I heard rumblings about this Canadian sitcom when it showed up on Netflix, and learning that one of its actors, Simu Liu, would be starring in Marvel’s Shang Chi definitely peaked my interest. A decent sitcom-sized hole appeared in my Netflix queue over the summer/fall (what even is time? does anyone know anymore?), so I decided to check it out.
Mr. and Mrs. Kim run a convenience store in Toronto. In between stocking shelves and keeping their eyes peeled for shoplifters, they fixate over the lives of their adult children, reformed black sheep Jung and art student Janet. At the start of the series, Janet and Mrs. Kim take tentative steps to try and repair a long-established rift between Mr. Kim and Jung, but it proves slow going.
It can be hard to write a summary for this type of sitcom. Because really, it’s a family sitcom. It has very little premise beyond, “Here is a family of quirky, flawed characters. Fall in love with them as they get into hijinks.” And as long as the show delivers humor and heart, that’s all it needs. The plots range from light relationship drama to silly farce, and the likable characters, well-written dialogue, and funny actors keep everything humming.
As such, I’ll focus mainly on the characters and the performances for this review, because they make the show. Andrea Bang is a lot of fun as the perpetually aggravated Janet, who finds herself in the unfortunate position of being both under-recognized and micro-managed by her parents. She deals with their thankless expectations of pulling shifts in the family store while also running interference between her parents and Jung and attempting to forge her own future for herself with her photography. As Jung, Simu Liu is charming, quick on his feet, and just a little clueless. He’s worked hard to carve out his niche separate from his family, as well as to get out from under the old image of him as a troublemaking screw-up. He’s finally starting to get where he wants to be, but he’s still apprehensive about showing his parents what he’s making of himself.
Bang and Liu are both great, but the extra-special ingredients in the show’s secret sauce are the one-two punch of Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Jean Yoon as Mr. and Mrs. Kim. A pair of hard-scrabble, highly-opinionated Korean immigrants, the Kim parents peddle a stern brand of overly-nosy affection. Whether they’re meddling in one of their children’s lives, trading miniature power plays over how to run the store, or frantically trying to avoid a minor gossip scandal at their church, they’re fairly combative while also 100% loving. Yoon’s Ms. Kim runs the gamut from biting to passive-aggressive to tender, while Lee’s Mr. Kim is equal parts taskmaster and teddy bear. (Seriously: I bet at least half of all audible “aww!” moments I’ve had watching the show come at a clutch moment for Mr. Kim and Jung’s fraught relationship.)
The rest of the cast, including Janet and Jung’s respective roommates, Jung’s boss and coworkers, and Mr. and Mrs. Kim’s friends, nicely round out the world the Kims inhabit. One familiar face I’ve enjoyed seeing among the recurring cast is Amanda Brugel, who plays Rita on The Handmaid’s Tale. Here, she takes a very different role in this very different show as the long-suffering Pastor Nina.
Warnings
Language, sexual references, drinking/smoking/a few drug references, occasional scenes of violence, and some thematic elements.
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