Murder, mystery and friendship.
Erased is the story of an ordinary man who has the power to travel back in time to prevent life threatening events. How he got this power is never explained and doesn’t matter, it’s just the engine for the plot. I don’t want to go any further into plot details though because this is a mystery series and most of the appeal is seeing the events play out for yourself; the first episode does a very good job of establishing everything on its own.
Why it’s on the list
Erased is pretty much a standard mystery, but one where the mechanics and structure are very video game like. That’s really the appeal here: the way time travel allows for a “second playthrough” for the main character. It’s a twist on the kind of scene and fact reconstruction that happens in a normal mystery; one which allows the audience to experience it first hand and not just through exposition dumps. The entire Zero Escape series is built on that kind of thing.
Why it’s not higher
This isn’t a particularly ambitious take on this idea, but it is well executed and never loses sight of the focused story it wants to tell. The character work is solid and naturalistic. This isn’t a series where I particularly loved any of the characters, but I did get caught up in their story and was invested in them.
This is a compelling, short series.
Final Verdict: Tier 8
[vimeo 169788251 w=640 h=360]
Thank You For Your Time.
