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Netflix's recent May 18 release XO, Kitty is a spinoff of the teenage rom-com original film franchise, To All the Boys. The franchise, which features three films in its catalog on Netflix, gained massive popularity during its time (2018, 2020, and 2021) for its bittersweet storyline, hilarious plot twists, and writing.
The lead character in all three original movies was a shy high school junior, Lara Jean Covey, portrayed by actress Lana Condor. While her performance managed to win thousands of hearts, another character of the trilogy, Kitty, was also noticed by fans.
Kitty, aka Katherine Song Covey, is the younger sibling of Lara Jean. She was adorable, innocent, charming, and acted as the yang to the ying of her elder sister. Naturally, when XO, Kitty was announced, fans were excited to watch a show dedicated entirely to this character. Unfortunately, after watching the show, it's safe to say that the over-hyped anticipation was in vain.
Disclaimer: This article contain heavy spoilers for the XO, Kitty series. Furthermore, the opinions presented are purely those of the author, which are subjective in nature.
XO, Kitty review: The charm of To All the Boys trilogy does not carry over to the new spin-off show
To understand the setting of XO, Kitty, we need to first take a look at what happened in the To All the Boys trilogy.
As already mentioned, Kitty is the younger sibling of Lara Jean. The latter is a hopeless romantic who had several crushes but always feared to act upon her feelings.
Lara Jean wrote confession letters to her crushes over the years but never mailed them until one fine day, it was discovered that her letters were mysteriously sent out. We get to know in that it was Kitty in fact, who discovered all the letters and mailed them to their respective recipients. After a couple of hilarious twists, Lara Jean and her classmate Peter Kavinsky, who the former had a crush on in the seventh grade, became a thing.
After this, Kitty's confidence as a matchmaker has surged and from XO, Kitty, we learn that she even successfully managed to ignite several love stories in her vicinity. But when it comes to her own love life, she apparently hit a dead end. It is revealed that she is in love with a Korean boy named Dae, who lives in Seoul. She is constantly in touch with him until one day, she decides to move to the country for her education and meet with the love of her life. Unfortunately, life has different plans for her.
If we had to cut right to the chase, XO, Kitty feels charmless and extremely monotonous in its entirety. Firstly, the plot is predictable and some of the loopholes are very hard to make sense of. There are several attempts at comedy but none of them create an impact as they look pretentious. Interactions between Kitty and the locals of Seoul are frustrating to watch as the misunderstandings and dialogs are cringe-worthy.
Kitty's relationship with Dae is fake and it is not surprising that the duo shared zero chemistry. They were in touch only via texts and Facetime and when they meet, there is literally no spark between them. One surprising and confusing part of this show is Kitty's oblivious nature about the culture and heritage of South Korea. We definitely expected better from her since she is half-Korean and has been to the country before.
The fact that locals in the show speak English so fluently and hardly converse in Korean also feels robotic and unnatural. While things like cinematography and music are pretty well done, the acting, plot, and overall story is weak and a huge regression from the To All the Boys film series.
XO, Kitty's synopsis and cast details
The official synopsis of XO, Kitty reads as:
"A new To All The Boys I've Loved Before story begins in the official trailer for XO, KITTY. Back for another adventure, this time her own, Kitty Song Covey thinks she knows everything there is to know about love. She'll soon realize that relationships are a lot more complicated when it’s your own heart on the line."
The show stars Anna Cathcart, Choi Min-young, Anthony Keyvan, Gia Kim, Sang Heon Lee, Peter Thurnwald, and Regan Aliya in lead roles.
The series is now available to stream on Netflix.
