‘XO, Kitty’ lacks maturity and growth

By Jenna Munswami

“XO, Kitty” is one of Netflix’s most popular shows at the moment. The second season released on Jan. 16. Since then, I went from not even knowing about the show’s existence to seeing posts about it on every social media site. Curiosity got the best of me, so I binged the entirety of it in about a week. I came out with numerous complaints about “XO, Kitty” and its second season.

If I were to nitpick the show, the biggest complaint I have is season two’s run time. The episode lengths are in alignment with the first season’s. However, it is two episodes shorter than the former. It may not be a lot of time, but there was definitely a missed opportunity to build a better resolution.

The show’s main character, Kitty, has always been slightly annoying to me. She has the quirkiness only a TV-14 protagonist could have. I know I might not be the target audience, but she is far from being my favorite character. She meddles less in the newest season. Kitty understands that not everyone can follow her next scheme, or run on “Kitty time,” as the characters occasionally call it. This was a great development, but it would have been nice to see her mature a little more after the events of season one.

On Netflix, “XO, Kitty” is listed as a romantic TV drama, but the ‘drama’ part truly needs to be emphasized. The relationships are quite messy. The only sane ones are between the characters Q and Jin along with Q and Kitty. That says a lot when there is a wide cast of characters throughout the second season alone. Q and Jin even started off on bad terms, but resolved their differences. The remaining characters do not even seem to understand how to communicate. While it may be a good portrayal of high school students, it did not make for healthy friendships or dates. Some character duos were not fortunate enough to have a resolution like Jin and Q’s; they just stopped talking to each other and then the season ended. I do wish the show allowed for more time to give audiences the happy endings we deserved to see.

If you have not seen the show, one of the main reasons that Kitty goes to the Korean Independent School of Seoul, or KISS, is because she wants to learn more about her mom. Kitty was only three-years-old when her mother passed away. Going to KISS like her mom did was supposed to be an opportunity to get closer to her. Though, it feels like season two forgets about this plot point sometimes. We do get a few really good Song-Covey family moments, but the show needs to stop using Kitty’s desire to learn more about her mom to further other family drama.

Despite all of this, there were still a lot of aspects of the season that I liked. The music is always a strong point with the combination of K-Pop and western music being really enjoyable. The casting for the new characters was also so well done. The diversity in this show is one of my favorite things about it. “XO, Kitty” might not have the strongest second season, but I still cannot wait for more.

Jenna Munswami is a sophomore communication studies major