K is for Kim’s Convenience #AtoZChallenge #PandemicAlphabet

I have recommended Kim’s Convenience (Netflix) to lots of people looking for something fun/comforting to watch.

It’s about a Korean-Canadian family (the Kims) who constantly clash because the parents are immigrants and the kids are Canadian-born. The main conflict in the family is between Jung and Mr. Kim (aka Appa) who are estranged. Jung has done some time in juvie and generally fallen off the beaten path of expectations from his family. This, of course, affects all the other family relationships because Mrs. Kim (aka Umma) desires a relationship with Jung and wants the two men to reconcile and Janet is the little sister trying to forge her own path to independence while maintaining a good relationship with her parents and staying loyal to her brother.

Mr. Kim is a patriarch much like Archie Bunker, Bernie Mac, or George Jefferson in that he brings a lot of old fashioned ideas to most of his interactions. However, just like with those other shows, he is often (always) challenged by his children and the customers in his store.

A lot of the humor of the show comes from Mr. Kim’s interaction with the customers in his store, which is how the show begins. My favorite of the customers is probably Enrique, an effusive gay man who basically just wants Mr. Kim to like him and Mr. Kim is not having it.

Mr. Kim also interacts a lot with fellow business owner Mr. Mehta, another first generation immigrant who makes more money and also has issues with his kids, and Mr. Chin, a single man who is very close to his dog.

Umma helps Mr. Kim run the store, but she often has different ideas about how to do things and the two of them bump heads about store- or money-related issues, and she has her own interactions with the customers that are just as fun. She often always employs the Mrs. Kim Sneak Attack ™, so you do not want to cross her.

Janet is a student, so most of her storylines revolve around that, and Jung works at a rental car company with my two favorite characters: (1) Shannon’s work clothes and (2) Kimchee!

First season Shannon is weird and skeevy, but then my girl gets a glow-up in season two and becomes less weird and skeevy and instead just becomes awkward so it makes it much easier to like her. And also I just want everything she wears because it all looks so good.

I love Kimchee so much. He is Jung’s best friend and such a joy and delight. He has sidekick syndrome, which he should not because he is AWESOME.

So, basically, I love all the characters, I like the situations the characters are in, and I enjoy hanging out with them. The first four seasons are currently airing on Netflix, and the fifth (and final!) season will be on there soon. I encourage you to hang out with the Kims and their friends if you need something fun to watch during the pandemic.

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For this year’s A to Z Challenge, I have decided that I’m going to focus on comfort reads/watches as we enter our second (!) April in the pandemic. Tune in tomorrow to see what I choose for L!