Animation
Kevin
‘Kevin’ is another entry in a long line of adult animation that substitutes vulgarity for comedy, and it’s predictably worth avoiding.
“Summer in Portland. Everybody’s got their person, and I’m still trying to get ahold of mine,” Kitty laments.
Of course, that’s partially her own fault. After all, she decided to start dating Dae despite the fact that she lives in the U.S. and he lives in South Korea (see To All the Boys: Always and Forever for details). And that’s why she’s taken it into her own hands to fix that problem.
Kitty recently was accepted into the Korean Independent School of Seoul, the very same school that hermom attended—and the same one that Dae goes to. Now, Kitty will be able to discover more about her mom when she was her age, and she’ll be able to work on her destiny—that is, being with Dae.
“I know when two people are meant for each other,” Kitty says. “I felt it for Lara Jean and Peter (see To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before for details), and I feel it for me and Dae.”
Kitty can’t wait to go and see Dae. Her plan? Show up at the school welcome dance, surprise him with her presence and share a kiss with him for the first time. It’ll be perfect.
What can go wrong?
Well, because this series is now moving into its third season, things do go wrong. Kitty arrives at the dance to find that Dae has another girlfriend: Yuri, the very same girl who gave Kitty a ride to school earlier that day. And before Dae can explain, Kitty storms off.
But as it turns out, Dae does have an explanation. His family cannot afford the school’s tuition, and he’s being threatened with expulsion because of it. Yuri’s willing to use her family’s fortune to cover it, provided that he pretends to be her boyfriend—kissing not needed. Yuri would reject it anyway, since she only needs him in order to fool her parents into believing that she’s not a lesbian.
It’s not exactly the most romantic tale to tell the kids.
But by Season 3, Kitty’s heart has been through the wringer: She’s dealt with those lingering feelings for Dae, wrestled with attraction to Yuri and, most recently, fallen head over heels for Dae’s best friend, Min Ho.
And as Min Ho admits he has reciprocal feelings, that last tug of the heart seems like it may even work out—except for the fact that Min Ho is about to embark on a three-month long world tour while Kitty visits family in New York.
Previous installments within the To All the Boys cinematic universe had their problems, but they also contained quite a few positive messages that we could appreciate. But while XO, Kitty continues the trend of problematic content, its positive messages are found lacking compared to previous installments.
The plot revolves around Dae’s fake relationship with Yuri, which the two engage in to hide the fact that Yuri is a lesbian. Indeed, many of our central characters are LGBT: Among others, two prominent male characters form a relationship with each other, and Kitty begins to ponder her own sexuality, too.
We’ll see a lot of passionate kissing—hetero and same-sex—up to seeing girls jumping up and wrapping their legs around their partner. A couple of episodes bring up the topic of sex dreams and whether they reveal anything about us. We’ll also deal with some other issues, too, including underaged drinking, the use of tarot cards and some swearing (up to the use of the s-word).
As for the positive side of things, we’ll watch as Kitty helps to bring a broken family back together. She’ll also garner a greater understanding of who her mother was.
But those positives may not outweigh the problematic content that’s so often integral to the plot.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at letters@pluggedin.com, or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
When Kitty flies to Seoul to enroll at the Korean Independent School of Seoul (or K.I.S.S.), she discovers that her boyfriend, Dae, is dating someone else.
We see a bunch of teenagers at a pool party in swimwear. A girl at the party straddles a boy in the hot tub while they passionately kiss. We also see two gay couples: with the first couple, a boy kisses another boy on his shoulder. With the second, a boy kisses another boy on his knuckles. We see a photo of Dae kissing Kitty on the cheek. We hear a reference to a girl being caught in an intimate moment with another girl.
When Kitty’s father agrees to send Kitty to South Korea, he questions himself about his decision. “Did I just let my youngest daughter go to Korea to have sex with her boyfriend?” He asks himself. His concerns cause Kitty to make a reference to contraceptives. And Kitty looks forward to the trip, hoping to kiss for the first time. Kitty wears a very short dress, and another girl wears a very short skirt. Many of Kitty’s shirts display her midriff. We discover that Dae is “cheating” on Kitty in order to have his tuition paid for.
Kitty is hit by a car, though she is uninjured. A song references becoming intoxicated. Kitty calls her going to Seoul an act of fate.
We hear one use of “d–n.” God’s name is used in vain five times, including once in the form of “g-dd–n.”
Kitty, sure of her feelings for Min Ho, hopes to find out if he likes her. But she struggles to find the time to talk with him before his imminent departure for a three-month world tour.
Two men kiss, as do two women. A man and woman passionately kiss, too. A woman wears a dress that exposes cleavage. Kitty falls into Min Ho’s lap following a bump on a cable car, and there’s tension. We see a man in a bathtub, his lower half hidden by bubbles. Two men comment on being attracted to another man. When some girls note that they’ll be travelling alongside Min Ho on his tour, they say they’re excited that they’ll “all get to have a little taste.” Later, some inebriated women tell Min Ho that they would like to drink alcohol off his body.
A man drinks liquor. Some people drink champagne, and one underage girl speaks with slurred speech. Others are obviously inebriated as they drink in the backseat of a car. They compel someone else to take shots.
We hear one instance of “b–ch” and two of “h—.” God’s name is used in vain three times. At one point, Kitty says “Kiss my bellinis.”
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He’s also an avid cook. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
‘Kevin’ is another entry in a long line of adult animation that substitutes vulgarity for comedy, and it’s predictably worth avoiding.
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