Tag Archives: Kim’s Convenience

Link: Canadian TV networks bring stars to the fans in attempt to boost sagging ratings

From Bill Brioux of The Canadian Press:

Link: Canadian TV networks bring stars to the fans in attempt to boost sagging ratings
In English Canada, based on the first three weeks of the season, the total available TV audience among broadcasters CBC, CTV, City and Global is down eight per cent year-to-year. Among viewers aged 25 to 54, a demographic advertisers covet the most, the drop is 12 per cent in all day parts, according to Numeris, which measures TV viewership in Canada. Continue reading.

 

 

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CBC’s Kim’s Convenience is on a mission for more laughs in Season 2

It’s hard to believe that, after a very funny first season for Kim’s Convenience, the word around Season 2—returning Tuesday at 9 p.m. on CBC—is that it’s even better this year.

“We follow the comedy,” co-creator and co-executive producer Ins Choi said during production a few weeks ago in Toronto. “We have the best comedy writers in the country in our writers’ room pitching ideas, pitching stories. We know the characters, we know what works with these specific actors in these specific roles. We know what worked on-screen and we know what the audience loved. We know what we were drawn to, so it’s following what makes us laugh and what works.”

There’s no denying Season 1 worked. Kim’s Convenience was the No. 1 new Canadian comedy of last year and nabbed three Canadian Screen Awards—including a Best Performance trophy for Paul Sun-Hyung Lee and Best Performance in a supporting role for Andrew Phung—along the way. After a wildly successful run of the original play on Broadway earlier this year—Choi and co-creator, showrunner and fellow executive producer Kevin White developed that into the CBC comedy—everyone is a little tired, but excited, about the sophomore run. And, in the case of Simu Liu, he’s jazzed with the way that Kim’s Convenience has been embraced.

“The most encouraging thing for me is that the feedback for the show does not revolve around the fact that it’s centred on a Korean family,” Liu says. “It is important and it is diverse, but it’s a funny show and it’s a Canadian show. Those are the things that, I hope, will make it succeed in the long-term.”

Tuesday’s return picks up right after the season finale, with Janet (Andrea Bang) desperately looking to find her own Toronto apartment. Umma (Jean Yoon) and Appa (Sun-Hyung Lee) are, understandably, reluctant to see her go, especially when they learn about some of the potential properties their daughter has investigated (Look for Bad Blood‘s Tony Nappo in a memorable guest role on Tuesday.). Shannon (Nicole Power) is still in a relationship with Alejandro (Marco Grazzini), leaving Jung (Liu) reeling, and Kimchee (Phung) is, well, Kimchee. Recurring characters Gerald (Benjamin Beauchemin), Terence (Michael Musi), Mr. Chin (John Ng) and Mr. Mehta (Sugith Varughese) all appear in Tuesday’s instalment; Choi says Pastor Nina (Amanda Brugel) is back for Season 2 too.

“Letting go is a lot easier said than done,” Sun-Hyung Lee says of Appa accepting Janet’s desire to move out. “And Janet goes through a lot. She’s going through the wringer, not only to sort of spread her wings but Umma and Appa to, literally, let go of her.” Janet will learn, he divulges, just how sheltered she was and how good she had it under her parents’ roof.

“We see Janet in the store, but we also see a lot of her outside the store,” Bang says. “There are also new characters that we meet. Last year, we were establishing our characters. Now we get to delve deeper into them and even explore relationships that we didn’t get to, like Janet and Kimchee or Janet and Jung.”

Kim’s Convenience airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. on CBC.

Images courtesy of CBC.

 

 

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Link: Why CBC’s Kim’s Convenience is particularly important for Vancouver at this point in time

From Craig Takeuchi of The Georgia Strait:

Link: Why CBC’s Kim’s Convenience is particularly important for Vancouver at this point in time
The success of CBC’s comedy TV series Kim’s Convenience could not have come at more crucial time for Vancouver—with the only regret being that it didn’t arrive sooner.

Amid racially charged debates over Vancouver’s overheated real-estate market, anti-Asian sentiment has risen to one of the most disconcerting levels in recent decades. Continue reading.

 

 

 

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Writing an episode of Kim’s Convenience at the TSC

Hey CBC, you can go ahead and greenlight Season 3 of Kim’s Convenience because the folks in the WGC Writers Room Intensive at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference have got you covered.

