Mad Max Meets Barry In Peacock's Post-Apocalyptic Action Comedy With Season 3 Coming

Credit: Pief Weyman / ©Peacock/Courtesy Everett Collection Published Aug 23, 2026, 6:30 PM EDT Arielle Port started as a TV producer, developing content for Netflix (Firefly Lane, Brazen) and Hallmark (The Santa Stakeout, A Christmas Treasure) before transitioning into entertainment journalism. Her love of story went from interest to lifelong passion while at The University of Pennsylvania, where she fell in with a student-run web series, Classless TV, and it was a gateway drug. Arielle Port has been a Writer for Screen Rant since August 2024. She lives in Los Angeles with her boyfriend and more importantly, her cat, Boseman. Sign in to your ScreenRant account TV is undeniably experiencing a boom in video game adaptations this decade. Netflix alone has released Arcane: League of Legends, Castlevania, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners, and Tomb Raider: The Legend of Lara Croft. HBO’s The Last of Us is a prestige take on video games that plays its post-apocalyptic violence fairly seriously. Prime Video's Fallout is a crowd-pleaser that stylizes its action-comedy set pieces with a retro-futuristic flair, quickly becoming one of the streamer’s flagship series. Interestingly, there is another video game adaptation with a similar tone and comparable quality that doesn’t get nearly as much love as Fallout and its peers get: Twisted Metal, Peacock’s action-comedy video game series that is quietly cruising into its third season. Twisted Metal brings the same pedal-to-the-metal car-combat energy as Mad Max, turning its post-civilization world into a chaotic playground of vehicular destruction. It also has a cavalier humor around violence and death that is similar to what made HBO's Barry such a unique dark comedy. Twisted Metal season 1 introduced its chaotic post-apocalyptic world while establishing the complicated relationship between motormouth driver John and near-silent, axe-wielding badass Quiet at the heart of the series, as they try to get one package from LA to New Chicago. Season 2 brings John and Quiet into the titular Twisted Metal tournament, an all-out competition between its most dangerous drivers. Luckily, Twisted Metal has been given the green flag for season 3 and is filming in Toronto now. Twisted Metal is a fantastic video game adaptation, and it deserves far more attention than it gets. The series creates a violent, dystopian world, but fills it with bizarre personalities, pop music, irreverent jokes, eccentric settlements, and ridiculously inventive vehicles. Its world is brutal without ever becoming relentlessly grim, allowing the series to find comedy and genuine heart without tonally separating its emotional moments from the carnage. Anthony Mackie and Stephanie Beatriz make for fantastic action stars leading the sprawling cast of Twisted Metal as John and Quiet, respectively. Both characters project tough exteriors, making the moments when their vulnerability breaks through all the more affecting. From the Coin-Op Era to the Cloud · Eight Questions How Well Do You Know Video Games? “It’s dangerous to go alone. Take this.” 🎮Arcade EraInsert coin 🎲The ConsolesPlug & play 📱HandheldsGame Boy era 💻PC GamingSteam & mod scene 🏆Esports & OnlineGG, well played PRESS START → 01 In November 1972, a small Sunnyvale start-up named Atari released the arcade game widely credited as the industry’s first commercial blockbuster. Designed by engineer Allan Alcorn as a training exercise, its prototype famously stopped working in a Sunnyvale bar because the coin box was overstuffed with quarters. Name the game. APong BSpace Invaders CAsteroids DComputer Space ✓ Correct! Pong, designed by Allan Alcorn at Atari (founded by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney). The Sunnyvale bar Andy Capp’s reportedly called Atari to complain the prototype had broken; when Alcorn arrived, the cabinet was fine — the coin box was simply jammed full. Pong went on to sell over 8,000 cabinets and effectively created the consumer video-game industry. Bushnell’s earlier Computer Space (1971) is the very first commercial coin-op video game, but it sold poorly and didn’t spark the boom. