Reverse Engineering "Little Mosque on the Prairie" Show Bible

 If you have watched the show "Little Mosque on the Prairie" (which can now be watched for free on YouTube), this post will be a really great read. If not, I understand it's not your cup of tea. I definitely recommend watching this show in the interim.

Running from 2007 to 2012, “Little Mosque on the Prairie” was a Canadian-produced TV show that caught a small audience in the US through Hulu. The show centers around a community of Muslims in a small town on the Canadian Prairie. Despite having characters as morally despicable as a shock jock and a fundamentalist Muslim who bashes Western decadence. Still, the show boasts a gooey small-town vibe like Andy Griffith or (sister show) Schitt’s Creek.

But how does such dissonance work? The show is filled with life events as serious as divorces, a major character quitting his jobs over unrequieted love, hateful characters being kept in check, a major character being put on a bus 

In trying to analyze how the show is successful, I tried considering what a character bible might look like.

For example, animator Chuck Jones of Loony Tunes and his team were said to follow these simple rules when creating the Wile E. Coyote and Road Runner cartoons

1. The Road Runner cannot harm the Coyote except by going “meep, meep.”
2. No outside force can harm the Coyote — only his own ineptitude or the failure of Acme products. Trains and trucks were the exception from time to time.
3. The Coyote could stop anytime — if he were not a fanatic.
4. No dialogue ever, except “meep, meep” and yowling in pain.
5. The Road Runner must stay on the road — for no other reason than that he’s a roadrunner.
6. All action must be confined to the natural environment of the two characters — the southwest American desert.
7. All tools, weapons, or mechanical conveniences must be obtained from the Acme Corporation.
8. Whenever possible, make gravity the Coyote’s greatest enemy.
9. The Coyote is always more humiliated than harmed by his failures.
10. The audience’s sympathy must remain with the Coyote.
11. The Coyote is not allowed to catch or eat the Road Runner.

So what might be the "Little Mosque on the Prairie" rules?
My take:
1. Even though some of the characters (particularly Fred, Joe, Baber, and later Reverend Thorne) are tactless, willfully ignorant and even malicious, the recipients of their spite are never emotionally affected. This keeps any negative vibes from dominating the tone of the show.*
2. The ordeals of the show's main protagonist,  Amaar, are largely secular concerns (people not taking him seriously with no beard, annoyances with Fred or Baber, working around Yasser's sloth, etc.) rather than existential religious struggles. This is to keep the show's tone in the realm of a light sitcom....
3. At the same time, Amaar's faith is constant. In fact, the issue of faith is such a non-issue, that it's not a source of meaningful enough drama to build an episode around. In one episode, for example, Amaar is lured into a double date which he endures to be socially polite. A show about a wavering cleric would have Amaar wrestle with his attraction for his date. Instead, Amaar never allows himself to consider the event a date, and the episode's comic inertia revolves around Amaar's insecurity that his non-date didn't have a good time.
4. The show's Muslim Characters fall along a dichotomy of taking faith too seriously or not seriously enough with Amaar and McGee at the center.
Sarah, Yasser, and Layla fall in the below axis whereas Baber and Joe are too religious. Rayyan falls roughly in the middle which is why there is so much foreshadowing that she is Amaar's other half.
5. The idyllic small-town feel is partially created by unlikely loving family units whether Baber/Layla, Sarah/Yassir/Rayyan and to a lesser extent Fatima/Jamal or the makeshift family of McGee/Amaar. Baber and Layla shouldn't get along since her father is such a tyrannical idiot but the show seems to make it work with the eyeroll and occasional temper tantrum. Similarly, Rayyan seems to do her fair amount of eye rolling but rarely do you see an adult child and her parents get along so well. The lack of family conflicts (at the nuclear level) is also a hallmark of 1950s and 1960s shows like Leave it to Beaver, Andy Griffith, and the Donna Reed Show and it was roundly mocked in the 1998 film Pleasantville.
6. Characters are inherently good but none of the secular characters are above cutting corners in life. Whether Yasser's sloth, the Mayor's vanity, or even Amaar's ego, there are areas within every character for self-improvement.
7. Characters are inter-connected. Fred and Baber, for example, are both dislikeable characters, but they both are able to carve out a healthy and affirming relationship with Fatima. Joe and later Reverend Thorne have good connections to the Muslim community with time.

*I've read a number of viewer reviews that were turned off of the show when Thorne entered in Season 4. This could be because his presence broke this cardinal rule. His threats of eviction of his Muslim tenants had definite consequences to the status quo.