Getting a sequel to your favourite TV series is nothing new. It happened for The Night Agent. We saw it with The Diplomat. And, of course, we’re all waiting with bated breath for more of Jenna Ortega in Wednesday. But, for me, nothing will beat the pure joy of watching XO, Kitty season 2, which dropped on Netflix yesterday [16th January.]
Originally a spin-off from To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before, the first season saw Lara Jean Covey’s little sister, Kitty, jetting off to Seoul, South Korea, to reconnect with her heritage, learn more about her late mother and reunite with her long-distance boyfriend, Dae. But after her time at the Korean Independent School of Seoul ended in expulsion, we saw Kitty flying back to Portland, USA, pondering what the future might hold.
For years, K-Dramas (short for Korean dramas) were a niche TV genre that you could only watch on specific websites, and were seen as a bit ‘weird’ by some. People didn’t understand why you might go out of your way to watch a TV show in a different language, or why you’d prioritise them over the ‘trendy’ shows that everyone else is talking about.
For me, however, nothing truly beats them. Thanks to the genre’s investment in slow-burn romances and portrayals of family values, story lines often take you on an emotional journey – the kind you can’t always find in American sitcoms or British comedies. For young Asian women, we never saw people who looked like us on TV growing up, forcing us to seek solace in shows that felt more relatable to our experiences.
Thanks to XO, Kitty season 2, a whole new generation of people will only need to log into their Netflix account to see themselves reflected on screen. And the series doesn’t just deliver on romance, love triangles and drama, but also on showing what it’s like to be Asian while growing up in a Western country. It touches on truly relatable issues, such as the struggle to speak the language of your parents and your grandparents, or feeling rejected in both cultures for never quite being ‘enough’.
And yet; it’s not just about the fact Kitty is Asian. Yes, of course, that helps to make her more relatable to Asian audiences. But she’s also just a girl going through the universal teenage experience. From her first love to her desire to fit in; haven’t we all just wanted to find out who we truly are? Paired with the fact Yerin Ha will play Benedict Bridgerton’s love interest Sophie Baek in Bridgerton season 4, Beef season 2 is on its way, and Never Have I Ever got the four-season run that it deserved, it finally feels like the doors to Asian representation have well and truly been opened. And I couldn’t be happier.
XO, Kitty season 2 is now streaming on Netflix.
