This is a rather old request but - I came to this when I also looked for a solution. So my solution finally is: using bat (cat alternative). I set it up using "VIEWER=bat mc" or even better: "VIEWER=bat-mc mc". bat-mc ist a small bash-script which is called for viewing files:

  #! /bin/bash
  bat "$*"
  read -p "press ENTER to proceed"

(to avoid automatic closing the viewed file, when the linecound is less than the available lines in the terminal-window.