Explosive
Summary
I didn’t know anything about Twisted Metal going in, so I was able to just sit back and enjoy the absolute carnage, constant action and memorable characters making this one of my favourite new television shows.
Plot: John Doe, a motormouthed outsider with no memory of his past, is offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make his wish of finding community come true, but only if he can successfully deliver a mysterious package across a postapocalyptic wasteland. With the help of Quiet, a trigger-happy car thief searching for revenge, he faces twisted marauders driving vehicles of destruction and other dangers of the open road, including a highway patrolman and a deranged clown who drives an all too familiar ice cream truck.
Review: I will preface this review by stating that I’ve never played the game Twisted Metal and know nothing about it, so I am just discussing this show on its own merits. I haven’t heard too many people talking about it which is a shame as this was a pleasant surprise and one of my favourite television shows of the year.
I do like Anthony Mackie and John Doe is one of his best roles; he seems to be enjoying himself and the script is mostly hilarious. When he rescues a woman he calls Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz) the two bicker constantly and we all know it’s just sexual tension (which is eventually released in a ball pit in the middle of the series). Beatriz portrays Quiet as mostly surly and at times just plain mean (she has very good reasons) but as she begins to defrost around John the two form a bond and become inseparable. I really grew to love both of these characters and I hated any time they got separated.
Twisted Metal is packed with action too including vehicular carnage, explosions, brutal kills and even a few fight scenes too. It rarely lets up in terms of pacing but still manages to give us enough character moments to get surprisingly emotionally involved with it.
The entire show is pretty much owned by Sweet Tooth (voiced by Will Arnett), a psychotic clown with a penchant for killing and yet somehow he has us rooting for him and cheering him on as most of the people he takes out deserved it anyway.
I love seeing Neve Campbell in a more villainous role and Thomas Haden Church shines as the vicious “cop” Agent Stone.
Much of the humour is rather dark but it appealed by my sick mind, and I loved nearly every moment of this series. I normally don’t watch television shows more than once but I will happily return to this again in the future and I hope we do get a second season as it ends with quite the cliffhanger.
Overall, Twisted Metal was a blood-soaked riot with plenty of insane action, graphic violence, great characters and surprising moments of heart. It never stops being just crazy fun with Sweet Tooth rapidly becoming one of my favourite television characters.