Pop Culture Pick: Kim's Convenience Is Your New Canadian Comedy Favourite
Asian-American representation for the win
Image Credit: CBC
Welcome to Pop Culture Pick, a catch-all for subjects I want to highlight outside of the usual weekly Weekend Watch columns. In this edition, Kim’s Convenience offers light-hearted entertainment. Okay, see it!
I’m a fan of Canadian comedies. I stayed up late to watch Kids In The Hall as a teen and my love for Corner Gas knows no bounds. But I am sometimes late to the party on others, especially as it’s not so easy to watch them in the States unless someone picks them up. Kim’s Convenience is one such example – having won plenty of praise up north, the first two seasons of the show arrived on Netflix in 2018, with the third in April 2020 and the fourth a year later.
Adapted by Ins Choi from his acclaimed play, itself inspired by his family, Kim’s Convenience follows the comedic stories of the Korean Kim family, including patriarch and convenience store owner Mr. Kim, referred to as “Appa” (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), his wife and the real power behind the throne, “Umma” (Jean Yoon). The family extends to Janet (Andrea Bang), the headstrong daughter who has little interest in inheriting the store, preferring to pursue her passion as a photography student, and elder child/black sheep Jung (Simu Liu), who has petty crime in his past and is still somewhat distant from his father despite having turned his life around. He works at a local car rental place alongside old friend Kimchee (Andrew Phung) and boss Shannon (Nicole Power), with whom he shares a will-they-won’t-they romantic connection. Around the core group revolves a recurring cast of customers, friends, frenemies and the local pastor (Amanda Brugel).
This is very much a conventional sitcom – a few locations, lots of stories about the family (usually Appa) getting into scrapes and plenty of banter. Appa and Umma still hold on to their culture after immigrating from South Korea years ago. They’re consistently frustrated by/impressed with their kids, but despite all the back-and-forth, there’s a lot of love to be found here. It’s also much more than that, pushing Asian stories to the forefront and portraying characters who break free from the usual stereotypes of strict parents and overachieving kids. This is Choi – who works with Kevin White, a Corner Gas veteran, to run the show – channelling his past and present to create characters full of their own hopes and fears, joys and anger, fondness and frustration. And despite the 22-minute running time, overarching stories have time to breathe: the dispute between Mr. Kim and his son isn’t wrapped up quickly. Likewise, even characters such as Kimchee are shaded in as time goes by – he evolves from the wacky best friend type to a rounded individual, without ever losing the fun factor.
Even if you don’t happen to come from a Korean family, or an immigrant one, chances are you’ll recognise the disagreements and tender moments on display here. The cast is uniformly great (Sun-Hyung Lee and Yoon brought Appa and Umma to life on the stage), and it’s easy to spend time following their stories. The blend of gentle Canadian comedy and family drama is a combination that just gets better with time, as we learn to appreciate the various personalities that much more. There’s also a real chance to see what Simu Liu can do ahead of his arrival in the Marvel Cinematic Universe as Shang-Chi (which, if Disney keeps moving the various films back, might not be until 2022 at this rate).
One for those who have burned through Corner Gas and Schitt’s Creek (still trying to get into that one, despite several recommendations), Kim’s Convenience blends thoughtful silliness and recognisable family stories into one winning combination. You might recall that I wrote about cheerful shows to help with our scary times a couple of months ago. Kim’s Convenience definitely belongs on that list, and if you check it out, you won’t regret it.
Four seasons of Kim’s Convenience are on Netflix now. Season Five has just started filming in Canada.