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Pong. Space Invaders is Taito’s 1978 hit. Asteroids is Atari’s own 1979 vector-graphics smash. Computer Space (1971) is technically the first commercial coin-op video game ever — designed by Atari co-founder Nolan Bushnell — but it flopped at retail. Pong is the 1972 game that proved the industry could actually work. NEXT → 02 The North American video-game crash of 1983 wiped out 97% of the industry’s revenue almost overnight. The two scapegoat releases — a rushed E.T. tie-in famously buried in a New Mexico landfill, and an unplayable port of Pac-Man — ran on the same now-iconic console. Whose console was it? AAtari (Atari 2600) BMagnavox (Odyssey) CColeco (ColecoVision) DMattel (Intellivision) ✓ Correct! Atari, specifically the Atari 2600 (originally the VCS). Howard Scott Warshaw famously developed E.T. in five weeks to make a Christmas 1982 deadline; over 4 million unsold copies were eventually buried in the Alamogordo, New Mexico landfill in 1983 — later confirmed as real archaeology by a 2014 dig. The crash gutted the American console market until Nintendo launched the NES in 1985, with Japan taking over from there. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Atari (the 2600). Magnavox’s Odyssey was the very first home console (1972) but had been long-superseded by 1983. ColecoVision and Intellivision were 2600 competitors that also got hit by the crash, but the headline disasters — E.T. and the Pac-Man port — were Atari’s, and Atari was the dominant brand whose collapse defined the era. NEXT → 03 After the 1983 crash, Nintendo’s Famicom (released in Japan in 1983) was rebranded as the NES for North America in 1985. The launch was anchored by a single Shigeru Miyamoto-designed pack-in title that became the genre-defining 2D platformer and one of the best-selling games of all time. Name it. ADonkey Kong BDuck Hunt CSuper Mario Bros. DThe Legend of Zelda ✓ Correct! Super Mario Bros. (September 1985 in Japan as the Famicom version, October 1985 in North America bundled with the NES). Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka’s 8-bit blueprint for the genre — running, jumping, scrolling, secrets — sold over 40 million copies and was the standard pack-in NES title (sometimes packed alongside Duck Hunt on the Zapper bundle). The Legend of Zelda came in 1986; Super Mario Bros. is the title that defined the launch. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Super Mario Bros. Donkey Kong (1981) is Miyamoto’s arcade breakthrough — and Mario’s actual debut as “Jumpman.” Duck Hunt was bundled with the Zapper-pack version of the NES alongside Super Mario Bros. The Legend of Zelda came a year later (1986). The headline NES launch title is Super Mario Bros. NEXT → 04 As of 2024 the best-selling single video game of all time has cleared 300 million copies sold across every platform you can imagine — far ahead of every other franchise entry on the list. The studio behind it was bought by Microsoft in 2014 for $2.5 billion. Name the game. ATetris BGrand Theft Auto V CMinecraft DWii Sports ✓ Correct! Minecraft — over 300 million copies sold, with Markus “Notch” Persson’s Mojang acquired by Microsoft for $2.5 billion in November 2014. The game launched in alpha in 2009, hit full release in November 2011, and has since shipped on every major platform from PC to Switch to phones to PlayStation. GTA V is the second-best-selling game ever (~200M+) and the most profitable entertainment product of all time. Tetris versions vary by counting method but together comfortably exceed 500M; the question specifies a single game, where Minecraft leads. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Minecraft. Tetris is technically larger across all versions combined but is fragmented across dozens of separately-counted SKUs. GTA V is the second-best-selling discrete game (~200M+) and the most profitable entertainment product ever made. Wii Sports moved 82M but mostly as a pack-in. The single best-selling game ever is Minecraft. NEXT → 05 A 28-year-old Shigeru Miyamoto was given a salvage job in 1981: convert thousands of unsold Radar Scope cabinets into a profitable game. The result was an arcade smash that introduced both a barrel-throwing antagonist and a moustachioed protagonist named “Jumpman” — later renamed Mario. Name this 1981 arcade game. AMario Bros. BDonkey Kong CPopeye DGalaga ✓ Correct! Donkey Kong (1981). Nintendo of America had crates of unsold Radar Scope cabinets sitting in a New Jersey warehouse; Miyamoto’s pitch — a Popeye-inspired story about a giant ape and a damsel in distress — was retrofitted into the existing hardware. The game made $280 million in its first two years, single-handedly saved Nintendo of America, and gave the world both Donkey Kong and Mario (originally just called “Jumpman”). It also drove a Universal Studios trademark lawsuit over alleged King Kong similarity, which Nintendo won. