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Kim's Convenience: a charming, wholesome and understated corner-store comedy

Sometimes the only thing you can face to watch on television is a wholesome, heartwarming family show. When you find yourself in such a predicament, let me suggest Canadian series Kim’s Convenience: a charming, understated family dramedy that is the TV viewer’s equivalent of dating someone who is simply nice after a decade of dalliances with cool kids and bad boys.

The show follows Canadian-Korean couple Mr and Mrs Kim (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon) and their adult children, Jung (Simu Liu) and Janet (Andrea Bang). The short, 20-minute episodes explore the Kims’ immigrant background and generational differences through the everyday ups and downs of running a convenience store while managing family life and faith.

The script walks the line between empathy, caricature and secondhand awkwardness. For example, in one episode Mr Kim wants to call the police when a Toyota is parked in the no-parking zone. “How many times do I have you tell you,” Janet exasperatedly says to her dad, “Japanese people aren’t the only ones driving Japanese cars.” He puffs up and reminds her that Japan attacked Korea in 1910, a sentence she finishes because clearly that is an oft-repeated line in their household. It takes excellent writing and delivery to make scenes like this work without alienating viewers.

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Kim’s Convenience was created by Canadian-Korean playwright and screenwriter Ins Choi, who has said he drew inspiration from his own family for the TV series and the award-winning play it is based on. His father was a pastor and, growing up, many of Choi’s friends’ families owned convenience stores.

Some of that experience makes its way into the show in forms that will be familiar to immigrants and people of colour: parents who use food to say they love you; younger generations being constantly tested to prove their allegiance to country and culture. But in other ways the show goes beyond stereotypes, taking the risk of showing rifts in the family – fractures that cannot be resolved by cooking together (like they might have been in, say, Crazy Rich Asians).

As a teenager, Jung committed petty crimes and had a stint in juvenile detention. Mr Kim kicked him out of the house when he caught Jung stealing from him and they have remained estranged. Although Jung has a good relationship with his “Umma” and Janet, the four Kims take great pains to avoid an interaction between Jung and “Appa” (Mr Kim).

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In the first season, Janet tries to make up for her brother’s absence by living at home. When she moves out, she continues to work at the store and remains close to her parents. Although her mum tries to set her up with “cool Christian boys”, Janet is her own person and dates who she wants – even if they make for questionable choices.

But the most loveable part of this series, for me, is that it shows Asian slackers and goofballs on western TV, which is part of a burgeoning pop culture trend (see My Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, The Good Place). Too often, Asian characters are shown as one-dimensional high achievers. Instead, here, Jung is portrayed as attractive and charming but with limited ambition beyond his job in a car rental chain. (Liu, meanwhile, recently won the role of Marvel’s superhero Shang-Chi.)

With its fantastic ensemble cast and funny, cringeworthy and complex storylines, Kim’s Convenience fuses the best of 80s sitcoms and real life.

Kim’s Convenience is available to stream on Netflix