XO, Kitty debuted in 2023 as a spinoff of the To All The Boys movie series, this time concentrating on Anna Cathcart’s matchmaking teen character Kitty Song Covey. It put her in South Korea, going to an international school in Seoul to meet dreamy guys and girls, as well as find out more about her late mother. Season 2 continues the story, though it seems that Kitty has tied her social life into all sorts of emotional knots as she comes back for a new semester.
Opening Shot: Scenes from Seoul, with a voice over from Kitty Song Covey (Anna Cathcart) saying “Last semester ended with so much drama. It was not supposed to be that way.”
The Gist: The aforementioned drama was a cheating scandal that got Kitty kicked out of the Korean International School of Seoul (KISS), but a phone call from her friend Yuri Han (Gia Kim), daughter of one of Korea’s largest hotel magnates, got that fixed. One problem: Kitty realized she was bi and is crushing hard on Yuri, who is still with Juliana (Regan Aliyah). Also, right before Kitty left to go back home to Portland, she broke up with Dae (Minyeong Choi), but on the plane, Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee) dropped a bomb on her and said he has feelings for her. There’s a reason why her friend Q (Anthony Keyvan) calls her a “chaos queen.”
Kitty vows to live in a single room and “date outside my direct friend group,” but that’s thrown into chaos when she finds herself in a suite with Yuri and Juliana. A fourth girl, Stella (Audrey Huynh), who is new to the school, meets her roomies, happy to see another Korean-American in Kitty. When Kitty asks now-Principal Lee (Michael K. Lee) about it, he said prices have gone up due to a reduction in student population due to the cheating scandal. She also asks the principal about a man named Simon that her late mother supposedly followed to Seoul.
During an assembly to start the semester and meet the school’s new benefactor — Min Ho’s talent agent father, much to Min Ho’s annoyance — Kitty befriends a new student, Praveena (Sasha Bhasin), as she tries to avoid Yuri and Juliana. She realizes that she might be able to date outside her friend circle when they meet.
What Shows Will It Remind You Of? More than ever, XO, Kitty is less like the movie that spawned it, To All The Boys I Loved Before, and more like the high school drama sitcom Never Have I Ever.
Our Take: Returining to the KISS school in Season 2 gives us a good picture of just how much of a “chaos queen” Kitty is, and it made us scratch our heads a bit. Sure, Kitty is cute and personable and is a natural matchmaker, but the flowchart of how many crushes she had to deal with, both the ones on her and the ones she has, was a lot to keep track of. Plus, there are unforseen consequences of all of this romance flying through the air, like the tension between Dae and Min Ho because Min Ho doesn’t want to admit that he caught feelings for Kitty.
As fun as XO, Kitty is, it feels like Janny Han and Sascha Rothchild started throwing entanglements into the mix just to see how much Kitty as a character and Cathcart as an actor can handle. Luckily, Cathcart is more than able to handle it, with funny reactions and a natural rapport with her co-stars that makes Kitty into more than just a cartoon character.
Of course, we’re more intrigued by Kitty’s search to find out more about her late mother, who seemed to come to KISS despite the disapproval of Kitty’s grandmother, who avoided Kitty’s questions about the boy her mom supposedly followed to Seoul.
Still, we’re happy to see the core of the group that made Season 1 an easy watch come back. The jury is still out on the new students, though there seems to be a lot of mystery around Stella.
Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode.
Parting Shot: Stella says to someone on the phone, “I’m here to get what I deserve.”
Sleeper Star: We’ll give this once again to Sang Heon Lee as Min Ho. When Kitty clears the air with him at a dinner thrown by Yuri the first night, he claims that it was just a crush and he felt “nothing” now, but his reaction when he first saw her indicated otherwise.
Most Pilot-y Line: At this point, you’d think the voiceover from Kitty would be phased out. But it’s as dominant in Season 2 as it was in Season 1.
Our Call: STREAM IT. While there seems to be a lot of story to sort through in Season 2, the reason why XO, Kitty continues to work is because of Cathcart’s exuberant charm.
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.