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Donkey Kong. Mario Bros. is the 1983 arcade follow-up where Mario gets his name and his plumber brother Luigi. Popeye (1982) is Miyamoto’s next game — the IP he’d originally wanted for what became Donkey Kong. Galaga (1981) is by Namco, not Nintendo. Miyamoto’s breakout game is Donkey Kong. NEXT → 06 Sony’s original PlayStation launched in Japan in December 1994 and went on to dominate the fifth console generation, selling over 100 million units. The console was originally conceived as a CD-ROM add-on for another company’s console, until that partner publicly humiliated Sony at CES 1991 by suddenly switching to Philips. Which spurned company drove Sony into the console business? ASega BAtari CNintendo DPanasonic (3DO) ✓ Correct! Nintendo. The two companies had jointly developed a SNES CD-ROM add-on (codenamed “Play Station,” with the space) for years. At CES 1991, Sony announced the partnership on day one; on day two, Nintendo’s Howard Lincoln walked on stage and revealed Nintendo had quietly switched to Philips. Sony executive Ken Kutaragi convinced his board to use the prototype to build their own standalone console. The result, three years later, was the PlayStation — which buried the SNES’s successor, the N64, in third place that generation. One of the most expensive corporate snubs in business history. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Nintendo. Sega had its own CD-ROM add-on (the Sega CD, 1991). Atari was a fading competitor. Panasonic eventually shipped the 3DO (1993), but Sony’s entry into hardware was specifically driven by the Nintendo partnership collapse at CES 1991 — one of the most consequential corporate breakups in the industry’s history. NEXT → 07 Bungie’s Halo: Combat Evolved (November 2001) is the textbook system-seller — the FPS that proved console first-person shooters could rival the PC, sold five million copies for an unproven new console, and turned its publisher into a permanent fixture in console gaming. For which 2001-launching console was it a launch title? APlayStation 2 BGameCube CXbox DSega Dreamcast ✓ Correct! The original Xbox — Microsoft’s first home console, launched November 15, 2001 in North America. Microsoft acquired Bungie in June 2000 specifically to make Halo an Xbox-exclusive launch title (it had originally been pitched as a Mac/PC RTS). Halo: Combat Evolved sold over 5 million copies, became the Xbox’s system-seller, and made the franchise a permanent Microsoft pillar through Halo 2’s Xbox Live revolution and beyond. ✗ Wrong. The answer is the original Xbox. PlayStation 2 launched a year earlier (October 2000). The GameCube launched within days of the Xbox in November 2001 but never had Halo. The Dreamcast (1998) was discontinued in early 2001. Halo’s home is the Xbox — its existence as an exclusive is the entire reason Microsoft bought Bungie. NEXT → 08 Steam — the dominant digital storefront for PC gaming — launched in September 2003, initially mocked as a glorified DRM patcher for Counter-Strike. It now hosts over 100,000 games and reportedly takes 50–70% of all PC game sales. Which Bellevue, Washington studio (also creator of Half-Life and Portal) launched and runs Steam? ABlizzard Entertainment BValve Cid Software DEpic Games ✓ Correct! Valve, founded in 1996 by ex-Microsoft executives Gabe Newell and Mike Harrington. Steam launched in September 2003 mainly as a way to deliver patches for Counter-Strike, with Half-Life 2 (2004) the first commercial release tied to it. Newell’s repeatedly-voiced philosophy — that piracy is fundamentally a service problem — turned Steam into the dominant PC platform and made Valve, a privately-held company, one of the most valuable per-employee firms in technology. ✗ Wrong. The answer is Valve. Blizzard runs