My Roommate is a Gumiho

Starring: Jang Ki Yong, Lee Hye Ri, Bae In Hyuk
Year Released: 2021
Number of Episodes: 16
Genre: Fantasy, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Country: Korea
Where I Watched It: Viki, QIY
Recommended By: Lee Hye Ri
Who I Watched It For: Lee Hye Ri

Shin Woo Yeo is a handsome and smart writer, who is actually a 999-year-old nine-tailed fox. To become a human, he collects human energy in a bead.
One day, the drunk friend of Lee Dam, a university student, falls asleep on top of an expensive car whose owner is Woo Yeo. While Lee Dam struggles to take her friend away and Woo Yeo trying to help her, Woo Yeo’s bead accidentally falls out of his mouth, and Lee Dam unintentionally swallows it. The bead can exist inside of a human for no more than 1 year and, afterward, the bead will break inside of that person causing the person to die. Not wanting to lose his chance in becoming a human, Woo Yeo explains to Lee Dam their predicament and suggests living together until they figure out a solution. Lee Dam, who has never had a boyfriend in her life, now lives with Shin Woo Yeo.

I started this show because I’ve become a big fan of the female lead, Lee Hye Ri. I loved her acting and her character in Reply 1988 so I was looking forward to seeing what she brought to this new character, Lee Dam, and I wasn’t disappointed. My girl can act and she’s funny as hell. She plays the goofy heroine extremely well and I was here for all of it in this show.

This was the first show that I saw Jang Ki Yong front and center and holy shit, this man is beautiful! He plays the loner immortal role really well too. Seeing him bring Shin Woo Yeo to life was a delight and a half. I loved seeing him fall in love with Lee Dam, even when he didn’t know and understand that was what was happening to him. Lee Dam was the perfect match for him and I completely adored their romance.

This story was complex and it was full of baloney but holy cow was it a lot of fun. I laughed, I smiled, and I cried throughout much of this show and through it all, I was entertained as hell. I loved the friendship between Shin Woo Yeo and Yang Hye Sun. The way that they both tried to live as humans and how often they got everything so wrong made me laugh so much. Their chemistry was fun and seeing them interact with all of the young college students, when they were hundreds of years old just made this show all the more fun. I also really loved the friendship between Lee Dam and her crew. They were so ride or die for each other and every single time that they got drunk together or fought together had me cracking the hell up.

Lee Dam was my kind of character. Someone I wanted to be and someone that I wanted to be besties with. She was a lot of fun but her moral compass was screwed on tight in the right direction. She was weird and she made no apologies for that. She liked what she liked and to hell with what anyone else had to say about it. She was also extremely loyal to those that she loved and to those that loved her. She was honest and just an all-around great person and I adored the hell out of her.

The second lead was someone that I had never heard about until this show and though I liked his character well enough, I wasn’t rooting for him to win Lee Dam. I did feel bad for him though because he had it bad for her and no matter what he did to win her over, she would not be swayed from Eoreushin. Even when outside forces did whatever they could to help his cause, she would not be moved. When we first met the second lead, I didn’t care for him and he really grew on me the more episodes that I watched. In the end, my heart really hurt for him and I wished him well. I hope he’s happy, wherever he is now. Haha.

The story started off strong and though there were times when things moved at a weird pace, I enjoyed every single episode. I enjoyed the main romance, the secondary romance, and I supported the hell out of all of Lee Dam’s loved ones. I was rooting for everyone and everything to work out in the end and I wasn’t disappointed. The beginning started off strong and I respected that since a lot of books and dramas have that weird beginning hump that you have to slog through to get to all of the good bits. The cast was delightful and the acting was great. Overall, this was a fun drama that didn’t take itself too seriously and I have every confidence that you’ll like this drama if you give it a chance.

Final Rating

4.25 out of 5