‘XO, Kitty’ Season 2 review: Romance and chaos reign supreme in Anna Cathcart’s fun teenage drama

A still from ‘XO, Kitty’ Season 2

There’s an endearing charm to Anna Cathcart’s Kitty Song-Covey and her brand of chaos in XO Kitty that you cannot get enough of. Returning for its second season after two years, XO Kitty is chaotic and messy thanks to its numerous love triangles, romantic entanglements, and more, but it stays true to the spirit of author Jenny Han’s comforting world of largely tropey teenage drama. 

In season 2, Kitty is back at Korean Independent School of Seoul (‘KISS’ – all the episode names play on this very convenient school name), determined to be a chaos-free queen after the disastrous and complicated year she has had. While she still remains friends with her ex-boyfriend Dae (Choi Min-young), she finds out much to her horror that her roommate for the year is Yuri (Gia Kim), the friend she has a humongous crush on. To add to the mix, there’s a fair bit of tension still lingering between her and Minho (Sang Heon-lee), the school’s playboy who she gently rejects after he confesses his feelings. There are also new students — Praveena (Sasha Bhasin) a potential romantic interest for Kitty, her new roommate Stella Cho (Audrey Huynh), and Yuri’s girlfriend Julianna (Regan Aliyah). There is a flurry of activity at KISS this time around as well. While we seldom see the students pick up a book.

Kitty’s plans of having a stress-free semester soon go down the drain and she finds herself in the thick of a possible new romance, a saboteur, and the mystery of why her mother’s side of the family had a fallout. Having come out as bisexual the previous semester, Kitty also has her new sexual awakening to navigate. Much like the first season, Kitty is determined to learn more about her mother, and this makes for the more emotional, layered parts of the show. 

Anna Cathcart and Sang Heon-lee as Kitty and Minho, in a still from the show

Much of the enjoyable drama, including a ridiculously planned heist to steal something from the school archives, and an impromptu trip in search of a family member are all courtesy Kitty and Minho, whose chemistry sparkles on screen. Kitty-centric chaos is something we are all only too familiar with from the first season of the show, and there is a reprise of sorts here. Some portions however, especially the conflict involving Julianna and Yuri, feels overwrought. 

However, Despite the setting of South Korea, there is precious little that we see of Seoul; all of the drama happens largely on the KISS campus except for one ski cabin trip Kitty and her gang go on. There is a lot that veers into K-Drama territory of course, but it is surprising that the writers do not exploit this setting better. There are parallels aplenty to Jenny Han’s To All The Boys I Ever Loved, Including a scene in a hot tub at the Ski Cabin. This includes a cameo of the best kind as well, with Peter Kavinsky (Noah Centineo) making an appearance just to infuse the proceedings with his trademark warmth and charm (set to Lauv’s ‘I Like Me Better’). 

Given the success of the show’s curation of banger K-Pop music in the first season, the second season too thankfully does not disappoint in the music department. Watch out for the appearance of a K-pop idol in the latter half of the show.

A still from XO Kitty

XO Kitty’s tropey goodness is kept afloat by its immensely likable cast. As Kitty, Anna makes the character her own. If Sang Heon-lee as fan favourite Minho stood out in season one, he is back in fine form and thankfully, with a lot more screen time as well. Anthony Keyvan as Q, the voice of reason for several characters on the show, makes for a sweet and solid friend, who also thankfully has a better romance track this season. 

As Kitty navigates high school, multiple crushes, her matchmaking skills and more chaos and drama mostly set off by her,  there is a constant churning as she flits from questions about her family to her growing pile of crushes. It helps here that the characters all are endearing and fun; what’s not to like…or to binge? Season 3, I am looking at you for that long awaited Yuri-Kitty-Minho love triangle.

XO Kitty Season 2 is currently streaming on Netflix