it and we were soooo disappointed that there was no real difference between the "good Muslim" and the "Bad Muslims" except that the "good Muslim" didn't like terrorism.Otherwise, he was just another floozie lovin guy. My cousin is an Islamic scholar and she knows the Islamic advisor to the show as an acquaintance. She gave him the what for about season 1! She's seen Season 2, but hasn't said anything about whether she's given him any more feedback or not. I haven't seen season 2. Season 1 was more than enough for me. I'll go check out "Little House" on youtube, but I don't think any show about Muslims is going to be really Muslim as long as it's on network tv.

[balmytigeress 0]

It's like horses. If there is a movie about a horse, I want to see it. Sometimes the movie is cliche or cheesy, but I still watch. Well if there is a show about Muslims, I'm interested.

It is a step forward. Little House does not show us as terrorists. I havn't heard of riots and deaths because of the show.

What Green-eyed girl said about no difference between the bad muslims and the good muslims in Sleeper Cell, that was one thing that struck me as I watched. It was disappointing. Darwyn's relationship with the woman was, well I don't have to say it, we all know he was not supposed to behave like that. I don't think that made her a bad person BTW, or made Darwyn less of a Muslim, we are not supposed to make that decision (yes I know they are fiction, but I still don't like calling the girl a floozie - just say it wasn't a good thing for them to do and stop before we judge a person to be a floozie, even if what they do fits your definition of a floozie, that is how I acknowledge something but avoid thinking of a concrete word to describe someone's actions and carry the thought through to certain conclusions). I saw some clips from the first season on youtube, the parts that talked about real Islam. That is why I watched. Then I wanted to know what happened next, and the show went downhill. But my cable has an onDemand service that allowed me to watch season 2 all at once before the whole season aired. So at least the suspense wasn't too built up when I saw the last episode and I didn't feel as as I might have.

My further comments on the show, since there doesn't see to be a lot of interest in talking about the show (commenting may start some flaming, but knowing that has not stopped people on any forum on the whole internet...): What we should do and what we actually do, are not always the same. We are not perfect, we are human, and Little Mosque does not pretend otherwise. I am not like that guy in the 5th episode and I don't think Allah wanted us to be like that (not trying to say I know better than anyone), but I have seen people on this board sound a lot like him.

As long as it is G-Rated, and the standards of G rating do not change toward rated-X I am ok with them showing somethings that are not strictly Islamic. This show is a good step, it does not show us as terrorists. Call me "Corrupted by Western Influences" if it makes you feel better. They could leave out the butt pinch and the chaste kisses I guess. Maybe I'm just so innured by witnessing real, imperfect life, that a little kiss doesn't bother me. Sometimes it seems hard to find a show without love interests, sometimes it is an afterthough because they think people expect it. It think that is all the kisses were for this show, maybe tv people think it is required?

BT

[Ban Hammer 13,340]

It's like horses. If there is a movie about a horse, I want to see it.

seen "hidalgo" and "seabiscuit" yet?

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Call the girl a floozie, BT. She's not real, it's TV, and she was written as your typical, one size fits all floozie. As such, Darwyn could have been interchangable with any typical floozie guy. He didn't have to know anything about Islam or being Muslim to be that guy.

The entire script was a warmed over formula Mafia drama with all the usual secular elements, insta-sex, guilt, and "where is this going" gender angst. The producers took the formula, dropped a character called a "Muslim" into it along with some goofy, G-rated terrorists. No one involved in the writing seem to know what they were doing.

[balmytigeress 0]

