The Twisted Metal franchise of games celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, a series that centers around maniacal, unhinged drivers in vehicular combat with the hopes of winning a mysterious tournament. While Season 1 of Peacock’sTwisted Metalseries, released in 2023, certainly had the strange drivers and plenty of action, that first batch of episodes seemed to simply exist to set up the larger story that was to come.Twisted Metalwas fun for the ridiculous, violent mayhem that it was, but it all felt in service of something further down the road.
Two years later,Twisted MetalSeason 2 is here, ratcheting up the hilarious absurdity, ludicrous violence, and humor, and an extreme lineup of drivers. ShowrunnerMichael Jonathan Smithand his team lean into the over-the-top nature of this world, but by finally introducing the tournament that the series is named after,Twisted Metalhasa stronger structure, focus, and effective interest in this cast of charactersthat finds a nice balance of method to this madness.
What Is ‘Twisted Metal’ Season 2 About?
When we last left the world ofTwisted Metal,John Doe (Anthony Mackie) had finally gained admission to New San Francisco, which he had longed for the entire first season, and found himself bored. Raven (played in Season 1 byNeve Campbell, and in Season 2 byShe-Hulk’sPatty Guggenheim) put up John Doe in his childhood home and demanded he drive for her in the upcoming Twisted Metal tournament, while John just wanted to escape and get back to his partner, Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), outside the walls of New San Francisco. Meanwhile, we found Quiet taken over by a group of masked women, led by Dollface (Tiana Okoye), who claimed to be John Doe’s sister.
Season 2 finds the world caught up in the upcoming Twisted Metal tournament, run by its mysterious creator, Calypso (a deliciously evilAnthony Carrigan).Calypso will be hosting the destruction derby tournament, where the last person standing will be granted one wish.It doesn’t take long before John Doe and Quiet are reunited and ready to compete in the tournament, with Raven and Dollface also ready to go. Also returning from the first season are Sweet Tooth (played byJoel Seanoaand voiced byWill Arnett) and his partner Stu (Mike Mitchell), as Sweet Tooth wants to prove to the world that he’s the greatest killer anyway, prize be damned.
This tournament also brings many new weirdos out of the woodwork. Mayhem (Saylor Bell Curda) is a mysterious kid who finds herself mixed up with Dollface’s gang, Vermin (Lisa Gilroy) is a gross, bug-obsessed wacko, while Mr. Grimm (Richard de Klerk) eats the souls of those he kills and has a dark history with Sweet Tooth. There’s also Axel (Michael James Shaw), a man who is connected to two giant tires and drinks gas for sustenance. These are just some of the unusual characters ready to race in the wild Twisted Metal tournament in the hopes of winning Calypso’s prize.
‘Twisted Metal’ Season 2 Embraces Just How Nuts This World Truly Is
As a game series, Twisted Metal has existed in all different forms, from preposterous destruction derby to extremely dark and nightmarish — there’s even been a version for kids. The world leaves a lot of interpretation for storytelling, andTwisted Metalthankfully leans into its more outrageous aspects.Quite often last season,Twisted Metalwould introduce a character with each new episode to expand its environment, butthis season throws us in with its cast of oddballs fairly quickly. (Trust me, it doesn’t take too long to figure out what Vermin’s deal is.) Season 2 ultimately plays to the extreme nature of its cast and has a grand time doing so.
Just the idea of Axel is silly — a man whose arms and legs are connected to two giant tires, let alone the idea that he competes with other cars loaded up with guns and rockets, butTwisted Metalembraces the humorous nature of this game and plays up how ridiculous all these characters are.Vermin was just an extermination van when they were introduced in 2012’sTwisted Metal, but the creators of the show take her to a logical, albeit extreme, direction. Despite how fantastical this series often plays around with being, it never fully goes down that path. Mr. Grimm believes he’s eating souls, but we also get to see the reality of his situation from another person’s perspective. Most of the time, it’s extremely goofy, in a bloody, profane way, but that’s the tone this show needs to hit more often than not.
Yet considering the nature of a competition that’s supposed to be fought to the death,Twisted MetalSeason 2 has to get its hands dirty in a way the previous one didn’t. In such a violent world with such violent characters, inevitably, everyone won’t make it to the end, and the show is commendable at making these losses effective, despite the overwhelming amount of death we see outside this cast.Twisted Metalnot only gives us a crew of oddities to enjoy, but it also manages to make the more heartfelt moments work. It’s rarely the focus of any episode, but the show does find moments to lead us to care about who some of these characters are rather than just being cannon fodder.Balancing the inherent absurdity of this world with actual pathos and emotionis arguably Season 2’s greatest strength.