Battle.net (Diablo, World of Warcraft, Hearthstone). id Software is the original Doom/Quake studio, now owned by Microsoft via the Bethesda/ZeniMax acquisition. Epic Games runs the competing Epic Games Store (launched 2018) alongside Fortnite and Unreal Engine. Steam — and Half-Life, Portal, Left 4 Dead, Counter-Strike, Dota 2 — is Valve. REVEAL MY RATING → High Score Recorded · Final Tally Your Gamer Standing 🎮 / 8 Speedrun champion — or still on the tutorial? ⤴ CONTINUE? Y/N Then there’s Sweet Tooth, the franchise’s iconic homicidal clown. Sweet Tooth is physically portrayed by wrestler Samoa Joe but voiced by Will Arnett. He is far more than a generic murderous clown, thanks to his theatrical personality, dark sense of humor, and sense of loyalty to his friends. Twisted Metal understands exactly how to make its absurdity work alongside its sincerity. Anyone who enjoys Fallout’s mix of violence, comedy, and strange characters should be watching this too. Fallout and Twisted Metal both combine comedy with action-horror. Where Fallout is like Rocky Road ice cream, with each bite offering a different combination of ingredients, Twisted Metal is blended into a single flavor, with nearly every scene simultaneously delivering comedy, violence, and pathos. Image via Everett Collection Peacock’s smaller cultural footprint is the most obvious reason Twisted Metal hasn’t reached the same heights as Fallout. Prime Video has a massive global audience, while Peacock is exclusively a US service, giving Twisted Metal and other excellent Peacock original series a much smaller potential audience from the start. But the difference goes beyond streaming platforms. Fallout is an active, enormously popular franchise, while Twisted Metal, despite being a recognizable PlayStation property, hasn’t had a mainline game since 2012. It therefore lacks the built-in gaming audience that helped make Fallout such a major event for Prime Video. The marketing also arguably undersold what makes Twisted Metal special. Its trailers emphasize the cars, explosions, gore, and Sweet Tooth’s absurdity, making it easy to dismiss as mindless post-apocalyptic fun. But the show has a surprisingly sweet emotional core, particularly in John and Quiet’s relationship, which gives all the carnage genuine stakes. Finally, season 1 premiered on July 27, 2023, just days after the SAG-AFTRA strike began, when actors were unable to promote their projects normally. Despite that, the show did well enough to earn a second season, which was much better reviewed by critics, putting season 3 firmly on the fast track. Season 3 looks set to take Twisted Metal in a much bigger direction. Season 1 was primarily about introducing John, Quiet, and the bizarre post-apocalyptic world, while season 2 brought the titular Twisted Metal tournament into the story. But the Twisted Metal season 2 finale effectively blows up that premise, framing John and Quiet for the deaths of the Insider spectators and setting off an open war between the Insiders and Outsiders. That gives season 3 a very different narrative engine. John and Quiet are now on a mission to reach Calypso and save John’s sister Krista, aka Dollface, after Calypso transforms her into Minion. Their journey will take them through a war zone rather than another simple road trip or tournament, suggesting a broader post-apocalyptic conflict with much higher stakes. Mark Hamill has been cast as Pope Charlie Kane, Sweet Tooth’s estranged father and leader of a faction known as the Eastern Sovereignty. With Sweet Tooth heading toward a reunion with his father, his complicated family history looks set to be a major part of Twisted Metal season 3's story. Behind the scenes, the show is also entering a new era, with David Reed, whose credits include The Boys and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds, taking over as showrunner from Michael Jonathan Smith. The shift from deadly tournament to open warfare should give Twisted Metal plenty of runway to expand its world and game mythology. Release Date July 27, 2023 Network Peacock Directors Jude Weng, Bill Benz Cast Nuufolau Joel Seanoa Sweet Tooth Writers Grant DeKernion, Francesca Gailes, Alyssa Forleiter, Shaun Diston, Becca Black, Alison Tafel Franchise(s) Twisted Metal Creator(s) Rhett Reese, Paul Wernick, Michael Jonathan Smith