Kitty Tune Covey — the titular lead of XO, Kitty and the most chaotic bisexual teenager on Netflix — is again, and I’m so able to see what the hell she will get as much as this season, as a result of the primary season was so gloriously excessive.
The present is technically a by-product collection of Netflix’s To All of the Boys film trilogy, itself based mostly on a collection of younger grownup romance books by Jenny Han. Nonetheless, in comparison with the extra grounded To All of the Boys motion pictures, XO, Kitty is totally off the rails — in one of the simplest ways attainable.
[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for season 1 of XO, Kitty.]
It’s a teen drama the place each plot level is simply taken to its most ridiculous excessive. It’s additionally remarkably chaste: Nothing on display ever goes past a barely heated kiss, “bitch” and “ass” are the strongest swear phrases uttered, and little to no underage ingesting is concerned. Actually, the primary season had an entire plotline about underage ingesting being an enormous no-go in South Korea. This tremendous dramatic teen present isn’t the intercourse and medicines of Euphoria; it’s like Excessive Faculty Musical: The Musical: The Collection, however with a lot extra cleaning soap opera fare. As a result of the present doesn’t depend on the inherent shock that comes with heavier subjects, it has to make every little thing that does occur greater and extra dramatic than it in all probability requires. The result’s a present that’s so dramatic it wraps again round to crazy. It is a good factor.
The primary season kicked off when Kitty (Anna Cathcart), youthful sister of To All of the Boys lead Lara Jean, goes to a world faculty in Korea, following in her late mom’s footsteps. She’s decided to connect with her mother, however quickly discovers a darkish and tangled internet in her mother’s previous, which additionally includes the varsity’s headmaster and the strictest instructor. Kitty, who describes herself as somebody who goes after what she needs with out abandon, will cease at nothing to resolve this thriller… together with breaking into hospitals to steal data and butting into her academics’ private lives. This enables for the form of shenanigans that teen soaps had been constructed for with out bending over backward for justification; Kitty is rather like that and the earlier you settle for it, the extra fulfilling the present can be.
Photograph: Park Younger-Sol/Netflix
Kitty has one more reason for doing a yr overseas at Korean Unbiased Faculty of Seoul (referred to as KISS, as a result of this present simply likes to be all cutesy and on the nostril like that): Her long-distance Korean boyfriend, Dae (Choi Min-young), goes there. However when she arrives, she finds out that Dae is relationship wealthy socialite Yuri (Gia Kim)! Gasp!
Regardless of the particular style, love triangles are staples of sweet sixteen reveals, from Gilmore Women to Riverdale. In XO, Kitty, although, a easy love triangle evolves right into a many-headed, vicious love hydra with 1,000,000 added issues. Season 1 ended with Kitty’s romantic standing up within the air, with deliciously promising entanglements for season 2: She realized that she and candy Dae are higher off as associates, she had a biwakening by means of Yuri (of all individuals), and she received a love confession from an sudden supply within the finale. Not solely does Kitty need to take care of the chaos of her already fairly frenzied relationship life, her choices expanded now that she’s additionally making heart-eyes at women.
The household plotline and romantic entanglements don’t even start to scratch the floor of simply how a lot unhinged drama is packed into the ten half-hour episodes of season 1. Kitty unintentionally will get assigned to the boys’ dorms. She virtually fails out of college. Each character has their very own tortured household drama. And each character additionally simply doesn’t know find out how to act like an honest human being, as an alternative leaping to probably the most ridiculous conclusions and pulling off probably the most batshit plans. That makes XO, Kitty a dependable fountain of endlessly entertaining drama — something that may occur within the present will. Nobody is extra responsible of this than Kitty, who’s an authorized human wrecking ball.
Once I watched season 1, I used to be a bit thrown off at simply how hyperbolic the present was, particularly when in comparison with the unique film collection. However now that I’ve accepted that it’s a high-octane experience that hits the gasoline from the primary episode and by no means lets go, I’m extra ready for season 2. I can’t wait to carry on for expensive life and see simply what the hell Kitty will get herself into this time round.
Each seasons of XO, Kitty are on Netflix now.
