When Twisted Metal was first announced, anyone who was familiar with the original games were no doubt pretty confident with the type of tone the show was going to run with with it all but being confirmed by the presence of the writers of Deadpool and Zombieland.
Cartoonish gore, flippant leads and chaotic violence all dutifully followed as Anthony Mackie’s up-beat delivery man amnesiac, John Doe, tore around a post apocalyptic America, dodging colourful lunatics and pink smoke trailing missiles; however, one thing I wasn’t expecting was a spot of poignancy dropped into the craziness. Yet, with Twisted Metal’s fourth episode, that’s exactly what we get as we take a break from murderous goons such Sweet Tooth and Agent Stone in order to spend some time with the slightly less maniacal characters who travel the roads of total carmageddon.
After their escape from Hoover Dam and the sinister plans of Agent Stone, John and Quiet head in their way to Topeka, but while John thinks they’re heading toward a safe haven, Quiet has actually steered him towards Stone’s base of operations in order to get revenge for the death of her brother. However, before they can get there they are scooped up by The Convoy, a fleet of big rigs that not only contains a community of people who constantly stay on the move, but can also lock together to create an actual settlement. At first, the panic is real, but after meeting the tough talking Watts, soon realise that they’re here to perform a mission for the Convoy’s matriarch, the sick, but still feisty, Granny who agrees to re-arm John’s car for a favour.
The favour seems fairly simple on paper; go visit Watt’s ex-girlfriend, an earth-child pharmacist named Amber, in order to get a special order of flowers that’ll help Granny with her sickness, but upon arriving, their unnaturally happy host actually poisons them under the belief they are a member of a particularly violent gang of fanatics known as the Holy Men. After some explanations – and a whole bunch of projectile vomiting – Amber softens and gives John and Quiet what they cane for, but ominously explains that the concoction isn’t used for healing.
On the way back to rendezvous with the Convoy, the pair have to take refuge in an abandoned cinema in order to avoid marauders travelling the night roads and its here that John and Quiet have their most dignified conversation to date without a single “fuck you” to be heard and even bond over the silent screening of the 1993, Damon Wayans “classic” Blank Man. However after John tries to do a nice deed for quiet, it backfires somewhat and they later discover the real purpose for the delivery Granny has asked for.
While WHZDARE follows the general thread of past episodes of John and Quiet getting captured and get a guided tour through their captor’s world before escaping to fight another day, it flips the script somewhat by finally having our driving duo meet a more level headed brand of road warrior instead of a genocidal police chief and a serial killing clown.
The first thing you notice about the Convoy is how utterly fucking cool the concept of a constantly rolling community is. While the actual details of it may stretch logic a tad (what if the road narrows?) the fact that the show has realised this so well means that it’s given us something nice and new. The other refreshing thing is that the denizens of the Convoy, while certainly cautious, are actually a stand-up group of people, willing to trade and even honor the promises they make and Quiet in particular feels an affinity with the acceptance the community offers. Filling out said community is Jamie Neumann’s Watts and Peg O’Keef’s crusty, but kind, Granny Dread, two characters plucked straight from Twisted Metal lore (in fact, Watt’s in-game vehicle, Twister, can clearly be seen in multiple shots) who give a much needed alternative look at a world that was in danger of becoming a little samey.
It seemed for a while there, Twisted Metal’s writers were content to give us the harder edge of their adolescent humour and while that’s all good in the hood, I was hoping they were going to bring the more personal touch that made the quartet from Zombieland so instantly lovable. Not only does the introduction of the Convoy do this in spades, but Quiet and John’s Knock-Knock joke discussion and their subsequent time-out in a movie theatre is easily the show’s most sweetest moments to date as it plays on Beatriz and Mackie’s talents of being so gosh durn likable and their chemistry, as they add the voices to a Damon Wayans movie I had forgotten had even existed, is through the damn roof. In fact, even though the wild jokes and flashy violence may be fairly subdued compared to other episodes, this may be Twisted Metal’s most purely satisfying episodes far as it’s weird and wonderful cast feel relatable and grounded.
Well, I mean as grounded as Twisted Metal can get, I guess. After all, the show can’t help but chucking the odd goof-off here and there with a cheeky reference to Wild Wild West thrown in for good measure and the revalation that Granny Dread id in the midst of publishing a homemade and very graphic book on lovemaking while driving dubbed the Granny Sutra. But despite this, the episode actually displays far more heart in its 30 minutes that the entire show has thus far with Quiet’s freak out after John washes her brother’s blood out of her jacket almost being eclipsed by the news that John’s mission was ultimately help Granny pass away without pain. Even the smaller moments resonate, be it Quiet being subtly moved by Tinker giving her a bionic finger for free or the sadness in both Watts and Amber’s eyes as they separately lament over their stalked relationship. It’s something I truly didn’t expect and the fact that the show can still squeeze in the odd bit of anarchic ridiculousness, even during the sad bits, is more proof that the balance of the show is really starting to come together.
And if nothing else, the episode gives us the righteous sight of a dead Granny Dread propped up in a beamer, being pushed off the back of a moving truck and then being detonated in an awesome approximation of a Viking funeral. If Twisted Metal can keep this sense of variety up, the remaining miles will no doubt just breeze by…
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