Frightening Cohabitation (2021)

The journey is worth the time

I liked this drama. I really liked it. But if you're looking for a unique story, this may not be the best place for you. Gumiho follows the same trends as most interspecies romances, from the trigger that pulls the characters together to the overly-predictable "plot twists" towards the end that make you wonder how far they have to go to pad the runtime. But there is one thing that Gumiho has that a lot of its predecessors are lacking: a unique mood.

While on paper there isn't much that Gumiho does new, it does present its plot and characters in a unique way. The melodrama is forgotten in favour of a bright, colourful world of comedy, charms and ridiculous moments. The solemn, isolated otherworldly creature is still present in the ML, but he meets his match in Lee Dam, a bright college student who has no qualms about closing the gap between them. Both the actress and character have this infectious happiness about them that draws you to them in much the same way she does Shin Woo Yeo and I found myself binging the episodes without ever intending to.

Gumiho doesn't just have good leads, though. A lot of the characters are unique, with stories and interests of their own. For me, Yang Hye Na really stole the show with her over-the-top yet very genuine personality. In most stories, she would be turned into an antagonist who is either at odds with the main couple or trying to tear them apart. But no. She's amazing. Despite her apparent lack of interest in SWY, she helps him watch over LD and gives him all the advice in the world to help him become human before his time is up. The relationship that she instead forms with Do Jae Jin, LD's friend, is silly and wholesome and everything you could want in a side couple. We don't see much of LD's brother Dan, but what we do see shows the same world building - he's a character that only shows up now and then and is never deeply delved into, but we see he had an interest in archery. That may not sound like much, but there are so many dramas out there that are so focused on making their characters do the thing that they want them to do that they forget to give them hobbies and interests, which are so integral to understanding a character. There's even a sibling duo found in the second love interest and his sister (Gye Sun Woo and Gye Seo Woo) that feels strangely fantastical yet totally believable. Props to the team for that. Really, I couldn't have asked for more.

The show has its faults, though, which mostly come in the form of the writing further into the show. As soon as the main couple comes together - in the same episode, in fact - they're suddenly bombarded with 101 reasons they can't be together, reasons which were not really present at any time before that, and they're all the plot twists that you've heard before with interspecies dramas. This is where my binging turned to watching every few days. Conflicts need to exist in a story for it to continue moving forward, but the conflicts they used were so arbitrary and the writing surrounding them so bland that I started losing interest. Everything else outside of those issues was still enjoyable and I liked it, but with the central focus being so unoriginal I found that even the acting suffered and it was hard to press 'play.' They even introduced the dreaded love triangle that is totally one-sided and is just there to slow our main couple's relationship down.

Putting that aside, I do really think that this drama is immensely enjoyable. It's creative and fun, most of the characters have amazing dynamics together and the team took the time to make them feel real. The biggest problem is the endgame conflicts, but if you go into it prepared and steel your heart from some disappointing, eye-rolling developments, you'll be just fine. Don't let the weak ending deter you - the journey up to it is worth your time.

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