Hidalgo and Seabiscuit were okay. Although most horse movies seem to involve a race of some sort (usually Thoroughbred racing - Sea Biscuit, National Velvet, the Black Stallion movies -did they really race an arabian against a throroughbred in the first one? Arabs are endurance horses, I don't think they would normally beat a TB in this kind of race-, Phar Lap Dreamer, A Horse for Danny), and then the story becomes too much about the people, and that is obnoxious to me because I want it to be about the horse. Then there are the stories that use a pony as a plot device, but the story is about the human relationships, not the equine. Remake of Flicka was ok, there was a race, but it was a different kind of race, and no love interest for the main character - it was all about the horse and that's what I like to see. Horse Whisperer - couldn't stand the end. I don't feel like watching it again to decide if it would have worked better if the father was dead or divorced. Dreadful horse movie: Barclay's Big Adventure. We heard the pony's thoughts, and they did not pull that off well, special effects were terrible - it was so obvious that the really clever tricks done by the pony were actually done using a PUPPET! Real enough looking that I think they expected the audience to be half blind. I watched it with 5 year olds and they noticed and thought it was dumb too. There was another special effect where a hammer was flying through the air, end over end, and you could see the WIRES! It was so insulting. Dumb burglars, bad plot. I got it because I had never seen a movie using a miniature horse, usually a large pony or a horse is used. I'm glad I only paid 4.95, but at the same time - I can't believe I spent money on that!

Floozie as character type. I can live with that for discussion purposes. My particular pov when I talk about tv fiction, and I don't do this much, is as the brainless viewer who does not think about how it compares to other things on tv. Honestly, I havn't been watching much tv or movies, so I'm not familiar with a wide range of shows, much less mafia stories. Why does there always have to be a love interest? They chose to kill off the love interest For Sleeper Cell and use that to send him on his suicidal revenge mission in order to kill him off in the last hour to end the show. The last eipsode was unnecessary and tacked on. There was nothing positive about the end of the series, main character dies, the end. That usually seems like a cop-out to me.

Green-eyed girl, you are picking up on a few of the things I didn't like about the show. I wasn't able to name them. With a few tweaks, they didn't need to bring religion into the story at all. But I think the bad guys did seem badder than many I have seen. They do some truly terrible things to people and you can't tell them they are wrong because they twist things around to make it agree with their agenda. Like some of the people on youtube who make nasty comments about videos with Islam related content. Just to be annoying. Some of those people are just full of come-backs and you can throw all the true at them you like, but they find someway to argue. Or failing that they redirect attention by changing the focus of the insults. The experiment with the dogs was pure evil, that and killing off that imam. That was the best part of the show. I did see some vileness in the bad guys that episode. Then one of the people he helped takes his place and you can see what a difference one person can make. There was a show I liked several years ago where something similar happened - good guy killed, disciple takes his place, feel sad about the dead one, but triumphant that his work changed this and he lives on in that way. So maybe it is a plot device too? But that is a classic for me. That episode of Sleeper Cell made me want more like it, but they disappointed me. It was like finding a really good book after reading many bad ones, you want to read more that makes you excited, but then hit anoher dry spell. Just that episode, not the whole season.

Didn't that one terrorist character survive? What if they do something with him to revive a season 3. If they did it right, I see possibilities of turning the show around if they play it right and don't rest on whatever they achieved. Maybe the last terrorist is changed by what he saw. And he might be in a position to cause more harm to terrorist causes than Darwyn was. Then again, maybe he just gets away. Or perhaps we are supposed to think he takes over where the leader of his cell left off. But I don't think he had enough status to take over. If it is simply over, that's fine, but if they were to continue they would have to do better than season 2.

Geen-eyed girl, don't bother with season 2, if you didn't like season 1, this is worse. I liked the first season ok, but I did not like season 2, it did not live up to expectation.. I agree, I don't think you would like it.

BT

[Sofiyya 1,687]

Now, even though I believe you completely that Season 2 is bad (could it have gotten worse?!), BT, you have also intrigued me. What I'm going to do is order Showtime, then watch them all in one short time on On Demand, if they book them that way. I can take it The killing of the imam was riveting; it was the most memorable part for me. I'll check back with you about my impressions. Thx!

[balmytigeress 0]

Green-eyed girl: My onDemand feature doesn't have season 2 anymore, I don't know if yours is different. And if Showtime costs extra, don't bother, really!

BT

[cbd2cai 0]

I am going to wait till I return from Cairo to get caught up on Little Mosque on the Prairie. What I saw from the first episode was a bit of a shaky start, but I hope it sticks around for awhile . . . so it might be a bit "Moslem Light", but it is a start and there were some funny things in the first episode.

I really want to get a satellite that has Canadian, European and Arabic channels . . . along with Sci Fi!!

Edited February 24, 2007 by cbd2cai