Amanda Brugel – Kim’s Convenience places typically racialized, supporting characters at the centre of the story. While the series showcases a variety of BIPOC faces and different religions, more importantly, it celebrates how different cultures interact with one another. Private conversations about race and identity become public and its audience is encouraged to laugh at our differences and recognize our similarities.
Maitreyi Ramakrishnan – My favourite TV show to come out of CBC. Though I may not be Korean, I can relate as a Tamil-Canadian to the family dynamic depicted on the show. This show definitely had the hearts of people all over the world, not just Canadians. Wholesome comedy at its finest.
Kim’s Convenience is a family sitcom that warmly invites us into lives of the Korean Canadian family that own and run a convenience store in Toronto’s Moss Park.
Known to his regular customers as Mr. Kim (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), he is the blunt, often stubborn, and a proud store owner. He says goodbye to each customer with an “okay, see you!” and lovingly teases his wife Mrs. Kim (Jean Yoon), who also manages the store.
But to their adult children, they’re known as Appa and Umma, respectively. Janet (Andrea Bang) is a university photography student who is just branching out own her own, but is still rooted to her parents and the store.
Jung (Simu Liu) is estranged from his father, but still beloved by Umma and his sister. He works at Handy’s, a downtown car-rental place, with his best friend Kimchee (Andrew Phung) and his crush, the manager Shannon (Nicole Power).
There’s a lot of comedy in the workplace settings, from the interactions between coworkers at Handy’s (Kimchee is especially hilarious), and the customer interactions at the convenience store. But their world also extends to the church the elder Kims loyally attend, Kimchee and Jung’s apartment, and Janet and her roommate Gerald.
With humour, it also deftly shows the divide between the immigrant experience of Appa and Umma, and their first-generation Canadian children Janet and Jung, as well as defies multiple stereotypes of immigrants, Asians, and more.
Review by Kelly Boutsalis
Talent:
Andrea Bang, Andrew Phung, Jean Yoon, Nicole Power, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee, Simu Liu