''XO, Kitty'' is an American romantic

comedy drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and Drama (film and television), drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple co ...

television series created by

Jenny Han Jenny Han is an American author of young adult fiction and children's fiction. She is best known for writing the '' To All the Boys'' series and ''The Summer I Turned Pretty'' trilogy, which were adapted into a film series and TV series, respec ...

for

Netflix Netflix, Inc. is an American subscription video on-demand over-the-top streaming service and production company based in Los Gatos, California. Founded in 1997 by Reed Hastings and Marc Randolph in Scotts Valley, California, it offers a fil ...

that premiered on May 18, 2023. The series, a spin-off of the ''To All the Boys'' film series (itself an adaptation of Han's book trilogy ''

To All the Boys I've Loved Before ''To All the Boys I've Loved Before'' is a 2014 young adult fiction, young adult romance novel by American author Jenny Han, first published by Simon & Schuster and released on April 15, 2014. Han was inspired to write the book based on her own ...

''), marks the first Netflix television series to be spun-off from a Netflix original film. Han serves as writer and executive producer in addition to being a showrunner. It features Kitty Song Covey going on her own journey to find true love.

Anna Cathcart Anna Cathcart (born June 16, 2003) is a Canadian actress. She became known for starring in season two of ''Odd Squad'' (2016–2019) as Agent Olympia. Cathcart also gained wide recognition for portraying Kitty Covey in Netflix's To All the Boy ...

reprises the title role. The show has received positive reviews from critics. In June 2023, the series was renewed for a second season.

Cast and characters

Main

as Katherine "Kitty" Song Covey *

Choi Min-young Choi Min-young (; born 9 October 2002) is a South Korean actor. He made his acting debut in 2014, since then, he has appeared in number of television series. He is known for his role as child actor in 2016 revenge series '' The Promise'' and 20 ...

as Dae-heon Kim * Anthony Keyvan as Quincy "Q" Shabazian * Gia Kim as Yuri Han * Sang Heon Lee as Min-ho * Peter Thurnwald as Professor Alex Finnerty * Regan Aliyah as Juliana

Recurring

Yunjin Kim Yunjin Kim (Hangul: 김윤진), also known as Kim Yun-Jin (born November 7, 1973) is a South Korean-American film and theater actress. She is best known for her role as Sun-Hwa Kwon on the American television series ''Lost'', and as the North K ...

as Director Ji-na Lim * Michael K. Lee as Professor Daniel Lee * Jocelyn Shelfo as Madison Miller *

Lee Sung-wook Lee Sung-wook (, born October 3, 1979) is a South Korean actor. He is known for his roles in dramas such as ''Duel'' (2017)'', Misty'' (2018)'','' '' 365: Repeat the Year'' (2020), and ''Forecasting Love and Weather ''Forecasting Love and ...

as Mr. Kim * Théo Augier Bonaventure as Florian *

Lee Hyung-chul Lee Hyung-chul (born February 19, 1971) is a South Korean actor. He is best known for his supporting roles in television dramas, notably in ''Scent of Man'' (2003), '' Sisters of the Sea'' (2005), '' On Air'' (2008), '' City Hall'' (2009), ''Pas ...

as Mr. Han * Sunny Oh as Mi-hee *

Ryu Han-bi Ryu Han-bi (; born February 13, 2004) is a South Korean actress. Filmography Film Television series Web series Award and nominations References External links 2004 births Living people South Korean child actresses South K ...

as Eunice

Guest

John Corbett John Joseph Corbett Jr. (born May 9, 1961) is an American actor and country music singer. On television, he is best known for his roles as Chris Stevens on '' Northern Exposure'' (1990–1995), Aidan Shaw on ''Sex and the City'' (2000–2003 ...

as Dan Covey *

Sarayu Blue Sarayu Rao (born March 7, 1975), also known as Sarayu R. Blue, is an American actress. She is perhaps best known for her recurring role as Angela on the Fox sitcom ''Sons of Tucson'', as well as Dr. Sydney Napur on David E. Kelley's ''Monday Morn ...

