Kim's Convenience season 5 review: Final instalment of cheerful family sitcom leaves you wanting for more

Kim’s Convenience, the seven-day-a-week corner store serving soda pops and charming wholesomeness for five straight seasons, has finally shuttered the shop. The abrupt cancellation of the sitcom about a Korean Canadian family is mired in controversies, after actor Simu Liu expressed his disappointment with the makers’ decision to pull the plug and moving forward with a spin-off series focused on the only non-Asian person in the show’s cast, Nicole Power’s character Shannon. If one were to observe closely, the producers’ plan for a Nicole Power spinoff series is abundantly evident from how the finale is set up. This season, the stage for action is as much Handy Car Rental as the titular convenience store. Shannon’s appearances become more frequent, and her transformation from a pushover boss to one with agency and empathy, is complete. As a matter of fact, Shannon’s arc gets the most prominence in the show, as well as in the finale. In a heartbreaking moment in the last episode, when Shannon lays out her future plans, you can’t but feel proud of how far she has come. [caption id=“attachment_9684771” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  Nicole Power as Shannon and Andrew Phung as Kimchee[/caption]But this shift alters the scope of the show and what you might expect out of it. With employees at Handy occupying a significant share of run-time, the Kim family interpersonal dynamic does not get its adequate share. Janet and Jung’s trajectories especially, take a hit. Unlike Shannon, both Jung and Janet’s futures look ambiguous, and don’t seem nearly as ambitious, nay, interesting as Shannon’s. Conversely, Jung was absent from several of the thirteen-episode season, a fact Liu acknowledged in a recent interview . The hurriedness to wrap up the storylines is unmissably blatant. The show’s generally languid pace speeds up at about the final quarter mark, and despite efforts to make the resolution as organic as possible, the contrivances become conspicuous. As a result, the fun-ness is sacrificed to an extent. Some scenes begin to feel like addendums to the primary narrative for comedic effect. Does the humour work? For the most part, yes. Does it make an impact? Not really. [caption id=“attachment_9684691” align=“alignnone” width=“640”]  A still from Kim’s Convenience[/caption] Thus, when Liu accuses “overwhelmingly white producers” of not letting the Asian-Canadian cast include their lived-in experiences into the show, it is almost impossible to ignore the divine humour. Notwithstanding criticisms of oversimplifying concepts of race and identity, Kim’s Convenience quietly claimed its space among flashier projects. It was pathbreaking in placing an Asian immigrant family front and centre — Mr Kim or Appa (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee), Mrs Kim or Umma (Jean Yoon) and their two grown children, Jung and Janet (Andrea Bang). Never before had Korean culture been represented with such authenticity. Never before had Asian lives and experiences been the norm. Even in its clownish humour, Kim’s Convenience addressed key social issues and dispelled harmful stereotypes, showing Jung as a man lacking ambition in academia or Janet studying photography as opposed to a more conventional subject. The show garnered praises for straddling comedy and social issues with equal aplomb. This season, too, the show spotlights comparatively serious issues such as living with a chronic condition, the need for personal space, use of medical marijuana or fluidity of gender. But while most other issues play out over the course of full episodes, Kim’s Convenience uncomfortably skirts the topic of sexuality and identities, as if to indicate that Kim residence is not ready to have a conversation just yet. It’s clever and in line with Appa’s conservatism. Or it could be that the makers saved the arc for a future season, but did not get the opportunity to flesh out eventually. Irrespective of its flaws, the fifth season of Kim’s Convenience works. It is consistently feel-good, and the family’s bittersweet banter and heartfelt reconciliations are the craftiest sucker punches to the gut — the you-won’t- know- what-hit- your- tear- ducts kind. One last time, the family engages in their signature cross-generational repartee, leaving you royally ill-prepared to let go of your pandemic support TV. Kim’s Convenience is now streaming on Netflix