REVIEW: ‘Pending Train’ Struggles to Generate Speed

A tried-and-true sci-fi scenario is taking a group of people and placing them in a mysterious place suddenly. Watching the group make sense of their strange predicament and put the pieces of the puzzle together provides an exciting viewing experience. However, after the success of shows like Lost and Alice in Borderland, the bar is set high for crafting a similar story that matches that excitement and impact. Unfortunately, Netflix’s latest sci-fi drama, Pending Train, fails to capture attention due to its slow-rolling plot.

The series starts with a group of people commuting on the train. Simple, right? It is until an earthquake hits. Due to a freak occurrence and surge of energy, Train #5 gets transported many decades into the future. Discombobulated and lost, the survivors try to put the pieces together where they are and what’s happened. Realizing that they’re in the leftover deserted remains of Japan, they must either make their place in this new world or try to survive long enough to find their way home and warn the world of what the future will bring.

Where the series succeeds is its focus on its characters. Pending Train takes its time allowing us to get to know the core group of survivors. Leading the pack (and taking the bulk of the focus) is firefighter Yuto Shirahama (Eiji Akaso), gym teacher Sae Hatano (Moka Kamishiraishi), and hairdresser Naoyo Kayashima (Yûki Yamada). In the first episode, they all embody a general archetype: the hero, the gentle pacifying female lead, and the cynic.

As time goes by, we start to see the layers in both performance and in characters. Yuto struggles with the trauma of his failures, revealing that his heroic act is more a façade than reality. Sae is calm, but mostly out of necessity. Struggling to find her voice, she gravitates towards those more assured than herself. But, through her experiences in this new world, she finds her truth and her purpose. Naoyo, while cynical, truly cares more than he lets on. Having suffered and taken on the role of parent to his little brother, we learn how all of his sacrifices have shaped him to be the true hero of Pending Train. Refusing to take credit, he is more comfortable staying out of the limelight.

The beating heart of the series is in its characters. All of the characters featured are well-developed. They feel like real people, with none of the core characters feeling one-dimensional. You’ll love to hate the young fashionista Rena Watanabe (Kotone Furukawa), but you’ll understand why she only cares about her survival over everyone else. Tetta Sugimoto‘s Yaichi Tanaka maintains a thorough of comedic relief, but the freedom the new future brings unlocks a terrifying crazed side of the older man.

All this development comes together to help us invest in the ongoing drama of Pending Train, but it’s not enough to make up for how slow the plot unfolds. There’s a new plot discovery in each episode but, with so much emphasis placed on the character drama, it sometimes feels like the plot is in stasis. It isn’t until we hit the halfway point that things feel like they’re going somewhere. With such a fascinating hook, losing momentum after the first episode is a crime.

Part of this stasis is influenced by the centralized location of the series. Mostly sticking to the inside of the train and the small areas around the train, our group isn’t given much room to explore to get the plot going. It’s when they venture outside of their bubble that things start to happen. But, with the train proving to be the primary connection to the world they left behind, it’s no wonder the group remains stationary.

Most baffling is the sound editing, most specifically when it comes to the score. There would be scenes in Pending Train that were fraught with high-intensity emotion, but the music edited in would embody a feeling or energy that was conflicted with what the scene called for. This happens many times throughout the series, yet it was difficult to understand the decision-making process behind these edits. Either way, it proved distracting and took away the impact of certain moments.

It’s hard not to appreciate Pending Train for at least giving an ending that provides some closure. Yes, there is an open ending that leaves things up for audience interpretation. But, given how so many series set things up for a following season or end with a cliffhanger, the ending of Pending Train gives something for audiences to look forward to. So, even if the middle of the series is a struggle to push through, there is a light at the end of this subway tunnel.

While Pending Train does not reinvent the wheel nor does it fully capture attention with its overall plot, the characters are the beating heart of the series. Thanks in part to the performances as well as how well-written the characters were, you can’t help but love them, hate them, or want to bop them upside the head. If you do watch the series, do it for the characters and for the closure the series delivers. But if you’re searching for something with fast-paced intensity, Pending Train fails to pick up steam in that area.

Pending Train is playing now on Netflix.