If you’re a gamer of a certain age like yours truly, then the name Twisted Metal brings to mind a warm feeling of nostalgia and a craving for wanton vehicular mayhem and destruction. The game series was a staple in the early days of the Playstation console, arguably one of the games the platform was built on, along with the likes of Crash Bandicoot and Tomb Raider.

It has been a while since its latest installment, and this made me initially wonder if a television show had a snowball’s chance in a post-apocalyptic demolition derby of being any good and doing well. I mean, what are the chances that any production based on a game that came out 12 years ago and two gaming consoles generations ago would do well in today’s entertainment landscape?

The chances are pretty good, as Twisted Metal, with its perverted sense of fun, works surprisingly well as a black comedy. It’s an approach I didn’t see coming, but somehow, it works. One episode will have our heroes dodging bullets, and in the next, they’re tortured in a hellish Department of Motor Vehicles, filling out a stack of forms three feet high with Aqua’s Barbie song blaring on the PA system.

The story centers on Anthony Mackie’s John Doe, so named because he’s an amnesiac who can’t remember anything before waking up in his beloved 2002 Subaru RX, Evelyn. John is a Milkman, a messenger who delivers parcels of precious items between the walled cities of what used to be the continental United States. Something went screwy years ago, and everything went to hell in a handbasket rather quickly.

John is good at his job. Possibly one of the best, if not the best, milkman driving the mean roads of the outside, the danger-filled highways between cities. With his reputation of getting the job done, John gets a chance at a peaceful life inside new San Francisco, provided he does one last, immensely dangerous job. A pickup and delivery of a mysterious item within the next 10 days. But it can’t be that simple, can it? Of course not! The roads are fraught with dangers, not the least of which is a sadistic clown named Sweet Tooth driving a tricked out and heavily armed ice cream truck.

Mackie delivers with his performance as the happy-go-lucky everyman, a highly skilled goofball who talks a mile a minute and wants to do his job and live his life. He’s shown his range in Marvel films and shows like Altered Carbon and Black Mirror, but watching him play against type in this one is entertaining. John is genuinely an affable fellow, sans his foul mouth, and the energy and earnestness show through with Mackie’s portrayal.

You also have to give props to the joint portrayal of Sweet Tooth, with pro wrestler Samoa Joe in front of the camera and Will Arnett voiced. The combination is seamless, resulting in a terribly creepy psychopathic circus entertainer.

And the level of world-building is notable and fleshed out with different factions and agendas that, while cartoonish and outlandish at times, are still logical and plausible. You see a slice of life, each from a very different life, and the resulting tapestry is a world that’s familiar yet different enough to feel new and exciting.

Make no mistake, though, Twisted Metal is not for everyone and not something you’d watch during mealtime. But there is a good amount of character development and heart for a show where all you’d expect are different kinds of cars shooting at and ramming each other.

Twisted Metal was a show I wasn’t sure about when it was first announced, but I’m now following it and wanting to see it. First coming out in the US back in 2023 on the Peacock channel, Twisted Metal makes its streaming debut and is now available in the Philippines on Lionsgate Play.