This squeaky-clean teen show can pack SO much drama

Kitty Song Covey — the titular lead of XO, Kitty and the most chaotic bisexual teenager on Netflix — is back, and I am so ready to see what the hell she gets up to this season, because the first season was so gloriously over the top.

The show is technically a spinoff series of Netflix’s To All the Boys movie trilogy, itself based on a series of young adult romance books by Jenny Han. However, compared to the more grounded To All the Boys movies, XO, Kitty is absolutely off the rails — in the best way possible.

[Ed. note: This post contains spoilers for season 1 of XO, Kitty.]

Image: Netflix

It’s a teen drama where every plot point is just taken to its most ridiculous extreme. It’s also remarkably chaste: Nothing on screen ever goes beyond a slightly heated kiss, “bitch” and “ass” are the strongest swear words uttered, and little to no underage drinking is involved. In fact, the first season had a whole plotline about underage drinking being a huge no-go in South Korea. This super dramatic teen show isn’t the sex and drugs of Euphoria; it’s like High School Musical: The Musical: The Series, but with a lot more soap opera fare. Because the show doesn’t rely on the inherent shock that comes with heavier topics, it has to make everything that does happen bigger and more dramatic than it probably calls for. The result is a show that’s so dramatic it wraps back around to silly. This is a good thing.

The first season kicked off when Kitty (Anna Cathcart), younger sister of To All the Boys lead Lara Jean, goes to an international school in Korea, following in her late mother’s footsteps. She’s determined to connect to her mom, but soon discovers a dark and tangled web in her mom’s past, which also involves the school’s headmaster and the strictest teacher. Kitty, who describes herself as someone who goes after what she wants without abandon, will stop at nothing to solve this mystery… including breaking into hospitals to steal records and butting into her teachers’ personal lives. This allows for the kind of shenanigans that teen soaps were built for without bending over backward for justification; Kitty is just like that and the sooner you accept it, the more enjoyable the show will be.

Photo: Park Young-Sol/Netflix

Kitty has another reason for doing a year abroad at Korean Independent School of Seoul (known as KISS, because this show just loves to be all cutesy and on the nose like that): Her long-distance Korean boyfriend, Dae (Choi Min-young), goes there. But when she arrives, she finds out that Dae is dating rich socialite Yuri (Gia Kim)! Gasp!

No matter the specific genre, love triangles are staples of teen shows, from Gilmore Girls to Riverdale. In XO, Kitty, though, a simple love triangle evolves into a many-headed, vicious love hydra with a million added complications. Season 1 ended with Kitty’s romantic status up in the air, with deliciously promising entanglements for season 2: She realized that she and sweet Dae are better off as friends, she had a biwakening through Yuri (of all people), and she got a love confession from an unexpected source in the finale. Not only does Kitty have to deal with the chaos of her already quite frenzied dating life, her options expanded now that she’s also making heart-eyes at girls.

The family plotline and romantic entanglements don’t even begin to scratch the surface of just how much unhinged drama is packed into the 10 half-hour episodes of season 1. Kitty accidentally gets assigned to the boys’ dorms. She almost fails out of school. Every character has their own tortured family drama. And every character also just does not know how to act like a decent human being, instead jumping to the most ridiculous conclusions and pulling off the most batshit plans. That makes XO, Kitty a reliable fountain of endlessly entertaining drama — anything that can happen in the show will. No one is more guilty of this than Kitty, who is a certified human wrecking ball.

And I. Am. Obsessed.

When I watched season 1, I was a little thrown off at just how hyperbolic the show was, especially when compared to the original movie series. But now that I’ve accepted that it’s a high-octane ride that hits the gas from the first episode and never lets go, I’m more prepared for season 2. I can’t wait to hold on for dear life and see just what the hell Kitty gets herself into this time around.

Both seasons of XO, Kitty are on Netflix now.