XO, Kitty review: Netflix’s To All the Boys spinoff goes full K-drama

Here are the secrets to enjoy XO, Kitty, Netflix To all the boys I’ve ever loved Spin-Off Show: The sooner you realize this is actually a completely different baseball game than the mainline movie To All The Boys, the sooner you’ll enjoy it.

The main trilogy of films was a coming-of-age romantic comedy, each with its own quirky moments but mostly grounded in reality. XO, KittyHowever, it fully embarks on teen drama territory.this is Degrassi Transformed into a K drama style. And somehow, despite all of this, the film is still incredibly PG-13 as well, with some very chaste flirting and no one keen on underage drinking. (Actually, once you do gigantic problem. )

High school TV shows tend to be overkill compared to movies, but this is a particularly interesting case study because it’s directly comparable to movies. Right from the start, the plot is already a bit complicated and exaggerated compared to the relatively straightforward movie To All the Boys. Lara Jean’s sister Kitty (Anna Cakert) wants to reconcile with her long-distance boyfriend, she decides she wants to learn more about Korean traditions, and she enrolls in an international school in South Korea. It was to be. The show wasted no time pitching her father to catching a plane to South Korea, as Kitty completed all of her application procedures without telling any of her family members. No more waiting time. of course!

Anyway, Kitty is in South Korea and finds out that her boyfriend is actually dating a wealthy socialite! I gasp!It’s dramatic in itself, but there’s something off About that relationship that hides a bigger secret (and Kitty, with her excellent sense of marriage, discovered this from one press conference livestream). Also, Kitty’s mother may have had a dark and stormy past, Kitty may have been accidentally put in the boys’ dormitory, or Kitty may have just failed all her classes.

That’s a lot, and if you’re still comparing Kitty’s story to Lara Jean’s in your mind, it feels very offensive. Especially when it comes to characters. Everyone in Lara Jean’s life is almost acting like a normal teenager, albeit a little more dramatic. But everyone in Kitty’s story, including Kitty herself, is completely upset. Perhaps there will be one character who acts like a well-adjusted, normal human being with the interests of his fellows in mind. Others are selfish and Machiavellian, often unable to hold basic conversations.

Don’t get me wrong. This is not a bad thing. Especially when you realize that this is simply a function of the genre. How else could they be hilariously over-the-top? Why don’t you talk like a decent person? ah!all plot points XO, Kitty Pushed to the limit. Any relationship is exaggerated. Unlike other teen shows like never before, Characters may react dramatically, but the drama itself is still pretty down-to-earth. XO, Kitty Staying true to the roots of Korean drama, it’s one step closer to a full-fledged melodrama.

Photo: Park Young-sol/Netflix

They’re all bad people, so you don’t dislike any particular bad person, so you end up liking them all in a kind of twisted way. Every episode ends with a big cliffhanger that makes me want to watch the next one soon. The film tackles extremes, and in that regard is more atmospherically consistent than To All the Boys, which switches to a simpler coming-of-age story after the first film’s romantic hooks are resolved. There is a nature.

Smaller shows might try to suppress some of the excess elements, XO, Kitty It perfectly takes every hyperbole of the genre and uses it to build a wild rollercoaster of high school shows. All put together in this way, these are not drawbacks, but rather bouncy fun. This is the kind of show that screams at the screen when a character makes an absolutely ridiculous choice and immediately clicks “next episode” because he has to see what happens next. Make sure you have a firm grip on the baseball cap and tighten the straps. XO, Kitty It starts fast and never slows down.

XO, Kitty Currently streaming on Netflix.