Kim's Convenience is a Canadian television sitcom that premiered on CBC Television in October 2016. The series centres on the Korean Canadian Kim family who run a convenience store in the Moss Park neighbourhood of Toronto: parents "Appa" (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee) and "Umma" (Jean Yoon) - Korean for "dad" and "mom" - along with their daughter Janet (Andrea Bang) and estranged son Jung (Simu Liu). Additional characters include Jung's friend and co-worker Kimchee (Andrew Phung) and his manager Shannon (Nicole Power). The series is based on Ins Choi's 2011 play of the same name.
The first season was filmed from June to August 2016 at Showline Studios in Toronto. It is produced by Thunderbird Films in conjunction with Toronto's Soulpepper Theatre Company, with Lee and Yoon reprising their roles from the play. Scripts were created by Choi and Kevin White, who had previously written for Corner Gas.
The second season premiered on September 26, 2017. The show has been renewed for two more seasons.
In July 2018, the series became available to audiences outside of Canada when it debuted internationally on Netflix .
Video Kim's Convenience (TV series)
Cast and characters
Main
- Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Kim Sang-il ("Mr. Kim"/"Appa") - The family patriarch, Mr. Kim was a teacher in his homeland before immigrating to Canada with his wife where they now own and operate 'Kim's Convenience', a grocery store in Toronto's Moss Park neighbourhood. Mr. Kim is traditional, proud and stubborn, practical, opinionated and blunt. He is estranged from his son Jung, 56 years old at the start of the series.
- Jean Yoon as Kim Yong-mi ("Mrs. Kim"/"Umma") - The family matriarch, Mrs. Kim, 54 at the start of the series, was also a teacher in Korea. She is hardworking and kind but also meddles in the lives of her family. Her life revolves around the store, family, and church, where she volunteers.
- Simu Liu as Jung Kim, 24 at the start of the series. Mr. and Mrs. Kim's son and Janet's brother. Jung works at Handy Car Rental, where he is promoted to assistant manager at the beginning of the series. He was a rebellious teenager who had engaged in petty street crimes, earning him a brief stint in juvenile detention, but has since cleaned up his act. He was kicked out of the family home by Mr. Kim after stealing from him and remains estranged from his father though he is still in contact with the rest of the family.
- Andrea Bang as Janet Kim, 20 at the start of the series, Mr. and Mrs. Kim's daughter and Jung's sister. She is the family member in most frequent contact with Jung. Attending OCAD University, where she studies photography, Janet is a talented artist but is frustrated by her parents' traditionalism, their lack of support for her art, and the fact that they overparent her due to Jung's estrangement from the household.
- Andrew Phung as Kimchee, 25 at the start of the series. Jung's best friend, co-worker, roommate, and former partner in crime.
- Nicole Power as Shannon Ross, 26. The manager of Handy Car Rental, and Jung and Kimchee's boss, she has a crush on Jung in season 1 and is often awkward in her attempts to appear cool and hip.
Recurring
- John Ng as Mr. Chin, Mr. Kim's friend and a successful entrepreneur, owning several businesses. Fastidious, he does not like to do manual labour.
- Ben Beauchemin as Gerald, Janet's friend, roommate, and a fellow student at OCAD. He's intimidated by Mr. Kim and has awkward interactions with him.
- Michael Musi as Terence, a mild-mannered employee at Handy Car Rental whom Kimchee inexplicably hates.
- Getenesh Berhe as Semira, another of Janet's OCAD photography classmates and friends.
- Soo-Ram Kim as Nayoung, Janet's cousin who visits from South Korea in season 1. In season 2 she moves to Canada to attend the University of Waterloo.
- Michael Xavier as Alex Jackson, a police officer who was Jung's childhood friend and who is getting reacquainted with Janet.
- Sabrina Grdevich as Ms Murray, one of Janet's professors at OCAD.
- Sugith Varughese as Mr. Mehta, a friend of Mr. Kim's who plays cards with him and owns an Indian restaurant.
- Hiro Kanagawa as Pastor Choi, the pastor at Mrs. Kim's church.
- Christina Song as Mrs. Lee, Grace Lee's mother and Mrs. Kim's friend.
- Uni Park as Mrs. Park, a supercilious and well-to-do parishioner at Mrs. Kim's church who looks down on the Kims.
- Amanda Brugel as Pastor Nina Gomez, associate pastor at Mrs. Kim's church.
- Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll as Enrique, a nurse and regular customer.
