Three Musketeers tells the story of Park Dal Hyang (Jung Yong Hwa), a poor young man from a rural town, who goes to the capital to take the military exam. He gets involved with Crown Prince So Hyun (Lee Jin Wook) and his to guards, Heo Sung Po (Yang Dong Geun) and Ahn Min Seo (Jung Hae In). Not only does he find himself in a love triangle with the Crown Prince and his childhood love turned Crown Princess (Seo Hyun Jin), but he even ends up in the middle of the issues between multiple political factions.
Three Musketeers is only a 12 episode drama. I have to say I’m glad that it was only 12 episodes, or I probably wouldn’t have finished it. This is a drama that just did not click with me.
I did really like the first two episodes that were more focused on Dal Hyang and his journey to the capitol and passing the exam. But once he gets tangled up with the Crown Prince and his Musketeers, things grinded to a screeching halt for me. Everything got a bit to political as we dealt with all of the different factions.
The middle stretch of the drama was a long, slow journey that I found mostly boring. One thing I did find interesting during this period were the snippets of back story involving the Crown Prince and his first love Jo Mi Ryung (Yoo In Young). I wish that would have been developed more.
Things pick up a bit for the last 2-3 episodes of the drama. We get more in depth with our characters as all kinds of relationship issues come to a head. I always really enjoy Yoo In Young, and her character was the most interesting by far. A lot goes down in the final stretch, including lots of betrayal and murder.
But overall, the pacing of the drama felt extremely uneven. And I simply found myself unable to engage with the characters and the story for the most part. Despite having an interesting opening and closing, the complete dead part throughout the entire middle stretch really hurt the drama. It had a lot of potential to be a fun, thrilling saguek, but it ended up falling flat.
Maybe Three Musketeers just had the misfortune of being the follow up sageuk to the amazing Empress Ki on my drama watching list. Ah well, you win some, you lose some. Plenty of people really liked this drama, so if you’re a fan of sageuks or any of the actors in the drama, give it a go. It’s only 12 episodes, and maybe it’s just what you’re looking for.
My Rating: 5/10
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