Hmm... is it the Fresh Off The Boat effect? Some interesting television news out of Canada.... CBC has picked up a new series based on Ins Choi's award-winning 2011 play Kim's Convenience for the 2015-16 season.
CBC renews Schitt's Creek and Murdoch Mysteries, cancels Strange Empire
The single-camera comedy will center on convenience store owner Mr. Kim, a Korean immigrant and fiery patriarch, as he struggles with changes within his business, family and their Toronto community of Regent Park.
Kim's Convenience won Best New Play at the 2011 Toronto Fringe Festival, as well as two Toronto Theatre Critics awards in 2012, for Best Actor in a Play for Paul Sun Hyung Lee and Best Canadian Play.
Here's the full description of the play, which is available in paperback from Amazon:
Mr. Kim is a first-generation Korean immigrant and the proud owner of Kim's Convenience, a variety store located in the heart of downtown Toronto's Regent Park neighbourhood. There, he spends his time serving an eclectic array of customers, catching petty thieves, and helpfully keeping the police apprised of illegally parked Japanese cars. As the neighbourhood quickly gentrifies, Mr. Kim is offered a generous sum of money to sell — enough to allow him and his wife to finally retire. But Kim's Convenience is more than just his livelihood — it is his legacy. As Mr. Kim tries desperately, and hilariously, to convince his daughter Janet, a budding photographer, to take over the store, his wife sneaks out to meet their estranged son Jung, who has not seen or spoken to his father in sixteen years and who has now become a father himself.
Wholly original, hysterically funny, and deeply moving, Kim's Convenience tells the story of one Korean family struggling to face the future amidst the bitter memories of their past.
I'm not a regular watcher of Canadian TV, but I'm looking forward to seeing this, somehow, in 2016.