What a view | Kim’s Convenience on Netflix, starring Simu Liu, keeps the laughs coming, and the compassion
- Appa and Umma will forever be slightly out of step with the Toronto community their store serves, and with their children – and therein lies the show’s charm
- In David Hare’s Roadkill, Hugh Laurie is British government minister Peter Laurence, a libertarian who seems capable of overcoming even the seediest of scandals
Having pulled down the shutters on his neighbourhood landmark for the last time, Canadian-Korean screenwriter Ins Choi can take pride in his cult show’s stars’ serving of prime-cut comedy from behind the counter of Kim’s Convenience.
Appa still thinks surveying the world from behind a till gives his pronouncements on it a certain authority, but personally and professionally he’s never going to be the boss of anything, including himself. From empathy without real understanding must come misunderstanding and umbrage, but no crossed wires between generations are ever serious enough to threaten the overall wholesomeness of lives lived, generally, with compassion.
Like all the best sitcoms, Kim’s Convenience assesses the world’s problems from a micro standpoint – meaning that there is no universal difficulty that can’t be addressed by looking at it on a hearth-and-home scale. Or by moving goods just past their sell-by date to the front of the shelf. Pop round to Kim’s while it’s still, just about, trading.