That’s right, I’m going to recommend a TV show

So Shannon and I just watched the series premiere of Zarqa Nawaz’s show Little Mosque on the Prairie, and it was pretty funny. I mean, I wouldn’t call it radical, cutting-edge analysis of racial politics in Canada or anything, but as a low-key comedy which made its points subtly yet firmly it has a place. It’s just a dorky Canadian sitcom, but it cleverly makes fun of Muslims and non-Muslims alike. It dares to crack jokes about suicide bombers, for example (the joke here being on a few skittish white people in an airport). In the context of prime time Canadian TV, it’s a progressive statement. And what’s more, it’s entertaining. Check it out.

Apparently 2.1 million people tuned in yesterday for the pilot episode (that’s right, 6% of the Canadian population). But if you missed it on TV, you can watch it like we did, via bittorrent. Actually, a lot of people around the world watched it that way, as I can see from the list of peers I downloaded the file from. Japan, Spain, Latvia, Egypt… who knew Canadian television was so popular?