The second season of Twisted Metal, the high-octane, violence-packed series based on the racing video game, has finally premiered on Peacock! Watching amnesiac hero John Doe (Anthony Mackie) clash with the villainous clown Sweet Tooth (voiced by Will Arnett), one thing comes to mind: the iconic aesthetic of Mad Max! George Miller’s Mad Max series cemented the car-centric, desert-surrounded post-apocalyptic vibe in pop culture, and Twisted Metal borrows heavily from this B-movie aesthetic.
But this B-movie vibe was also at the heart of Blood Drive, a largely forgotten 2017 Syfy series that’s one of the network’s best. Despite lasting only 13 episodes and fading from memory, Blood Drive was one of the decade’s top horror shows. If you’re a Twisted Metal fan, brace yourself for a mind-blowing experience! This series is like Twisted Metal through a Grindhouse lens, but with the sex and violence dialed up to insane levels. Pure madness!
“Blood Drive”: Blood-Powered Cars and Alan Ritchson’s Unforgettable Role!
Blood Drive’s premise was truly wild. Set in 1999, after devastating earthquakes ravaged the world, water was scarce, and gasoline even scarcer. Humanity’s solution? Cars powered by human blood! Drivers routinely kidnapped unlucky passersby, opened their hoods, and fed screaming victims into blood-thirsty engines. At the center of this dystopian world was Heart Enterprises, an evil corporation that organized an annual cross-country death race, promising fame and glory to the winner.
The show’s protagonists were Arthur (Alan Ritchson), a Los Angeles cop so handsome he’s nicknamed “Barbie,” and Grace D’Argento (Christina Ochoa). Arthur is reluctantly dragged into the death race, forced to team up with Grace, a killer femme fatale with her own hidden motives.
Blood Drive’s gimmick was that each episode loosely mimicked a different B-movie subgenre. One episode featured a cannibalistic motel, another a murderous asylum, and another a sex virus. As the series progressed, it slowly revealed Heart Enterprises’ deep ties to Barbie and Grace’s personal lives and their control over the world.
The B-movie vibe in Blood Drive is something Twisted Metal fans will love. Especially seeing Alan Ritchson, known for his tough, cool persona in Reacher, shine here as the more innocent and bewildered “Barbie” shows his incredible range as an actor. Arthur’s “What the hell is going on?” glances amid the chaos perfectly capture the show’s unique humor.
Twisted Metal, like Blood Drive, is a tribute to B-movies. Both are absurd, wild, and chaotic. If you love Twisted Metal’s high-octane, bizarre world, Alan Ritchson’s Blood Drive is a must-add to your watchlist. You won’t regret it!
