Summary
XO, Kitty Season 2 continues to deliver a fun and emotionally charged blend of American young adult drama and Korean tradition, offering light entertainment, stunning production value, and just enough drama to keep you hooked, even if its cultural fusion sometimes feels a bit forced.
If you’ve seen Season 1, I’m sure you know the base story of Jenny Hans’ Netflix Series, XO Kitty. If you haven’t, however, here’s a quick rundown.
Kitty, a matchmaker living in America, decides that being in a long-distance relationship no longer serves her values. Therefore, she flies to KISS Boarding School in Seoul, where her boyfriend is currently studying and where her mother went to school when she was a child. She takes this opportunity to learn more about her mum and her family.
After a lot of drama in season 1, we see Kitty as a single lady, questioning her sexuality and on the precipice of whether or not she will return to KISS the following year.
Spoiler alert: season 2 suggests that she does.
Kitty walks into season 2, making a pact to have a “drama-free semester” at KISS after almost not returning. Despite knowing it will be chock-block with drama, I found this to be a sweet and genuine character trait for Kitty.
And then in comes Stella, masquerading as a sweet, innocent Christian girl. Singing soft hymns and praise, how could anyone think she could be up to something revengeful?
Stella has an evil plan in mind, and we, viewers, know something is up. However, we don’t know what yet, so the drama unfolds in Semester Two of KISS.
“What is Stella’s big evil plan”? This is the central question of season 2, but many other questions follow:
- “What will happen between Kitty and Yuri?”
- “What will happen between Kitty and Min Ho?”
- “Will Kitty find her family?”
- “Are Q and Florian still together?”
It’s a mess being a young adult in today’s dating world; I don’t envy it.
Season 2 of XO Kitty offers viewers a fun, easy-going, emotionally charged storyline. I would guess that XO Kitty’s selling point is trying to merge two genres, American Young Adults and Korean Drama, to expand the viewership of Korean Drama series. And I can’t fault the idea.
Though the experience is enjoyable, there is a disconnect. XO Kitty focuses a lot on its themes of sexual fluidity, which is expected, but it feels newly placed in K-Drama, which tends to center on themes of traditionality. I wondered if this was the only way the writers and producers could blend these two genres of shows.
Does everything now need to be focused on sexuality, identity, and fluidity to gain a wider viewership? However, I would argue that the ending reaches back to these traditional values in some regard.
Admittedly, it must be hard to meld two opposing cultural shows into one with the hope of expanding audiences.
The cast of XO Kitty continues to deliver a believable and enjoyable connection to one another. Anna Cathcart (Kitty – as part of To All The Boys universe) especially delivers the perfect blend of excitable, joyful, and hopeful while contrasting moments of grief, disappointment, and sadness. The actress doesn’t overdo or underdo her roles. It’s a delightful viewing experience. However, XO Kitty’s cast does have some poor cheesy acting moments, but that’s easy to overlook.
What I love most about this series is the production value. I’ve left XO Kitty with a huge desire to visit Seoul. The locations were bright and beautiful; the school uniforms were cute and sweet, and the transition scenes were fitting. Overall, the whole look was spot-on.
XO Kitty continues to be enjoyable to watch. Although there is not much depth or nuisance, and there are storyline arcs I would change, I still binge-watched both seasons to write this review, and I honestly did struggle to stop watching. So much so that I viewed the last episode without releasing it.
