I read many reviews about Under the Microscope, which write that the plot of the show is very dry. THIS IS PRECISELY WHY I LOVED IT AND WHY YOU SHOULD TOO!!!

I have a PhD in medieval European history, and always find Western medieval shows to be entertaining but wildly inaccurate and off the mark about the real issues and mentality of medieval people.

Under the Microscope is the very opposite. It is centered around an extremely important issue that was omnipresent in the life of people: taxes and land. Behind these issues lie broader concerns about governance, class, power, managing an agricultural society… You can tell that it is based from archival research by author Ma Boyong.

I know a show about taxes and land sounds less sexy than a xianxia romance, but if anyone is Interested in the nitty gritty of history, this show is one of the best and most unique ones I’ve watched. It shows you how the Ming administration worked, how different levels of government could be levelled against one another depending on their jurisdiction, how a seemingly small matter had life-or-death consequences for ordinary peasants, how corruption was widespread, how social inequalities created by land and wealth concentration within the hands of a small aristocratic elite could bring disaster to a whole region… It might seem abstract, but the plot and production make it very engaging, and embody these problems within the scenario and the characters.

On top of these qualities:
- The acting is great, especially the acting from the veteran actors.
- The production value is high. The costumes, cinematography, sets are all great.
- It’s only 14 episodes, unlike the slow-moving, unncessary 50-episode shows which don’t respect viewers’ time. The pace is good. The plot moves forward every episode.
- There are great character arcs that will make you scream YESSSS!
- It is appropriately cheesy and heroic like normal Chinese dramas. There’s some action thrown in here and there to spice things up. There’s moving moments that made me cry at the end!

I hope many Chinese history fans will give this show a chance!





Spoilers below





- I loved how most characters are given credible motives and context. For instance, Magistrate Mao is depicted as a bad guy, but he is given a great scene in which he explains he’s not from a noble or scholarly family, so yes, he is corrupt and is in Master Fan’s pocket, but he’s got nothing to lose. Similarly, I loved how Magistrate Deng explains to Shuai Jiamo that he may agree with him about the hard math, but because of politics, his hands are tied.
- The show was very smart in explaining how the small matter of the silk poll tax could impact both the average people, and be an entry point for officials to curry favor with the imperial court by tying it to the meta-issue of land measurement.
- My favourite character arc was Magistrate Fang’s, who evolves from his mediocre, do-nothing attitude to a heroic stance. There was something very believable in his initial flailing, then his move towards being indignant of his colleagues’ treatment towards him, and finally his redemption arc as a righteous magistrate.
- Many characters are endearing as hell. Feng Biyu and Feng Baoyu were adorable, and Cheng Renqing was a compelling figure.
- There are some plotholes (why didn’t the bad guys kill Cheng Renqing, the lawyer, being the biggest one), but overall, the plot holds.
- The depiction of Shuai Jiamo is problematic, and it was clearly used as a narrative device to contrast Jiamo’s purity with the world’s corruption.