The Twisted Metal TV show trailer has not raised my expectations for the Twisted Metal TV show

The Peacock exclusive Twisted Metal show got a trailer drop Monday, and it's teeming with cars, guns, and snarky millennial writing. The brainchild of Deadpool & Zombieland writer/producers Paul Wernick and Rhett Reese, Twisted Metal features an eye-catching cast including Avengers star Anthony Mackie, Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Stephanie Beatriz, with AEW's Samoa Joe playing posterboy Sweet Tooth (voiced by Arrested Development's Will Arnett).

Beyond the name, there's not a lot of connective tissue between this new series and the older games. Twisted Metal, in its PlayStation incarnations, was an arena battler where sadistic freaks and killers duked it out for the chance at wishing on a magic monkey's paw. All of that has been eschewed for a cheaper, post-apocalyptic aesthetic, with cars that look sort of normal.

It's got all the makings of a trailer I like to refer to as "One of these": Loosely based off an existing intellectual property and a trailer cut to a licensed track remixed with big bassy orchestral drums timed to the on-screen action that suddenly cuts out to make sure everyone catches the bad jokes. Folks, it's giving "tax-writeoff".

Still, it's only a trailer, and my rampant cynicism was laid low earlier this week after catching the new Indiana Jones, so there's a chance that Twisted Metal could be a surprise hit when its ten episodes release on July 27. Fingers crossed that Sony has a new Twisted Metal game in development, and that it follows in the wake of other PlayStation exclusives and eventually makes its way to PC.

Nova Smith is a freelance writer based out of Alberta, Canada. Nova's grab bag of non-gaming interests and passions includes Japanese mecha anime, miniature painting, as well as history, literature, and classical music. Nova also moonlights as a bureaucrat and amateur historian.