Reviewed by Alicia Glass
So it’s Thursday night and I have to hoof it from Ghostface’s Killer Trivia all the way to Room 6DE, where the hotly anticipated screening of Twisted Metal is about to pop off!
For those of you who may not know, Twisted Metal is a new TV show coming to Peacock, based on a 1996 Playstation and PC game of demolition derby style mayhem, with different cars and guns and other weapons, and several zany characters to drive them, including everyones favorite killer clown, Sweet Tooth!
Hosted by Kinda Funny’s Greg Miller, who promised the audience a chance to win a brand new Playstation 5 after the screening was over, we the exhausted but anticipatory fans were treated to a surprise visit from Sweet Tooth himself, as we waited in the packed room with the obligatory scene-setting mood smoke and teaser pics. (The scene wasn’t the only thing set off by the mood smoke – the convention center fire alarms were set off too!) And finally, after yet another reminder of NDAs and embargoes we’ve all had to read and sign, we’re ready for to dive into the newly expanded world of Twisted Metal!
Meet Anthony Mackie’s character, aka the Milkman, aka John Doe. Awhile ago something big and nasty wiped out computers, the internet, electricity, life as we know it de-evolved into a shitshow as everyone began fighting everyone else for whatever was left. The cities that were left walled themselves off and left the bad element of society, killers and thieves and anyone who didn’t “fit in” with the new societal norms were ousted and left to fend for themselves, against other Mad Max-style marauders, with their own gangs and modded cars and guns. The Milkman, as his handle suggests, makes delivery runs between various areas of needed supplies, while cheerfully using his own explosive countermeasures against enemies, loudly blasting epic 90’s nostalgia tunes, and bartering for whatever extras he can scrounge along the way. Then one day he gets called in to meet the leader of New San Francisco, Raven (Neve Campbell), who has a very important delivery job she wants John to do.
Saying anything else would involve huge spoilers and thus we will leave it there, but believe me when I say, the show is crazy and over-the-top and just plain fun, reminiscent of Syfy’s Blood Drive and other such demolition derbys writ large, with explosions and blood on the camera and Mackie’s smirking grin, all overlaid by an absolutely bangin’ 90’s style soundtrack!
Twisted Metal will premiere on Peacock Thursday, July 27th, 2023!