If you’re a teenage girl (and even if you’re not), you’ve probably heard of the “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before” franchise of movies and books. Part of the franchise is the spinoff “XO, Kitty,” which is in its second season on Netflix.
“XO, Kitty” is filmed and based in Seoul, South Korea. Katherine “Kitty” Song Covey (Anna Cathcart), the little sister of Lara Jean Song Covey (Lana Condor) who is from the To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before (TATBILB) storyline, is the main character of the show XO, Kitty. In To All The Boys: Always and Forever, that is when younger Kitty meets Dae Heon Kim (Minyeong Choi) who is also in the show as Kitty’s first boyfriend/love interest.
In the first season, Kitty goes to KISS (The Korean Independent School of Seoul) to be with Dae, her long-distance boyfriend, and connect with her late mother, Eve Song, who also attended KISS. Once Kitty arrives at KISS, we are also introduced to Min Ho Moon (Sang Heon Lee), Quincy “Q” Shabazian (Anthony Keyvan), and Yuri Han (Gia Kim), some of the main characters that are prevalent throughout the series.
The last episode of the first season ends on a cliffhanger when Kitty goes back to America after being expelled from KISS and Min Ho goes after her on the plane, confessing to her that he has fallen in love with her. This cliffhanger is where season two picks up on, as we see Kitty driving back to KISS.
Although she did get expelled, there were some strings pulled to get her back at KISS. On her drive to KISS, Kitty is reminiscing about what happened on the plane with Min Ho, but is also coming to terms with that this semester. She will focus on her actual goal – connecting with her mother.
In the second season, we are introduced to new characters and see a lot of old faces. Some of the new characters we are introduced to are Esther “Stella Cho” Shim (Audrey Huynh) and Praveena Bhakti (Sasha Bhasin) as well as seeing a comeback from Eunice Kang (Han Bi Ryu) and Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo). Although Peter isn’t a character from the first season, he is one of the main characters of the TATBILB trilogy, as he is Lara Jean’s boyfriend, making references to its origin.
In season two, Kitty and Min Ho’s affection doesn’t develop as much as fans, including myself, hoped. Although there are a few glimpses such as the prom scene and the rainy scene that I enjoyed.
There were a lot of parallels between this season and the TATBILB movie, such as the track and hot tub scene with Lara Jean and Peter Kavinsky, which I found to be enjoyable and interesting. Other than these parallels, Kitty continues to grow as a character, from her figuring out her true feelings, to her continuous search for the life her mother had when she was a student at KISS.
Kitty had a lot of character development and it is very noticeable during season 2. In season 1, she arrives at KISS as a shy and reserved person, not really knowing herself fully and her intentions. Throughout the season, she slowly becomes more open, befriending more people, and even involving herself in some drama. In season 2, she becomes more confident in who she is and what she wants and doesn’t let that stop her, even if it gets messy. From these experiences, Kitty’s development shapes the storyline throughout this series, especially in season 2.
If you’ve ever watched To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, you know of the iconic Peter Kavinsky intro, with a specific song that a lot of fans love, which appears as well in this season, which I really enjoyed watching because I felt it paid homage to the To All The Boys franchise.
When it comes to Kitty figuring out more about herself and her mother, I felt as though it could’ve been developed a lot more in a more introspective way instead of just focusing on the drama occurring around her. This season, a lot more drama unfolds and it becomes quite difficult to catch up with everything that is occurring.
Season 2 ended in a similar way as season 1, with a cliffhanger, and we know Jenny Han loves to include cliffhangers! This cliffhanger is quite similar to the first one, where we see Kitty and Min Ho figuring out what they are going to do for summer break. It leaves hope for viewers to expect more romance in the cards for them.
Although there were a few things that I wish could’ve been changed, one thing I liked about this season was how we saw more of Yuri and Juliana (Regan Aliyah) together. However, in some instances, I didn’t like how Juliana acted towards Kitty because I felt she was very overbearing. Still, I would say her feelings were valid whenever Kitty was around Yuri, since she knew that Kitty had feelings for Yuri, especially from what we saw during season 1.
My overall rating for this season was an 8/10. It wasn’t horrible, but it could’ve been a lot better, especially with the development of certain points that occurred in season 1. For example, the relationship between Professor Alex Finnerty (Peter Thurnwald) and his new-found family. Since we only get a few glimpses, I would’ve loved to see more how he is with his family.
Recently, XO, Kitty, has received the green light for season 3, so the cliffhanger wasn’t going to stay on the cliff, which I’m super excited about. While we don’t know when exactly the season will be released, it is best to stay tuned for next year. If you enjoy drama-filled teen rom-coms, then this show is definitely for you!
