Kim's Convenience (TV series)

Updated on Sep 25, 2024

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Country of origin Canada No. of episodes 13 Production company(s) Thunderbird Films		No. of seasons 1 Running time 30 minutes

Starring Paul Sun-Hyung Lee Jean Yoon Simu Liu Andrea Bang Andrew Phung Nicole Power

Kim's Convenience is a Canadian television sitcom, based on Ins Choi's play of the same name, which premiered on CBC Television in October 2016.

The series centres on the Korean Canadian Kim family who run a convenience store in the Regent 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 first season was filmed from June to August 2016. Soundstage and set are 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.

CBC announced on December 20, 2016 that it had renewed Kim's Convenience for a second season of 13 episodes, to air in the fall of 2017.

Main

Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Mr. Kim ("Appa") Song-il - 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 Regent Park neighbourhood. Mr. Kim is traditional, proud and stubborn, practical and opinionated and blunt. He is estranged from his son Jung. 56 years old at the start of the series.

Jean Yoon as Mrs. Kim ("Umma") Yung-mi - Married to Mr. Kim, 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 is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Kim 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, is Jung's best friend, co-worker, roommate, and former partner in crime.

Nicole Power as Shannon Ross, 26, is the manager of Handy Car Rental, and Jung and Kimchee's boss. She has a crush on Jung 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 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.

Michael Xavier as Alex, 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.

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. Mimi Variety at 252 Queen Street East has had its signage replaced with "Kim's Convenience" signs and painted a mural on an exterior wall; while not used for shooting of scenes is used 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.

On January 8, 2017, an individual with fatal gunshot wounds was found lying in front of 252 Queen East.

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, to air in the fall of 2017.

Critical response

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. There is little obviousness and mugging, and moral lessons are few in the breezy speed of it. What’s it all about? Good jokes, mainly. Heartily recommended, Kim’s Convenience is a clever, generally engaging screwball comedy with an eye on entertainment".

The Toronto Star's Tony Wong writes: "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."

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.

References

Kim's Convenience (TV series) Wikipedia

(Text) CC BY-SA

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