Sneha Jaiswal (Twitter | Instagram)
XO Kitty is back, and Kitty has a new nickname for herself – chaos queen. She is always butting into other people’s business, trying to play matchmaker, and changing crushes like a diva changes her outfits. She might be completely over Dae, but still has her heart set on the ‘very much in a relationship’ Yuri, while the same heart skips a beat over the hot playboy Min Ho. All of this despite resolving she won’t date within the same group to avoid drama. Tsk. Tsk. Good luck with that, Kitty.
Anna Cathcart reprises her role as protagonist Kitty Covey, who goes back to America after a fun, but ultimately disastrous first semester at the Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS) in Seoul, as an International scholarship student. In a fortunate turn of events, Kitty’s scholarship is extended, so she returns to Seoul in XO Kitty season 2 for her second semester in the city with her friends. However, things are a little awkward for her within the friend group.
Kitty’s ex-boyfriend Dae (Minyeong Choi) is still not over her, Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee) is acting strange after she turned him down post his mid-flight ‘love’ confession, and Kitty feels unsure how to act around Yuri (Gia Kim) because she still has a massive crush on Yuri. Amid all this relationship drama, Kitty embarks on a side mission to explore her Korean roots in Seoul after discovering that her grandmother has an estranged sister living in Korea – someone no one ever mentioned to her. And Quincy AKA ‘Q’ (Anthony Keyvan), continues to be Kitty’s confidante and loyal best-friend through all her changing moods, crushes, and nosiness.
I feel like I could just copy-paste most of my critique for season one of “XO, Kitty”, since season 2 is largely a re-hash of the same sub-plots, themes, and elements. For instance, this para still stands true from my earlier review – Despite the plot holes and clichés, the pretty-looking sets and talented actors make “XO, Kitty” a fun, escapist teen drama that has its own share of K-drama style twists.
‘XO, Kitty’ Season 2 goes big on its K-drama elements by introducing Min Ho’s dad Mr Moon (Philippe Lee), a famous talent manager, who makes a big donation to KISS, and starts a singing talent show on campus. So you have students singing popular K-pop songs, and Dae reveals himself to be quite the talented vocalist!
Some of the new student characters include exchange student Stella (Audrey Huynh), who is Kitty’s roommate at school and expresses romantic interest in Min Ho. Sasha Bhasin plays Praveena, one of the most interesting new faces in the season, who asks Kitty out on a date. But things unfortunately do not go anywhere between the two, it could’ve been a fresh sub-plot that’s left unexplored. Praveena seems smart, fun, adventurous, but Kitty simply has her head all over the place. If anything, Kitty is a lot more annoying this season, but since Anna Cathcart has the cutest smile, she makes Kitty are lot more likable than the character really is.
The creators should’ve simply gone for a completely new spin-off called K.I.S.S or something along those lines, making the series about multiple protagonists instead of centering everything around Kitty. Anna Cathcart is lovely, but many other cast members exude far more “main character energy” than she does. This season had the potential to be much more fun than the first, but it falls short – though it still manages to be an entertaining teen show, thanks to the very charming cast.
Rating: 6 on 10. Watch XO Kitty Season 2 on Netflix.
Also Read: Missing You Review: One Cop, Too Many Mysteries (Audio version below)