Storylines featuring a pregnant Janet, a shirtless Jung, Nuit Blanche, speed dating, Feng Shui and, yes, more shirtless Jung, were outlined during an eight-hour session at Entertainment One’s downtown Toronto offices. Writers Amy Cole, Derek Robertson, Elize Morgan, Gillian Muller, Jennifer Siddle, Lisa Rose Snow, Marcia Johnson and Richard Clark were chosen to participate in the Writers Room Intensive and, led by Kim’s Convenience co-creators Kevin White and Ins Choi, broke ideas for a mock midseason episode of the hit CBC comedy.

Two groups of four, with White and Choi as the leaders on each—as they do when working on Kim’s Convenience—went off and brainstormed ideas for scenes. Nothing was ignored, but everything was analyzed in detail, plot holes plugged and then written down on sticky notes. Then the two groups assembled and the culling began. White, aiming for a “typical” episode of Kim’s, nixed a plethora of possible threads until two remained and two groups of four separated to beat out the scenes. It was fascinating not only to see how Choi and White

It was fascinating to see how Choi and White strip away ideas to figure out what would work and what wouldn’t. An added bonus? The pair taking threads, verbally running through them with the group and then with each other. There was a lot of laughing, especially when Choi adopted Appa Kim or Kimchee’s persona to recite dialogue.

What did the group settle on, and what story beats were nailed down? Make sure you attend In the Writing Room with Kim’s Convenience, taking place on Saturday, April 22, at 2:30 p.m. ET in the John Bassett Theatre at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference.

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Kevin White previews this year’s Writing Room Intensive at the TSC

This year’s WGC Writing Room Intensive at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference is notable for a couple of reasons. For one, it’s the first time the TSC’s Intensive is focusing on comedy writing. And secondly, the Intensive is being run by Kevin White and Ins Choi, the co-creators of CBC’s hit comedy Kim’s Convenience, giving the participants the opportunity to write a mock episode of the series which is, coincidentally, prepping for Season 2 on CBC.

On Thursday, Amy Cole, Derek Robertson, Elize Morgan, Gillian Muller, Jennifer Siddle, Lisa Rose Snow, Marcia Johnson and Richard Clark will join White, Choi and myself for six-hour session (there will be snacks, just like a real writer’s room). What can these lucky eight expect from the session? We got Kevin White to tease what’s in store. And check back on Friday to read my recap of the session; I’ll be moderating a panel discussing the group’s experiences on Saturday, April 22, at the Toronto Screenwriting Conference.

First off, what interested you about participating in the Writing Room Intensive this year?
Kevin White: It’s hard to get experience making stuff and doing stuff. I feel like anytime you can share that with people, with the hopes that people can learn and get better at the craft [is good]. And, hopefully, we learn something too and get a chance to meet emerging or young writers. That’s what was in it for us. If anyone can take anything away from the way we write the show, all the better.

What are you hoping they walk away with?
I don’t really know how other writer’s room are run. I’ve been in other people’s rooms as a writer for hire, so I have some sense of that. I’ve adapted a lot of things over the years as to how we approach breaking story and writing scripts collectively, so I hope some of that might be informative and helpful to people who have had less time in rooms. From a selfish point of view, it’s always nice to meet writers you haven’t worked with before and have a chance to see what their ideas are about, how they think and their point of view. I think it will be exciting for us to have eight fresh eyes on the material and really hear what it’s like for someone who hasn’t had any previous experience or exposure to the behind-the-scenes of our show freshen our outlook as well.

Will you be setting up the Intensive like you do it on Kim’s Convenience?
We’re going to try. Obviously, we have part of the morning finding out who everyone is. Then we’ll share ideas.

What can you say about the breakout sessions you have planned?
We have seven writers in the room on Kim’s Convenience now. With a number like that, we often work in different side group configurations. I hope we’ll have time to break up how we do it a little bit. Ins will have half the room, I will have half the room and we’ll be able to work in two smaller groups and report back to the bigger group. We want to be able to work with as many people as possible and meet with as many people as possible.

People will, presumably, be coming to the table with ideas. We need to hear those ideas and ruminate on them on them in the smaller groups. We’ll boil down to the ones that seem to have the most promise and then get back together and have feedback as the groups present their strongest ideas. They may be big stories and they may be small stories. Then, once we land on the stories we like the most and can sort of fit together, then we can figure out what will be the main story and what will be the other story. There might even be a third story. Then we’ll probably break off again into groups and beat those out.

Are you expecting to have an episode outline completed by the end of the day?
[Laughs.] I don’t know! I’m sure we can cobble together something. You can always make something because of time constraints because day’s end is coming. But, yes, I think we’ll be able to cobble together the bones of an episode and try to come up with what those 18 or 20 scenes could be for this typical Kim’s Convenience episode.

The Toronto Screenwriting Conference runs April 22-23, 2017. Get the latest information—including events and how to register—on the official website.

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