The primary season of Twisted Steel was virtually like a prologue. Peacock’s adaptation of the long-dormant PlayStation game series spent 10 episodes organising its car-focused post-apocalyptic world and many of the main characters, all whereas rattling off a unending barrage of jokes. However it by no means actually felt all that very like the video games it was adapting. What it was lacking had been the foolish characters and the vehicular fight event on the coronary heart of the collection. Season 2 lastly rectifies that, and it was positively well worth the wait.
On the outset of the brand new season, a lot of the forged is separated. After finishing his mission in season 1, John Doe (Anthony Mackie) resides inside a comparatively secure walled-off metropolis however is pressured to coach always to organize for the event. (As a part of his coaching regiment, he delivers pizzas underneath the identify “John Dough.”) Exterior, his associate Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz) has joined a post-apocalyptic gang that decision themselves the Dolls, which, in a contented coincidence, is led by John’s long-lost sister, the aptly named Dollface (Tiana Okoye). In the meantime, Candy Tooth (the physique of Samoa Joe and the voice of Will Arnett) is kindling up a bromance together with his new buddy Stu (Mike Mitchell), who’s rapidly turning into an adept serial killer, as effectively.
What steadily brings everybody collectively is the event, during which the very best drivers and killers face off with a tempting prize on the road: a single want, which might apparently embody something, in keeping with the mysterious Calypso (Anthony Carrigan). This attracts all types of characters, who all have their very own massive desires. Quiet, for example, has a utopian imaginative and prescient of bringing down the partitions of each metropolis so that everybody is on a stage enjoying discipline. Most of everybody else has a extra egocentric need in thoughts. The factor is, it isn’t till round midway by way of the season — which spans 12 episodes this time — that the event really kicks off in earnest. There are heist missions, qualifying rounds, and all types of different aspect quests earlier than issues actually get going.
Whereas this had me feeling a little like Milhouse, the present does principally use its time properly, because it steadily introduces its new forged of combatants. Twisted Steel is a online game collection about driving an ice cream truck with machine weapons on it, so it’s not precisely well-known for its wealthy, deep characters. However the present does a very good job turning the transient sketches from the video games into goofy and violent caricatures. That features a very gross exterminator named Vermin (Lisa Gilroy) and a man known as Mr. Grimm (Richard de Klerk), who might possess supernatural powers or may be dropping his thoughts. My favourite is Axel (Michael James Shaw), who’s described within the video games as a person imprisoned between two wheels. Within the present, he’s extra of a person who’s turning into a automobile, proper all the way down to the truth that he drinks gasoline.
Twisted Steel has an inherently goofy premise. In season 1, it tried to force-feed that goofiness by way of nonstop jokes from John. However now, with a bigger forged of ridiculous characters, the humor and silliness really feel extra pure and unfold out. And as soon as the event actually begins — which, long-time followers will respect, occurs to the tune of Rob Zombie’s “Dragula” — the motion is rather more over-the-top and thrilling, as a present about vehicles with weapons on them ought to be. Typically it may be a little bit CGI-heavy, however with the entire unusual automobiles, weapons, and characters, it’s a number of enjoyable to observe.
Although I’m solely midway by way of the season, what’s struck me most is the way it lastly appears like Twisted Steel, however neatly expanded for this new format. The primary season usually felt like a typical post-apocalyptic world with too many jokes and a killer clown. However with the addition of extra delightfully bizarre characters and the automobile fight that comes with the event, the present’s lastly tapping into that particular Twisted Steel voice that it was lacking.
Twisted Steel season 2 begins streaming on Peacock on July thirty first.