XO, Kitty review: To All The Boys’ scene stealer gets her own show

Every spin-off has an inherent risk. Of course you use a familiar world with a built-in audience, but secondary characters are often sidelined for a reason. At the three To all the boys I loved before movies stole Anna Cathcart scenes as Lara Jean’s precocious little sister, Kitty. Bubbly, wise beyond her years, and occasionally biting, a pinch of Kitty can brighten up a scene. But what happens when there’s more than one pinch? Can Kitty hold on for an entire show?

XO, Kittywhich will premiere on May 18 Netflix, counts on it, because after a quick opening sequence featuring her father (John Corbett) and stepmother (Sarayu Blue), Kitty’s family essentially disappears from the show. No cameos or quick video chats from Lara Jean or Peter Kavinsky here! After a four-year commute with Dae (Minyeong Choi), a boy she met during the family trip to South Korea, 16-year-old Kitty transfers to the prestigious Korean Independent School of Seoul (KISS). It also happens to be where her late mother spent her freshman year of high school, and Kitty is eager to feel closer to the mother she never really knew.

It’s a strong premise, taking know-it-all Kitty around the world only to suddenly be a fish out of water as she tries to solve her mother’s past. But Kitty’s strictest teacher, Professor Lee (Michael K Lee), shares some criticism that might as well be for the entire show: “Aggressive cockiness may have charmed your American teachers, but you need more work to do here.”

Kitty is… a lot. Creator and showrunner Jenny Han has a high success rate for creating charming heroines in Lara Jean (To all boys) and abdomen (The summer when I became beautiful), but those were both adaptations of her novels. XO, Kitty is her first story made especially for TV, and it feels a bit clumsy at first. The characters aren’t as lived-in, the dialogue is frustratingly divergent, and our main character swears at everyone around her, including the audience.

It takes Han time to build the core group around Kitty and all the love triangles – squares? – to list those that will determine their dynamics. Dae’s two best friends, Q (Anthony Keyvan) and Min Ho (Sang Heon Lee), have opposing views about Kitty, at least at first. After Kitty uses her matchmaker skills (we’re sorry to share that “matchmaker” seems to be Kitty’s defining trait) to help Q get closer to a boy he’s been targeting, they become fast BFFs. The rich and arrogant (but in a hot, misunderstood way) Min Ho, on the other hand, describes herself as “famously anti-Kitty,” and the two clash from the start. Finally, there is Yuri (Gia Kim), popular and beautiful, the daughter of a hotelier and the school principal (Yunjin Kim), who has a secret she will want to protect far and wide.

Filmed in Seoul, the show pays close attention to integrating Korean culture, with its food, customs and heritage, all in a beautiful, loving way. When it makes sense – and it often does – the characters speak Korean, effortlessly weaving in and out of English when Kitty is around. In her previous work, Han has proven herself to be a queen of the needle, mixing Western and K-pop hits in a way that feels seamless.

But when it comes to plot, so much depends on misunderstandings and coincidences. Not one but two crushes are triggered by truly creepy sex dreams. The unfolding mystery of the relationship between Kitty and Yuri’s mothers, who were both students on KISS in the ’90s, sometimes feels like a plot from another show. And yet, towards the end of episode five, it starts to come together and you can feel the Han magic coming in. There are a lot of balls in the air, and when they all land in the final, you realize XO, Kitty is ready for a better, richer, more interesting season two. With all the wheel spinning the show in the first half, we wish it hadn’t taken so long to get there.

XO, Kitty premieres on Netflix on May 18