Charismatic performances by Anthony Mackie (The Falcon and The Winter Soldier) and Stephanie Beatriz (Encanto) drive Twisted Metal, an unhinged dystopian comedy series based on a video game franchise, across the finish line.
Twisted Metal follows the footsteps of The Last of Us and The Super Mario Bros Movies as another strong 2023 video game adaptation. The Last of Us featured a strong narrative to draw from making it an approachable property to adapt. The Twisted Metal games don’t have much of a story. You select crazy-looking characters, and vehicles strapped with weapons and engage in vehicular combat.
Leave it to the writers behind Zombieland and Deadpool to figure out the unique tone in Twisted Metal. In Zombieland, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick took a dystopian setting and outfit the world with colorful, hilarious and heartfelt characters. Reese and Wernick take a similar approach with Twisted Metal.
The appropriately named John Doe (Mackie) works as a “milkman.” He’s essentially a courier who takes packages from one place to another. After accepting a job in New San Fransisco from Mayor Raven (Neve Campbell), he begins making a trip across the country towards New Chicago. Along the way, he meets an initially begrudging companion in Quiet (Beatriz), a psychopathic cloud named Sweet Tooth who harbors ambitions of being an actor, a cop who has an extreme, perverted sense of justice and more.
With a clearly small budget, the success of Twisted Metal rides on the chemistry between Mackie and Beatriz. Mackie is full of charisma as John. A man whose memory only stretches back to his early teenage years. He develops quite a bond with his car. However, he is also incredibly selfish, stubborn and loves the sound of his own voice, which makes Beatriz’s Quiet a perfect counterpart.
Beatriz is sensational as Quiet. Her quest for vengeance against Agent Stone (Thomas Haden Church) gives the series a surprisingly emotional gut punch. Initially, Quiet refuses to speak, but once she does start talking she matches John beat for beat. Mackie and Beatriz are simply a fun duo to watch on screen.
Twisted Metal does have a few speedbumps along the way. The series holds back on the vehicular action until the season finale and the limited production budget is evident. The decision to use Will Arnett to voice Sweet Tooth and another actor as the body double is more of a distraction than it is intriguing. Also, the transition from Quiet barely talking to launching verbal bullets at an automatic pace happens too quickly.
All in all, Twisted Metal is a good, escapist television series featuring fun performances and rides the line between not taking itself too seriously and crossing the line over into mocking territory.
Twisted Metal Review Score: 7.5
Very Good
With the season overview out of the way, let’s take a closer look at the first season. There may be some spoilers. Twisted Metal is streaming on Peacock.
Setting up Twisted Metal
Similar to 2021’s Mortal Kombat, Twisted Metal‘s 1st season is a setup for the tournament to come. The 1st season is about introducing you to a character who will participate in the tournament.
The series begins by showing a typical day in John’s life. He’s a delivery man picking up a package. After exchanging some pleasantries, he leaves with the package for New San Francisco. He meets Mayor Raven who offers him a deal. If John picks up a package in New Chicago and returns, she will grant him citizenship in New San Francisco.
Meanwhile, Quiet and her brother run into the wrong police officer Agent Stone. He apprehends and offers them a terrible choice. One of them must commit suicide or they both die. Her brother chooses to sacrifice himself. Quiet tries to carjack John’s car on the way to Las Vegas, but their fight is interrupted by Sweet Tooth to end the pilot.
Twisted Metal keeps most of the focus on the present day. However, almost every episode includes a flashback that show’s who these characters were when the apocalypse began. The only character who doesn’t remember what it was like before the apocalypse is John who lost his memory and only remembers waking up with his head pressed against a steering wheel.
Overall, Twisted Metal‘s pilot does a great job setting up the series as a whole. The season finale is the best episode of the season. Not only is it the most action-packed episode of the season, but it’s also effectively established the Twisted Metal competition in season two.
Unlikely Traveling Companions
There are three unlikely pairs of travel companions in Twisted Metal.
The most important at the outset to John is Evelyn, his car. Since he was a teen, Evelyn is the only home he knew. He did wake up behind the wheel of another car, but goes steady with Evelyn later. Evelyn refuses to start until John is in serious trouble with a group of cannibals. From that point, machine and man are one and the same.
Quiet is John’s other travel companion. They start out as adversaries, but their relationship does become romantic as the season goes along. He’s pretty much an open book, while she keeps her desire to kill Stone to herself a reasonable amount of time. One of the most moving stories involves the dynamic between John, Quiet and Evelyn.
For Quiet, Evelyn is just a car. Meanwhile, John considers the car to be the most important thing to him. When Evelyn is stolen by a group of former religious zealots who have traded faith for drugs, sex and cannibalism, John is willing to die to save his car. Evelyn risks quite a bit to save John, but won’t cross that line to save his car. Quiet leaves, but is startled by an explosion and believes she’s seen another person die.
The other unlikely companion involves Sweet Tooth and Stu. Sweet Tooth decides to go on a murderous rampage and kills a bunch of Stone’s men. Stu is a new recruit who thus far hasn’t had the stomach for Stone’s brutish rule of law. He’s even responsible for letting Quiet and John escape in episode three. Stu offers to be Sweet Tooth’s friend and agrees to help him recruit Stone’s men at various bases for Sweet Tooth’s cause.
When the series stays focused on John and Quiet together or Quiet and her brother, Twisted Metal can coast along pretty easily. However, when the series shifts the focus to Sweet Tooth and Stone’s backstories, there are some bumpy patches.
Order and Chaos
While there are some minor villains and obstacles facing John and Quiet on their journey, the main antagonists are Sweet Tooth and Stone.
John and Quiet encounter Sweet Tooth in the 2nd episode. Sweet Tooth is a huge, insane cloud that has one aspiration in life. He’s always wanted to be an actor. Most importantly, he craves to be the center of attention. John is able to use his words to strike up a kinship. Sweet Tooth delivers a one-man play where the entire show centers around content featured on the hotel’s infotainment channel. Quiet eventually speaks up for the first time by delivering a harsh review. Sweet Tooth lets them leave but decides to take his one-man show on the road.
Before the apocalypse, Stone was a mall cop who harbored dreams of being a real cop. In the present, he’s established his own brand of justice across the county. He’s set up toll booths across the country. Conveniently, John knows a map maker who has alternative routes. Stone wants to know the map maker and tortures them for the information. Quiet will stop at nothing to kill Stone, while Stone believes his men killed her back at the Hoover Dam.
Twisted Metal takes time to reveal Stone and Sweet Tooth’s origins, which is unnecessary and takes away from the more interesting side characters. Stone was a mall cop. Sweet Tooth was a kid actor who couldn’t stand sharing the spotlight with his costar, a dog. He murders the dog in front of a crowd and is institutionalized.
Overall, the flashbacks work well in fleshing out John and Quiet’s backstories. However, the added backstories for Stone and Sweet Tooth don’t add anything we couldn’t infer. Sweet Tooth is insane. Stone doesn’t like anyone questioning his authority or status.
Twisted Metal final thoughts
Overall, Twisted Metal is a fun show thanks to clever writing, fun side characters, a charismatic lead performance and a terrific season finale.
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