Derailment, first in the true-to-life thriller anthology Taiwan Crime Stories on Disney+, is unconvincing, but there’s still time for series to come right
- Derailment is the first of four three-part stories that make up Taiwan Crime Stories on Disney+, billed as inspired by real cases – but that’s hard to believe
- A star-studded cast does what they can with the material, but with each episode the characters become more reckless and make more bad decisions
A suspicious insurance claim in the wake of a deadly train crash provides the backdrop to “Derailment”, the first of four three-part thrillers that comprise Taiwan Crime Stories, a new anthology streaming on Disney+.
The platform will drop another trio of episodes each Wednesday that tell a stand-alone story featuring an entirely new cast of characters. Each story is inspired by a real criminal case.
The series is produced by Taiwan’s CalFilms, Hong Kong-based Sixty Percent Productions and, somewhat surprisingly, Academy Award winners Ron Howard and Brian Grazer (A Beautiful Mind), through their US company Imagine Entertainment.
Set in 2004, “Derailment” stars Allison Lin Yu-xi as Wen Qing-qiu, a claims investigator for an insurance company.
Following the latest in a string of train crashes, which the media is attributing to a mysterious terrorist known as the “Railroad Geek”, she is tasked with verifying a claim filed by two adult siblings whose elderly father died in the aftermath of the incident.