The CW continues its plundering of the best of Canadian TV; this time, they’ve imported the family comedy Run The Burbs, co-created by and starring Andrew Phung of Kim’s Convenience.
Opening Shot: The Pham family stares at the back of their car, full of groceries. The dad, Andrew (Andrew Phung), says “One Trip!” to signal to his wife and kids that they should bring it all in in one trip.
The Gist: The Phams are the “cool family” on their cul-de-sac, and Andrew and his wife Camille (Rakhee Morzaria) try hard to bring their neighbors together and have some fun. One of the things they do is their yearly “Blockbuster” block party. Everyone’s excited, especially because Andrew has promised a special secret musical guest.
As their kids, older daughter Khia (Zoriah Wong) and younger son Leo (Roman Pesino), they run into Mannix (Simone Miller), who is coming home to live with her father Hudson (Jonathan Langdon) after two years living with her mother in Paris. While Hudson brags that she chose to live with him, Khia feels some feelings for her onetime best friend that she didn’t know she had.
When Andrew’s secret special guest Drake falls through because his neighbor Sebastian (Chris Locke) overstated his access to the megastar, he knows that he has to ask his neighbor Jason aka Kardinal Offishall (Himself), even though he says he’s retired. Jason agrees to do it, only if he can do his new music; when he demos it for Andrew and Hudson, it clanks in their ears.
Meanwhile, the designated HOA enforcer, Barb (Aurora Browne) tells the Phams that their party is going to be shut down because they didn’t get the right permit, and that permit goes to only one person per day. Camille tracks down who has the permit; it’s the local car club. So she goes to where their headquarters and challenges their main guy to a race — yes, with her minivan, which she calls “Van Diesel.” One caveat: Keep it street legal — after all, there are kids around.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Run The Burbs has the feel of a combination of Kim’s Convenience (Phung was part of that hit series’ cast) and Fresh Off The Boat, crossed with Cougar Town.
Our Take: Run The Burbs, created by Phung and Scott Townend, is one of those shows that will likely run hot and cold throughout the two seasons that the CW has picked up from the CBC (with a third season scheduled to premiere up north in January). It’s a cute show, with a fun family at its center and a first episode that sets up at least some of the greater world around the Phams. But the more absurdist the show gets, the less funny it is.
For instance, it’s supposed to be funny when Camille challenges the local car club to a race, albeit one that goes at 50 km/h, and because they know all of the obstacles in the neighborhood, she’s at an advantage. Of course, it shows that she’s a “cool mom” who doesn’t take any crap from anyone. And watching the world’s slowest drag race did give us a chuckle. But the race and result were all pretty silly, and could have been something that would have worked better if held for a different episode, where we get to know Camille better and know she doesn’t back down from a challenge.
The second episode is a little better, but a storyline where the Phams blow off Hudson to ingratiate themselves to their new neighbors with a pool comes straight out of every sitcom about suburban living we’ve ever seen.
Where we found some better stories was with Khia and her sudden realization that Mannix is more than a friend to her. We see it again in the second episode, where she’s encouraged to paint a mural at the local bubble tea shop by the shop’s owner, Cathy (Samantha Wong), and the only person who pumps her full of confidence about it is Mannix. There’s a sweet love story brewing there, and we hope to see more of that as the season goes along.
But our criticisms of the first two episodes doesn’t mean we won’t keep watching. Phung and Morzaria are charming as heck and are a good comedic team, and we always like watching shows where everyone in a suburban neighborhood knows and (mostly) likes each other, which feels like the 2020s version of an idyllic scenario. We just wish the situations the Phungs found themselves in were a little less silly.
Sex and Skin: Besides Andrew telling Camille that risking the van during the race makes her “f***ing hot,” there’s nothing.
Parting Shot: The Blockbuster party moves to the Phams’ backyard, and Kardinal Offishall does his old music.
Sleeper Star: Ali Hassan plays Hassan, Camille’s father, who doesn’t seem to be as pumped about the Blockbuster party as his daughter, son-in-law and grandkids are.
Most Pilot-y Line: Leo taunts his sister about liking Mannix. When Cathy asks if he has any crushes, he says, “I’m married to the job, Cathy,” to which Cathy responds, “Respect.” It’s one of those lines that’s supposed to be funny because a ten-year-old is saying it, but it makes very little sense.
Our Call: STREAM IT. The best thing about Run The Burbs is that the Phams are a family that we like spending time with, even if sometimes the plots of the episodes are more silly than funny.
Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.