We all know the shows that are so good they are bad, and some people may consider Netflix’s XO Kitty one of these shows. A sequel of the movie series To All The Boys I’ve Loved, the show follows Katherine Song-Covey, better known as Kitty, as she moves to South Korea to attend the boarding school, Kiss. The show mainly focuses on Kitty’s love life with the other students of Kiss, and recently came out with a second season this past January.
Despite the excitement surrounding the release of its second season, XO Kitty stays the same lackluster show since its first season. The show spends most of its time focused on the setting, romanticizing South Korean life in an unrealistic setting. Kitty nearly fails her classes, yet still somehow manages to stay at Kiss under scholarship money. The second season features a random talent show where the characters essentially just prance around on stage to Kpop songs, with no proper development or lead up.
The worst part of the show, though, is not the lack of plot or atrocious world building. It is the characters themselves. Starting with the lead, Kitty lacks any actual character traits. She has motivations, such as finding out about her mother’s past or gaining the true love she saw from her sisters’ experience, but her journey towards these are boring because of her lack of character. It causes her character to come off as just annoying instead of entertaining, and leaves no heart for the show to build the rest of the characters off of.
Besides Kitty, the other characters could be considered decent at best. They all have interesting backstories, but follow the same tropes that have been seen in television over and over again with no new approaches. There is the character with all the riches in the world, yet is miserable. There is the character that lacks money and continues to work towards their gains. It’s basic, but not in a good way, and I wish the writers gave us more.
XO Kitty had a lot to live up to since it followed To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, which was well crafted and written to create an enjoyable story despite its repeated tropes. It is an easy watch that you can binge, and the complete opposite of XO Kitty. The show itself is a hard watch, and I can only hope for a redemption with its upcoming third season.
