Last summer, Twisted Metal debuted to a pretty good first season. Adapting a car combat video game is hard, as the story was mostly told through the endings and waiting for the sequels to tell you which things were canon and what weren’t. Anthony Mackie carried the season with his charm and earnest comedic performance. Stephanie Beatriz‘s Quiet was a fun addition and helped give the show a solid duo to center things around. Seeing Sweet Tooth in live action is also quite great, even though I think Joe Seanoa, aka Samoa Joe (to us wrestling marks), could pull off the vocal performance fine without Will Arnett dubbing him over.
While the season was entertaining and a good time, it did leave me wanting, as it delayed the real big bad of the series and the whole super destruction derby tournament to happen later. It’s a choice that was evident in the current Mortal Kombat movie, which I hated, and it’s also disappointing in this regard.
Yet we are back with Twisted Metal with season 2, and guess what the first thing they let you know is that they are about that action. This season has John Doe (Mackie) in the gated city of New San Francisco at his childhood home, but forced to train for Calypso’s upcoming Twisted Metal tournament by a new Raven (Patty Guggenheim). Quiet (Beatriz) is on the outside and ends up joining a group called the Dolls, led by a woman named Dollface (Tiana Okoye). After John escapes New San Francisco, he crosses paths with Dolls, reunites with Quiet, and learns some critical information about Dollface.
Tiana Okoye is one of my favorite parts of the season. Her character is the moral center of the show, as she’s the one who gives our heroes, John and Quiet, the reasoning and idea to enter the tournament and make a wish to help everyone. One significant aspect of the games is that Calypso’s deal is that if you win, you get a wish. Just like most wish stories, however, things rarely turn out as expected, usually in the games. Okoye works well with every actor in all the scenes she’s in. A personal favorite for me in this season is Mr. Grimm, played by Richard de Klerk. Mr. Grimm was my favorite character, a supernatural motorcycle rider in the vein of Evel Knievel. They play into all the versions of the character in the game and create a great rivalry between him and Sweet Tooth that works throughout the season.
A big surprise to me was Michael James Shaw as Axel, the man who is a car. I mean a man with two giant wheels and guns. It’s something that makes no sense and is a perfect example of the wild nature of Twisted Metal as a concept. Shaw ends give Axel the ideal amount of pathos, surprisingly, as the character is more serious than I expected. Shaw can pull off the humor of a man who is a car, along with being intimidating on screen. It’s hard to explain, but it just works.
Anthony Carrigan, who is having a great summer, is playing the villain of the series Calypso and looks just like he stepped out of the old CRT television and into real life. His character is coy and has a peculiar delight in the challenges he presents to the drivers as they try to fulfill their wishes. Even Raven, with all her power, seems to underestimate significantly and fall in line with the devil-like power of Calypso. He has a menace that makes sense, even to the physically intimidating characters, causing them to cower a bit.
The effects and stunt driving are even more impressive this season. Each episode strikes a balance between action, comedy, and gore quite well. With all that, I was just happy that the show actually felt like the games, and the better ones at that, one through three and Black. Having Quiet take over as the moral leader of the series was in line with her wish to better the world. As well as adding in Saylor Bell Curda as Mayhem to bring a more family nature to the group. The family thing works, based on the past motivations of John and Quiet, and adding a rebellious teenager didn’t feel like a drag. Curda deserves credit for selling this character to the audience because it could’ve gone left if not played well.
The season was great, and I look forward to seeing how they move forward from where they left off at the end of season two. I feel now that they are done with the setup and understand how to bring the nature of the tournament and car combat as an engaging TV story. I’d probably recommend starting with season two, given how much I liked it, and if the person has ever played the games. Bring on season three!
Rating: B
