(TV SERIES) Pending Train - A Would Have been More Exciting Series Personally if the Sci-Fi Element been Explored Further

I think I noticed about this series around 2 weeks ago in Netflix which only had one sentence of synopsis but enough to make me interested. However, I forgotten to watch it on its release date and only started few days after. OK, so what's it all about? Let us find out more, shall we?

Brief Story Line

When Sae Hatano (Kamishiraishi Moka - The Files of Young Kindaichi 2022, The Forest of Wool and Steel etc) went to work by train one morning, she never would have known that it would change her life as the train was derailed to an unknown location after an earthquake. Shirahama (Eiji Akaso - Zom 100: Bucket List of the Dead, Cherry Magic! Thirty Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard?! TV series etc) who was a fire fighter managed to calm down most of the passengers, but Naoya Kayashima (Yamada Yuki - School Police, Gachiban: Ultra Max etc) who was never one to follow orders, constantly challenging Shirahama's advice.

While the passengers look for ways to save themselves, they would find out later that they have been transported into the future. As they struggled with this harsh reality, some of the passengers started to show their true nature.

So what actually happened to the train? And what would happen to the passengers? You could find them in this series.

End of Brief Story Line

I mentioned above that I was intrigued by the synopsis of the series from Netflix with a premise that has always been a favorite of mine, i.e. time travel. So I began to watch this with high anticipation. And the first episode certainly lived up to my expectation with the mysterious nature of how the passengers ended up where they were. And the introduction of the people were done quite smoothly as well, with the way they went on the train ride on an ordinary day.

As the story progressed, I started to realize that the series would be focusing more on the people rather than on the mystery. Which was fine as long as the characters were interesting enough. Luckily at least I like the three lead characters here especially the contrasting nature of the disciplined Shirahama and the mind your own business attitude of Kayashima, although the development on their relationship with Hatano was quite predictable. 

Aside from those three, the series was filled with an ensemble cast that included Furukawa Kotone (Revolver Lily etc) as the self centered Rena, Inowaki Kai (Tokyo Sonata etc) as the researcher Kato, Fujiwara Daichiro as the gamer Yonezawa, Matsuyuki Yasuko (My Sweet Grappa Remedies etc) as Terasaki, a CEO of her own company, Sugimoto Tetta as the rough Mr. Tanaka and many more. Some of the support characters have more significance in subsequent episodes while others did not really have any importance other than just adding the variety of the people. 

However, despite the curiosity of finding out the why, the how and whether they would be able to return to their own time, I would have liked it better if the sci-fi element was given more focus. There was no real intensity in here which made me feel it lacking the wow factor or the part that would blow my mind. Obviously this could not be compared to other great shows with a bit of similar premise, but I was hoping that it would make me really entertained. And the ending did not really help either, even if I could understand why they wanted to do it that way.  

Btw, there was no mention in the opening or closing credits that this series was based on anything. If it was, probably it would get more hype. I noticed the series was not too appreciated by audience as well as they deemed it not dark enough (which might be true). Some of the scenes did feel a bit cheesy, especially the way the conflict was resolved in 6th episode. In the end, this series might have started off fine and its premise might have been interesting had it been explored further. But saying that I did not enjoy it at all would be an overstatement as I did like few things such as the passengers interaction, the character development of Kayashima, the dramatic nature of the 8th episode and the emotional 9th episode. 

So if you are looking for a dark survival series or a series that have strong time travel element, then this might not be to your liking. But if you like a rather melodramatic series with an ensemble cast and some romance, then you probably would enjoy this one. The choice is yours.

Mike's movie moments rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars