Strays Review
By Jerrison Oracion, Senior Columnist
Kim’s Convenience has potential for spinoffs with its variety of characters; luckily, White decided to work on a spinoff centring on Handy Car and Truck Rental manager Shannon Ross (played by Canadian Screen Award winner Nicole Power) with Strays.
Earlier this year it was announced that this would be the last season of Kim’s Convenience; this is despite contracts for a sixth season. It is not because the stars of the show were busy doing other projects but possibly because show creators Ins Choi and Kevin White may not have been passionate to continue working on the show. After watching the last episode of the show, I think that they could have done one more season to give it a proper ending; a lot of things happened in it that I won’t mention because spoilers are no fun.
If they kept going without Choi and White, the show might not be as funny as it is and turn into an entirely different show. Kim’s Convenience has potential for spinoffs with its variety of characters; luckily, White decided to work on a spinoff centring on Handy Car and Truck Rental manager Shannon Ross (played by Canadian Screen Award winner Nicole Power) with Strays.
As Ross described in the last episode of Kim’s Convenience, the optimistic and diva-like manager moves from downtown Toronto to the industrial town of Hamilton to manage an animal shelter called Hamilton East Animal Shelter. In the first episode, we see her temporarily living in the animal shelter while renovating it. As she prepares for the animal shelter’s grand re-opening with a birthday party for its very old cat, Missy, her aunt who lives in the area asks Ross to hire her cousin, Nikki, who is the opposite of Ross, leading to problems in the work environment.
After watching the first episode, I was confused as to what was happening. So, I looked through it again and thought about what happened in the last episode of Kim’s Convenience and began to understand what was happening but it wasn’t all that funny. The situation between Ross and her relatives might have contributed to this but hopefully, this will change as the season progresses.
Ross’s swagger still made the show enjoyable, and she is still positive even during serious situations. We get a feel for the rest of the staff including their acting animal care manager, Kristian, their janitor, Gary, and their financial and social media manager, Joy. The animal shelter’s realtor, Liam, could be important in the show if there are sparks between him and Ross but we will learn more about them and the rest of the characters in the next few episodes.
There is a possibility that other characters in Kim’s Convenience could make an appearance in the show; I’m hoping that Kimchee will be one of them. When I was watching Kim’s Convenience, there were scenes (which White probably wrote) in Handy Car and Truck Rental that looked like another show and they had the same atmosphere as Strays. Mr. Kim’s best friend, Mr. Mehta, could also get his own show so we could see what his business looks like.
While the first episode of Strays is not as good as it could be, I think it will get more interesting as the season progresses assuming Ross and the rest of the staff get involved in more situations with pets.