- Tina Jung as Jeanie Park, Mrs. Park's introverted teenage daughter.
- Kris Hagen as Sketchy-Looking Dude, a regular customer.
- Marco Grazzini as Alejandro, Shannon's new boyfriend at the end of season one, continuing into season two.
- Derek McGrath as Frank, a repairman and friend of Mr. Kim's who tells pointless anecdotes.
- Ellora Patnaik as Mrs. Mehta, Mr. Mehta's wife and a friend of Mrs. Kim.
Maps Kim's Convenience (TV series)
Production
Shooting locations
Interior scenes at the store, Handy Car Rental and home are shot at Showline Studios at 901 Lake Shore Boulevard East, where an exact replica of Mimi Variety, the model for the store, has been recreated. The studio is also used as the exterior of the car rental business. One episode was shot in Koreatown at Bloor and Christie Streets. The long established "Mimi Variety" store at 252 Queen Street East is used for exterior shots and as the model for the interior set built in the studio. While the signage has been adjusted, the "Kim's Convenience" sign uses the same red and green lettering and all other sections, such as the "7 DAYS A WEEK", are the original signage of Mimi Variety. The producers also painted a mural on an exterior wall, mostly seen in the credit sequence and for stock transitional shots as well as for promotional shots. The owners of the store have retained the new signage although the business has not officially changed its name.
Episodes
Originally set to premiere on October 4, 2016, on CBC, the series premiere was delayed to October 11, 2016, with back-to-back episodes, so it would not conflict with the Toronto Blue Jays' American League Wild Card Game. The first season consists of 13 half-hour episodes.
CBC announced on December 20, 2016, that it had renewed Kim's Convenience for a second season of 13 episodes. Season 2 premiered on September 26, 2017.
Season 1 (2016)
Season 2 (2017)
Season 3
On March 12, 2018, the cast of Kim's Convenience took to Facebook and Twitter to announce that there would be a Season 3. Season 3 of the show is scheduled to begin airing in early 2019.
Season 4
On May 24, 2018, just 2 months after announcing the season 3 renewal of the show, CBC announced that the show had also been renewed for a season 4. In this unprecedented move, the show was renewed for a fourth season even before the third season of the show had begun production.
DVD releases
Entertainment One released the first season of Kim's Convenience on Region 1 DVD on March 7, 2017.
Reception
Critical response
The show has received mostly positive reviews.
John Doyle of The Globe and Mail wrote that the show "stays away from the pseudo-seriousness that could easily plague a comedy about immigrants and family dynamics." In conclusion, Doyle called it "a clever, generally engaging screwball comedy with an eye on entertainment". The Toronto Star's Tony Wong wrote that "the show is good. Possibly even great. The dialogue is sharp, on point and borderline subversive. It has the potential to be a future classic. It has bite...It's funny and true, but not a reality we typically see reflected on television."
Rick Salutin, also of the Star, was less enthusiastic of the show's portrayal of minorities on television saying "only accents are funny in Kim's Convenience" and that audiences are "laughing at the characters not with them". Salutin concluded by stating "I don't see why supporting Canadian culture means you should be uncritical, as if someone will take it away if you weren't. You should be most critical about what you care most about like public education or the CBC, you want them to be good not just there".
Ratings
Midway through its first season, Kim's Convenience was estimated by Numeris to have an average audience of 933,000 per episode, with 39% of viewers between the ages of 25 and 54.
Awards
For the 5th Canadian Screen Awards in 2017, Kim's Convenience garnered 11 nominations, including Best Comedy Series, Best Actor in a Comedy Series (Lee), Best Actress in a Comedy Series (Yoon and Bang), and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Phung). Lee won the award for best actor in a continuing leading comedic role for his portrayal of Appa, and Phung won Best Supporting Actor for his portrayal of Kimchee.
Kim's Convenience won two awards at the 2017 Toronto ACTRA Awards, Outstanding Performance - Female for actress Jean Yoon and the Members' Choice Series Ensemble Award for Best Cast.
The first-season episodes "Ddong Chim" and "Janet's Photos" are 2017 Writers Guild of Canada's Canadian Screenwriting Awards finalists in the TV comedy category.
At the 6th Canadian Screen Awards in 2018, the series received 12 nominations. It won the awards for Best Comedy Series, Best Actor in a Comedy Series (Lee) and Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series (Phung).
References
External links
- Official website
- Kim's Convenience on IMDb
Source of article : Wikipedia
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