Parents' Guide to Twisted Metal

With a great cast and solid dialogue and plotting, this video game adaptation is more fun than it had to be. Twisted Metal is as enjoyably bonkers as old-school dystopian relics like Escape From New York. Twisted Metal has the same loose and zany vibe of those movies, with mayhem, off-the-wall humor, and surprisingly sincere warmth in equal measure. And like showrunner Michael Jonathan Smith's best-known other series, Cobra Kai, Twisted Metal has enough charm to smooth over any rough spots.

Anthony Mackie is responsible for much of this charm as the silver-tongued, rarely discomfited main character on Twisted Metal's hero's quest, and has great chemistry with every cast member (most particularly Stephanie Beatriz as his partner in crime, Quiet). There's a particularly lovely moment in the first episode when the intimidating Raven invites him into her warm and well-outfitted apartment, something unknown in John's world. He wanders around, amazed such things are still possible, and longs terribly for them himself. Yes, there are also screaming engines and auto duels and dreadful fiends lurking in each city who John must battle on his quest. But the emotional undercurrent of Twisted Metal lends depth to the antics, and makes this show something more than the sum of its (flying body) parts.