If you want a new, short show to watch on your study breaks or want to take a break from mindlessly scrolling social media, you’ve come to the right place! Here are a few reasons to watch one of my favourite shows, Kim’s Convenience.
1. Comedy
Kim’s Convenience is a light-hearted show that will make you laugh. Whether it’s Mr. Kim’s go-to lines, Jung’s interactions with girls or Mrs. Kim yelling at Mr. Kim, you’ll definitely enjoy watching. Kim’s Convenience will also manage to make you smile even when a more serious topic is being discussed.
2. It’s filmed in Toronto
If you’re from the GTA, or have visited Toronto once or twice, it’s so fun being able to recognize certain areas where scenes are filmed. Janet attends OCAD, an art university in the heart of downtown Toronto, and there are often scenes of streets or other locations that many of us may recognize. In addition to this, the show really captures the diversity seen downtown as there are people of various backgrounds on the show.
3. Representation
Although Asians, and specifically East Asians, are the largest minority of people, there is still such little Asian representation in mainstream media! Kim’s Convenience follows the lives of a Korean family living in downtown Toronto and touches on the experiences of being an immigrant parent as well as being a second-generation immigrant.
A neat aspect of the show is that it portrays a very common experience shared amongst Asian and other youth of colour, as Mr. and Mrs. Kim own and run a convenience store. You might be thinking, “so what if the parents run a business? Lots of people do,” and that is true to an extent. However, for many people immigrating to Canada like the Kims, their education often isn’t recognized, so buying a store or shop is one of the few things that they can do. Personally, I know plenty of people who have family members that started a business or bought a store when moving to Canada to make ends meet due to their education not being recognized here. My own grandpa owned a café in downtown Toronto when he first moved to Canada too, and he’s an engineer!
4. Breaking Stereotypes
Another great thing about Kim’s Convenience is that the people of colour that are on the show don’t exist strictly for their background or colour but exist because they’re a character.
A way that this is portrayed is by the navigation away from the stereotypes against Asian parents and kids. For instance, Janet is in school for photography, and her parents are supportive of her career path, and Jung was known as being a “bad kid” growing up. This goes against the common view that Asian parents are extremely hard on their kids and unsupportive if they choose a career path that isn’t in STEM. This also challenges the trope that all Asian kids are nerds and have to be extremely focused on school. Jung is often referred to as a player and someone of romantic interest to many people. This is so important to include in a mainstream show, as there is often a lot of internalized misogyny within Asian communities that they can’t be admired for the looks.
Some of my friends and I joke about how if a person of colour enters a love triangle in a movie or show, we already know he’s going to “lose” in the end. The reason why we say this is because it’s a genuine pattern in films and shows. That, or the person of colour is the first to die in an action movie. Although we appreciate the time that a character of colour has on TV and can laugh when we correctly predicted the outcome, it’s actually pretty disheartening to see that even in the alternative reality of a movie or TV show that the person of colour won’t win. In addition to Jung in Kim’s Convenience and without spoiling anything, I can tell you that there are other love interests that are people of colour that stick around (Another W for us all)!
Overall, if you want to see a show that will make you laugh, give representation to the Asian community and steers away from stereotypes, Kim’s Convenience is the perfect show for you! I’ll also give you fair warning that if you start this show to watch in your past-time, you might slowly start to find yourself being more interested as the show progresses. Season four just came out on Netflix, so you have lots to watch if you’re just starting! Just be careful that one episode doesn’t turn into five…