Twisted Metal Season 2's Rotten Tomatoes Score Reveals Something Fascinating

Video game adaptations are having a moment on television. Animated heavyweights like "Arcane" and "Cyberpunk: Edgerunners" have found a firm foothold on Netflix, while live-action juggernauts "Fallout" and "The Last of Us" are scooping up Emmy nominations for Prime Video and HBO. These series have dominated online discourse, hailed as benchmarks for how to translate gaming narratives to the small screen successfully. And yet, conspicuously absent from these virtual water cooler conversations is "Twisted Metal," Peacock's gonzo, blood-soaked demolition derby of a show that might just be one of the most self-aware and emotionally resonant adaptations of the bunch.

The ultra-violent vehicular combat comedy thrill ride is not only one of the few properties to actually understand how to utilize the talent of Anthony Mackie as protagonist John Doe, but also allows "Encanto" and "Brooklyn Nine-Nine" star Stephanie Beatriz to let her freak flag fly as his partner in havoc, Quiet. Season 1 made for some good and gruesome fun on the highway to hell, but season 2 managed to transport the audience straight into the world of the games, while crafting a genuinely earnest story flanked by exploding vehicles, a demented gamemaker with supernatural powers, and a jacked as hell man who is also part car.

Everything about "Twisted Metal" sounds like the result of a 12-year-old mainlining nothing but Attitude Era-WWE promos and reruns of "The Simpsons," but that's precisely why the show works. It embraces absurdity without losing sincerity, expertly balancing over-the-top gore and slapstick physicality with a guileless beating heart. The show knows what it is, but more importantly, it is confident in what it's saying with its themes of oppression under dystopian regimes. This makes its critical and audience reception all the more telling. Season 2 boasts a 92% critic score and an 83% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes — significantly outperforming "The Last of Us" season 2 in audience approval, despite the latter being an awards darling. The discrepancy highlights a stubborn truth in entertainment discourse: horror and comedy, particularly when mixed, are still fighting for legitimacy.

For a series centered around a tournament, the only way to keep the audience on board for an entire season is to provide characters for them to care about. John and Quiet are the perfect pair to guide us through the post-apocalyptic badlands, but every episode is a gift when you have Stu (Mike Mitchell) teaming up with Sweet Tooth (Joe "Samoa Joe" Seanoa/Will Arnett), man/car hybrid Axel (Michael James Shaw), the bug-obsessed Vermin (the always brilliant Lisa Gilroy), Mr. Grimm and all of his personas (Richard de Klerk), a recast-but-justified Raven (Patty Guggenheim), newbie racer Mayhem (Saylor Curda), and John's sister Dollface (Tiana Okoye), all competing for the wish promised by the devious Calypso (Anthony Carrigan).

Everyone is so damn charismatic that it's impossible not to root for each of them to survive, even if blowing each other up is the name of the game. Season 2 episode 9's Jaffe Campbell High School (named for the creators of the video game)'s prom-themed "VAVAVUM," would be a filler episode on any other series, but on "Twisted Metal," it's a vital reminder that even after civilization crumbles into an explosive wasteland, we're all still searching for the same things we were as teenagers — confidence, camaraderie, and community.

And it comes just two episodes after they all scattered across an ice rink, trying to kill each other while Outkast's "B.O.B. – Bombs Over Baghdad" played, trying to obtain a pass to advance to the next round of Calypso's tournament. The episode directly before the prom? A racer named Frostbite (Katherine East) had her face shredded by the friction of a speeding treadmill belt, ending with Axel obliterating Calypso's Apocalypse 9 faction of yellow-skinned pain junkies who resemble crash test dummies (including ripping a head off with his bare hands) just to prove to himself and fellow racers Stu, Mike (Tahj Vaughans), and Dave (Johnno Wilson), that he could kill without the assistance of gasoline following an intervention about his substance addiction. It sounds goofy, because it is, but every actor knows exactly the kind of show they're making.

While it may not boast the subscriber numbers of HBO or Netflix, Peacock consistently proves to be one of the best streaming platforms available. It's maddening that only a small — albeit vocal — contingent (myself included) seems to be tuning into the streamer's original content, because "Twisted Metal" is the kind of daring, inventive, and joyfully chaotic series that more platforms should be greenlighting every quarter. It's perfectly cast, action-packed, laugh-out-loud funny, knows exactly when to splurge on practical effects, and doesn't pretend that people with nothing left to lose aren't going to spend their remaining days being absolute horndogs. And with a Rotten Tomatoes audience score that puts many so-called prestige titles to shame, it's frustrating (and frankly a little snobbish) how many viewers have dismissed it without even pressing play.

Horror continues to be one of the most popular and profitable genres across film and television, but mainstream comedy feels like it's on borrowed time. Theatrical comedies are nearly extinct, network sitcoms are a dying breed, streaming platforms are axing new comedies before they even find their footing, and in 2024, when "The Bear" broke its own record for most comedy wins in a single year, it was paired with the debate over whether or not the series is actually a comedy in the first place. "Twisted Metal" wears its weirdness like a neon sign and makes no apologies for being a true-to-form horror comedy show.

Meanwhile, "Twisted Metal" wears its weirdness like a badge of honor — or, more accurately, like a blood-splattered design of neon flames on the side of a hot rod. It makes no apologies for being a true horror-comedy hybrid, a genre-bending anomaly that refuses to fit into the algorithm-approved mold of post-Prestige TV. It lives by the motto that you can't spell "slaughter" without "laughter," and honestly, our lives are all the better for it. If there's any justice left in the streaming landscape, a third season announcement should be just over the horizon.

"Twisted Metal" seasons 1 and 2 are available to watch on Peacock.