as Trina *

Han Chae-young Kim Ji-young (born September 13, 1980), professionally known by the stage name Han Chae-young, is a South Korean actress. She first gained recognition as the antagonist in the television series ''Autumn in My Heart'' (2000) before gaining wider ...

as Dami, Min Ho's mother *

Ok Taec-yeon Ok Taec-yeon (; born December 27, 1988), known mononymously as Taecyeon, is a South Korean rapper, singer, songwriter, actor and entrepreneur. He is the main rapper of the South Korean boy band 2PM. In 2010, Ok debuted as an actor in the Kor ...

as Ocean Park * Chaerin from

Cherry Bullet Cherry Bullet () is a South Korean girl group formed by FNC Entertainment and managed under their sub-label FNC W. They debuted on January 21, 2019, with their first single album titled '' Let's Play Cherry Bullet.'' The group currently consists ...

as Lulu

Episodes

Season 1 (2023)

Production

In March 2021, it was announced that a series spin-off to '' To All the Boys'' was in development, with each episode being a half-hour

romantic comedy Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typica ...

. The series got developed as a

exclusive, from Awesomeness and ACE Entertainment. The books' original author

was reported to be the creator, writer and executive producer as well as writing the script for the pilot with

Siobhan Vivian Siobhan Vivian (born January 12, 1979) is a bestselling American novelist, editor, and screenwriter. Early life and education Siobhan Vivian was born in New York City on January 12, 1979. At a young age, Vivian moved to Rutherford, New Jersey ...

was also reported to be reprising her role as Kitty Song Covey. Six months later, Netflix ordered ten episodes along with announcing other crew members.

Sascha Rothchild Sascha Rothchild (born November 15, 1976) is an American writer. Life Rothchild grew up in Miami Beach, Florida and is one of three siblings. Her father, John Rothchild, is a well-known non-fiction writer and her mother, Susan Rothchild, is the ...

and

Matt Kaplan Matthew Kaplan (14 April 1984) better known as Matt Kaplan is an American film producer and businessman. He is known for producing young adult films, including ''To All the Boys'' film series. He is the founder and CEO of Ace Entertainment and f ...

joined Han as executive producers while the former is also the showrunner along with Han. On April 5, 2022, Choi Min-yeong, Anthony Keyvan, Gia Kim, Sang Heon Lee, Peter Thurnwald, and Regan Aliyah were cast as series regulars while

, Michael K. Lee, and Jocelyn Shelfo joined the cast in recurring roles. By that date, production had begun in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

. Gia Kim and Sang Heon Lee, the actors who played Yuri and Min Ho, respectively, are siblings in real life. On June 14, 2023, Netflix renewed the series for a second season.

Release

''XO, Kitty'' was released on Netflix on May 18, 2023.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported an 83% approval rating with an average rating of 5.8/10, based on 18 critic reviews. The website's critics consensus reads, "A modest and sweet extension of all the films that fans have loved before, ''XO, Kitty'' aims straight for the heart and finds its mark."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned a score of 67 out of 100 based on seven critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews." While the series had a high viewership on Netflix in more than 50 countries, it received minimal attention in South Korea, where the show takes place. A reason cited for this was that the global success of South Korean media led to the country's people not caring about its depiction in foreign productions. Another explanation was that thrillers and action shows are more popular than romance shows in South Korea.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Netflix original current series 2020s American comedy-drama television series 2020s American romantic comedy television series 2020s American school television series 2020s American teen drama television series 2023 American television series debuts 2020s romantic drama television series American romantic drama television series American television spin-offs Awesomeness (company) Boarding school fiction Live action television shows based on films English-language Netflix original programming Television series about couples Television series about teenagers Television series produced in Seoul Television shows based on American novels Television shows set in Seoul