This review was written during the 2023 WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes. Without the labor of the writers and actors currently on strike, the series being covered here wouldn’t exist.Even though we’re currently at a high point for video game adaptations, with The Super Mario Bros. Movie being the highest-grossing film of 2023, and The Last of Us earning an Emmy nomination for Outstanding Drama Series, Twisted Metal is a hell of a video game to adapt into another medium. Twisted Metal hasn’t had a new game since 2012, and the game itself is a dark, violent world full of guns, devastating storylines, and absurd characters—the most popular of which, Sweet Tooth, is a serial killer clown who drives around in an ice cream truck and whose head is continuously on fire. It’s a strange universe to bring to the real world, and considering this is a game about a demolition derby on an absurd scale and disturbing narratives for the majority of these maniacs, it’s also a wild choice for a comedy series.

But Twisted Metal has always had characters that stand out, as proven by the aforementioned Sweet Tooth, who became the de facto mascot of this series since its beginning in 1995. In the television adaptation of Twisted Metal, showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith (Cobra Kai) knows that this is what most players latched onto with this series, and does an admirable job of bringing this crazy idea into another medium by focusing on these weirdos that stuck with players long after the games were completed.

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Image via Peacock

Twisted Metal takes place 20 years after the world fell apart, as a bug wiped out electronics and large cities built walls to protect their citizens while criminals were left outside to fend for themselves. While the people inside the cities live idyllic lives, the people left on the outside have taken to protecting themselves with guns and cars. No one knows this better than John Doe (Anthony Mackie), who doesn’t remember anything about his past and will do anything for his car, Evelin.

John is a milkman, a courier in this new world who delivers things from walled city to walled city, but never let inside. Yet one day, the ruler of New San Francisco, Raven (Neve Campbell), makes John an offer: go to Chicago and pick up a package for her, bring it back within ten days, and he’ll be allowed to live in New San Francisco. John always sticks to California, but this cross-country road trip full of dangers would be worth it for a chance at a real life. On this ten-day journey, John soon meets up with Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), who has recently had a life-altering encounter with Agent Stone (Thomas Haden Church), the self-appointed law enforcement of the outside. John and Quiet team up on this quest to Chicago and back, while evading Agent Stone’s team, avoiding all sorts of other maniacal car-obsessed characters, and running into Sweet Tooth (played by Joe Seanoa and voiced by Will Arnett), the clown-masked murderer with a flair for the theatrical.

Image via Peacock

As a game series, Twisted Metal was largely a dark, often uncomfortable experience, tinged with occasionally absurd humor that inherently came from this odd concept. But the series has flipped that on its head, instead prioritizing humor with a darkness always permeating the edges of this narrative. This is a tone that Twisted Metal has to grow into, as with the first few episodes and occasionally throughout, the show seems to think just being “extreme” is a type of humor. Within the first few minutes of the first episode, we watch as John Doe shoots a man several times in the genitals, followed by him eating an adorable baby seal. Twisted Metal has to be exaggerated, as this world is decidedly over the top, but this shift to a more humorous look at this universe doesn’t always work.

What makes Smith’s televised take on this world work is the focus on the characters, which is engaging enough for non-fans of the games, but is a treasure trove of references and callbacks for those who are familiar with this environment. Like a post-apocalyptic car, Smith is collecting pieces from the past, scrapping them together, and making something wholly new that is ultimately satisfying to see the world that is being built. As we go with John Doe and Quiet across the country, we are introduced to a slew of disturbed individuals, each of which already has a fully fleshed-out history in the games, which Smith incorporates quite well. Even if you’re unaware of who these characters are, it’s still a blast to watch Jason Mantzoukas as the formerly-possessed Preacher, meet the convoy of trucks that contains several characters from the games, or hear rumors of a character named Calypso and figure out what his involvement in this world might be.

Image via Peacock

Maybe the best utilization of the shift in tone comes in Sweet Tooth, who is just as darkly comedic and altogether horrifying as he has always been. Getting this character right is key to making a series about Twisted Metal work, and the combined performance of Seanoa and Arnett makes Sweet Tooth both a character we want more of, but also, one that we never want to cross paths with. It’s always great to see Sweet Tooth break himself into someone else’s story here, and it’s especially a lot of fun when he takes on one of Agent Stone’s cronies, Stu (Mike Mitchell), as his cohort/pet.

But focusing an entire show on Sweet Tooth would be too much, so Twisted Metal makes the smart choice of focusing on John Doe—who, as his name implies, is mostly a blank slate the show can play with—and Quiet, one of the few completely new characters to this world. Their dynamic doesn’t always work, but Mackie and Beatriz are quite fun to watch together. Mackie gets to be sillier and more comedic than we’re used to seeing from him, while Beatriz gets to swing the gamut from emotional, heartfelt moments to absolutely unhinged, and it’s great to see her in a leading role like this.

Twisted Metal is a series that takes a while to get going, and at times struggles with its tone that deviates from the games, but Smith and his team have made a show that is campy, cheesy fun. By the end of Twisted Metal’s ten episodes, it’s hard to not want more and to be fairly impressed with what the series has set up for its potential future, complete with a cast that begs to be revisited. The shift to comedy also mostly works, thanks to a great writing staff that includes Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick of Zombieland and Deadpool fame, and a team of characters that embrace the weird world they’ve been thrown into. Twisted Metal might be a scrappy little mess at times, but it mostly works when it hits the gas.

Rating: B-

The Big Picture Twisted Metal is a strange choice for a comedy series due to its dark and violent world of guns, destruction, and absurd characters. The adaptation is best when it focuses on the unique and memorable characters that players connected with in the game series. The shift in tone from the dark and uncomfortable games to a more humorous approach in the show is hit-and-miss, but the focus on characters and their histories is engaging and satisfying. Twisted Metal debuts all ten episodes of its first season on July 27 on Peacock.