The series had been planned to start production in 2020, but was delayed until early 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada.[1] It premiered on September 14, 2021.[4] It was renewed for a second season, which premiered in September 2022. The CBC announced in April 2023 that the show would not be picked up for a third season.[5]
Production
The show initially faced some criticism for the implications of the fact that Shannon, the only white character in the core cast of Kim's Convenience, was being given her own spinoff over any of the show's Asian characters.[6]John Doyle of The Globe and Mail noted the complexities of the situation, explaining that since all of the other major characters in Kim's Convenience were drawn from Ins Choi's original theatrical play, and Shannon was the only character who had been newly created specifically for the television series, she was the only character who was the intellectual property of the show's producers and thus the only one who could be spun off without Choi's participation.[7]
Doyle favourably reviewed the first episodes of the series, writing that "The sheer energy of Strays is admirable. It's gags galore and it can be fiendishly clever contrivance, often anchored in the style of that theatrical staple, the British bedroom farce. At the same time, it's a distinctly contemporary Canadian series, with a diverse cast, and if there's a tincture of subtext that subtext is tolerance. But you'd hardly notice with all the exuberance on display. Besides, there are cute animals almost everywhere."[9]
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