By Katelynn Luu
“XO, Kitty” is a spin-off streaming series of Jenny Han’s popular romantic-comedy movie trilogy “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.” While the movie follows Lara Jean Song-Covey’s (played by Lana Condor) high school romance in America, “XO, Kitty” follows Lara Jean’s younger sister Katherine “Kitty” Song-Covey’s (Anna Cathcart) through her journey at a Korean international school (KISS) adjusting to the culture, discovering more about her late Korean mother and, of course, romance.
Season 2 continues Season 1’s loveably messy nature, with complicated love triangles, morally grey characters and growing friendships.
This season, many characters make bad choices, some society says are irredeemable, yet the show does a good job of humanizing their actions. Kitty and her friends are high school students, and their bad decisions aren’t born out of malice; rather, they’re making the decision that they think is best for themselves and their friends. They go through a lot of unrealistically exaggerated drama, but their emotional struggles, self-doubt and confusion are realistic.
Watching the show, I found myself rooting for all of Kitty’s friends: Yuri (Gia Kim), Dae (Choi Min-young), Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee) and Q (Anthony Kevan), even though some of them make bad and hurtful choices. As teens, it’s reasonable that they don’t always make the best decisions; high school is a time for learning and growth.
At the end of the day, they’re all friends trying to look out for each other in the best way possible, and I can tell that their intentions are always good and kind at heart, even if their actions suggest otherwise. I found the way that their friendships persevered amid the messy drama heartwarming. The way that they were able to forgive each other solidified this series as a show about teens learning and growing from their mistakes and figuring out how to be good people, whether that be as a friend, family member or significant other.
I also found the dialogue less cringy in season 2 compared to season 1, which made this season a much easier watch. However, I did find some of the conflicts and drama to be more unrealistic this season, and the addition of so many new characters made the plot and relationships hard to follow at times. But I didn’t mind that, since I don’t watch this show for realistic drama; I watch it for the messiness.
I was looking forward to the love triangle of Kitty, Yuri and Min Ho being solved this season (I’m on team Min Ho!), but I was unsatisfied by the conclusion of season 2 and am hoping for a season 3 to tie up that loose end. Without spoiling anything, I will say that Kitty had some entertaining and emotional moments with both Yuri and Min Ho, but season 2 left me rooting for Min Ho even more.
In terms of LGBTQ+ representation, I think that this season was just as good, if not even better, than last season. More LGBTQ+ characters and relationships are introduced, and the protagonist, Kitty, gets to explore her newly discovered bisexuality more. I found the side plot of the development of Yuri’s relationship with her mother, after she came out in season 1, to be a realistic representation of an LGBTQ+ person’s family struggles. Q’s relationship developments this season were also well-written and relevant enough to not just be meaningless representations.
One of my main gripes with season 1 was the major focus on Kitty’s relationship and romance troubles when her reason behind attending KISS was to learn more about her family. However, I’m happy to report that season 2 exceeded my expectations with the quality of the side plot of Kitty and her family.
Kitty had some amazing character development through the challenges that she faced in trying to learn more about her family, and I was satisfied with the conclusion of this side plot in this season. The side plot emphasized the importance of family and sisterhood, and I appreciated that it also reflected the main theme of good people with good intentions making mistakes with terrible consequences, and forgiveness being the universal balm to these consequences.
Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed season 2 of “XO, Kitty,” and would recommend it to anyone who enjoyed the drama, romance and comedy of season 1. However, if you get second-hand embarrassment from watching shows or are looking for something more mature and less cringy, this isn’t the show for you.
