‘Twisted Metal’ Is the Best Performance of Anthony Mackie’s Career

There was a moment in a recent episode of Peacock’s Twisted Metal series where Anthony Mackie’s character, John Doe, shows off his skills (and body!) to his partner, Quiet (Stephanie Beatriz), by navigating a laser security field during a heist. When he gets to the other side, he stands up triumphantly and grins … with a comically large boner. And it was then that I realized this just might be the best performance of his career.

When I finally listened to what my Podjiba co-host Dan Hamamura has been preaching for the last two years and sat down to catch up on Twisted Metal, I had few expectations. A fun, silly time with cars and explosions, right? What I certainly was not expecting was an acting showcase that would single-handedly change how I looked at an actor who’s been in the business for over two decades now.

And I realize that saying this chaotic video game adaptation is the best thing Mackie has ever done might sound like some desperate hyperbole. After all, he’s played Martin Luther King Jr., Tupac Shakur, and Captain freaking America. His first film role was in the Academy Award-winning 8 Mile. He’s done Shakespeare in the Park and starred opposite Christopher Walken in A Behanding in Spokane on Broadway. Hell, he just got an Emmy nomination for portraying himself in The Studio. Playing a delivery guy in a post-apocalyptic hellscape, based on a PlayStation franchise that hasn’t released a new installment since 2012, in a TV show that airs on the also-ran of streaming platforms, should be utterly beneath him. And yet, I’ll say it again …

This is the best performance of his career.

I’ll admit, I’d sort of taken Mackie for granted before this. He’s always a rock-solid addition to any project I’ve seen him in, from comedy to action to drama, but he often winds up overshadowed. It’s something he recently joked about on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon when discussing his reaction to his Emmy nominations. He was on set when people started congratulating him, and he was confused.

“I was like, ‘Oh, what white dude got nominated?’ Because I’m the white dude legend when it comes to nomination and winning. So, I made Ryan Gosling [Half Nelson] famous, I made Jeremy Renner [The Hurt Locker] famous, I made Bryan Cranston [All the Way] famous, I made, now, Ron Howard famous. I’m like, ‘You wanna get nominated? I’m the dude.’ I am the sauce, I am the jelly in the donut.”

He’s usually an ingredient, not the main dish - and that’s still true in Twisted Metal, I suppose. There’s so much going on in this show, no one thing can be the whole shebang. Still, he’s at the very least the meat in the meal, which brings me back to that boner. On paper, the comedy in Twisted Metal isn’t always that funny. Sometimes it’s simple sight gags, like an unexpected erection or John struggling to drink from a straw while his wrists are bound. Mackie makes them funny, and it isn’t because he lacks an ego so much as he can let his ego feed the joke. The series leans on every ounce of charisma he has, which is a lot, and in exchange, it gives him an opportunity to leverage all his gifts as an actor. In a single episode, he’ll deliver a comedic punchline with perfect timing, do an impressive stunt that usually ends in another sort of punchline, maybe show his butt, have a serious heart-to-heart with a sister he doesn’t remember, and play one half of one of the best realized romantic duos on screen today. John and Quiet have a silly, sexy chemistry full of frank ogling and constant ribbing that is also threaded with genuine concern and care. I’d say it’s out of place in a show like this, except it isn’t. It’s just one of the many things that help Twisted Metal rise above expectations.

In many ways, Twisted Metal rests on Mackie’s impressive shoulders. He’s the lead actor and also an executive producer. So much of the show relies on his game performance, his ability to shift gears at the drop of a hat, and he holds nothing back. Even if logically Twisted Metal should be beneath him, he throws himself into it anyway, with such joy that it changes how you look at Twisted Metal — and Mackie himself — entirely. Forget Marvel; Peacock proved Anthony Mackie is a star.