Show Review: XO, Kitty Season 2

January 29, 2025

I am a big fan of all of Jenny Han’s work ( To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before movie series, The Summer I Turned Pretty series ) and this was no exception.

This series follows young Kitty, Laura Jean’s little sister from the All The Boys I’ve Loved Before movie series, as she wants to lean into her Korean roots and learn more about her mother in doing so. Being the youngest in her family, and how young her mother was when she passed, Kitty had so little time with her mother. She enrolls in a high school in Korea called KISS in the first season of this show, and in this season we are back for the second semester. The first semester ended poorly, and she was told that she would not be welcomed back, but her friend (who she discovered before she left that she was in love with ) Yuri, pulls some strings with her mom ( the principal ) and is allowed to return. Just before leaving KISS for winter break, she breaks up with her boyfriend, Dae, and his best friend Min Ho announces his love for her. It feels as though all is a mess and crumbling around her, but she has to get back to Korea to learn more about her mom.

As with all of Jenny Han’s work, this has a perspective on Korean American women that isn’t seen a lot in YA content. I love her dramatic and beautiful view of girlhood and growing up and the team that they have built to translate her writing to screen is so good at making the magic and heartache and longing and drama of being a young girl feel so real and relatable. This show feels extra soapy to me, but what teen girl doesn’t love a little soap?