‘Twisted Metal’ Has Always Been About the Characters, and Thankfully, So Is Season 2
Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz have always been a good anchor for this story that could easily go off the rails, and they remain as such here. In Season 1, it was fairly clear where their story was headed, from uncertain alliance to love story, but amid this tournament, there’s much more uncertainty to their bond. Especially in the middle of the film’s bigger action scenes,John and Quiet are a blast, but with a larger cast to play around with this time, they always feel central to the story, even if they’re not the sole focal point of any episode.
Theunpredictable nature of Sweet Toothremains a delightful bit of uncertainty in Season 2, buteven more fun is watching how Mike Mitchell’s Stu occasionally breaks from his hold. Mitchell is often the audience surrogate inTwisted Metal, and his reaction to the living nightmare that is this world is always great to watch, as he becomes one of the more central players in this world.
‘Twisted Metal’ Season 2 Drives Into a Wild Post-Apocalyptic Heist, and 8 Other Gloriously Deranged Things We Learned on Set
‘Twisted Metal’ isn’t playing bumper cars anymore.
ButTwisted Metalreally nails the new charactersintroduced into this competition. Guggenheim’s Raven is a take that just feels more fitting in this world (no shade to Campbell’s performance), while Lisa Gilroy, Michael James Shaw, and Richard de Klerk are wonderful at adding layers to characters that could’ve easily been too one-dimensional. As for more grounded characters, Tiana Okoye as Dollface is a much-needed balance to John Doe’s mysterious past, and Saylor Bell Curda’s Mayhem is a mysterious curveball that shows the series can work outside of what the game has set up.
Yetthe standout in Season 2 is absolutely Anthony Carrigan’s Calypso. The character personifies everything that makesTwisted Metalsuch an intriguing world to explore: he’s mysterious, almost certainly evil, super-strange, and the type of weirdo you want to know more about as soon as you meet him. Carrigan plays Calypso with an eccentricity that takes him in an entirely different direction from the games, yet still knows how to make him just as formidable and haunting a figure as he should be. Carrigan seemed like an odd choice for Calypso, yet if his great work onBarryas NoHo Hankhas taught us anything, it’s that he can balance humor with nightmarish acts beautifully.
‘Twisted Metal’ Season 2 Is a Lot, but It Often Doesn’t Go Far Enough
Season 2 ofTwisted Metalis largely a bigger, more ludicrous version of what we saw in the first, butcould’ve used a bit more of some aspects. Even though the show is decent at introducing these new characters and making us care for them, especially once the tournament gets started,we rarely have the opportunity to go deeper than surface-level. There are hints at the backstory of characters like Mayhem or Axel, but the show doesn’t give us more than just a taste of what they have to offer. There’s more to focus on in Season 2, but it would’ve been nice if the show could take a bit more time to flesh out some of these characters.
And while this season leads to some tragic ends,it also finds ways to leave an opening for potential returns.It’s the one aspect of this show that borrows from the games that doesn’t make sense, as this story doesn’t have the same level of stakes if a character can just hit a metaphorical “continue” button. With nameless goons off the street,Twisted Metalhas no problem hacking them up into pieces, but with characters that we know, and in some cases, care about, it doesn’t quite have the balls to go that far when it might be the most effective.
Twisted MetalSeason 2 absolutely feels like it was crafted by people who wanted to bring this wild world to life and do it justice, and for the most part, that’s exactly what it does. The humor is darker and stranger, the characters are even more unbelievable and out of control, and the tournament itself is, by and large, what fans have been waiting for. But whileTwisted Metalis admirable in how it adapts this game world, it could still use a bit more time building up these characters and giving stakes to this world that should be nothingbutmajor stakes. The metal is certainly twisted, but this solid sophomore season still shows thatit’s not quite as twisted as it should be.
Twisted MetalSeason 2 has its three-episode premiere on July 31 on Peacock. New episodes drop each Thursday through August 28.
Twisted Metal
Twisted Metal is more focused and intriguing in its second season, but more character development would’ve been a great addition.
Twisted Metal follows a motor-mouthed outsider with amnesia, tasked with delivering a mysterious package across a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Alongside an axe-wielding car thief, he battles marauders and dangers, including a deranged clown in an infamous ice cream truck, in this high-octane action adaptation of the classic video game series.
