What a view | Taiwan Crime Stories’ second instalment is a definite improvement, but the jury is still out on the Disney+ thriller series

Wang Po-chieh and Frederick Lee Ming-zhong star as a journalist and a cold-hearted criminal in the second instalment of Taiwan Crime Stories

Meanwhile, on Apple+ TV’s The Mosquito Coast, Justin Theroux stars as Allie Fox, who continues to annoy drug cartels and governments as he moves his family off grid

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Why you can trust SCMP

Wang Po-chieh (left) and Frederick Lee in a still from “Taiwan Crime Stories”, streaming on Disney+ . Photo: Disney+

Stephen McCarty

Published: 7:45am, 27 Jan 2023

Those who rushed to judgment on the Disney+ offering Taiwan Crime Stories might have been wiser to wait for it to develop before panning it. Or not.

An anthology series of four parts, it might well have been keeping its powder dry when kicking off with Derailment, the story of an insurance scam with unintended but devastating consequences and much collateral damage.

Starring Rhydian Vaughan as police prosecutor Chen Lang-yu and Allison Lin Yu-xi as insurance company claims investigator Wen Qing-qiu, Derailment tells of two financially hamstrung brothers and their ailing father, all caught up, to varying degrees, in a train crash.

Debts have gone unpaid, and when blood suddenly appears in the water, as it were, the loan sharks strike.

Rhydian Vaughan (left) and Allison Lin in a still from “Derailment”, part of “Taiwan Crime Stories”. Photo: Disney+

A double life, an apparent betrayal and the inevitable cosying up again of former lovers Lang-yu and Qing-qiu might not always make for the most thrilling action, but the intrigue surrounding the case compensates for any lack of narrative pace.