Twisted Metal - Car Crash Entertainment | Push Square

pushsquare.com:

Of all the PlayStation properties ripe for adaptation, we’re going to hazard a guess that Twisted Metal wasn’t top of your list. And yet here we are, with Peacock’s ten episode series about to start streaming. We’ve watched the entire first season, and while the early trailers proved divisive, we’re happy to confirm that the show works – depending on your penchant for cheesy, gratuitous grindhouse gore. This is a silly, ostentatious slice of car crash television – but despite a wafer-thin plot and an unsatisfying conclusion, we enjoyed it overall.

Anthony Mackie stars as John Doe, an amnesiac first introduced in the PS2 game Twisted Metal: Black. That plot device continues here, with Doe having no memories of his childhood, aside from a partially destroyed photograph of his family. Working as a delivery driver known as a Milkman, he spends his life on the open road in a 2002 Subaru Impreza named Evelyn, delivering packages between walled-off settlements in a post-apocalyptic America ruled by various gangs from the games, like the Holy Men.

It takes at least three episodes for the show to really settle into a rhythm, and it’s only when he’s paired up with Stephanie Beatriz, who plays Quiet, that it’s able to truly capture your attention. We suspect many prospective viewers may fall off quite early, especially in Episode 2 where we’re introduced to Sweet Tooth, played by Joe Seanoa and voiced by Will Arnett – a psychotic masked showman whose biggest goal is to be appreciated by his audience. In one scene he acts out a Las Vegas hotel’s information video in its entirety.

While some of these early gags feel like nails on a chalkboard, the show eventually gets rolling through Mackie and Beatriz’s blossoming alliance. While it