Stream A Mountain of Entertainment™ on Paramount+. Try it FREE!
Taylor Sheridan has managed to get some of the biggest movie stars of any era to join his various small screen projects for Paramount. Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren are currently starring in the Yellowstone prequel 1923, Jeremy Renner has returned for a second season of Mayor of Kingstown, and with Tulsa King, Sylvester Stallone takes on his first major television role. In it, Stallone plays mafia capo Dwight Manfredi, recently released from a 25-year prison sentence, who expects a hero’s welcome back into the fold, but instead finds himself exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Still expected to earn for the family, he wastes no time setting up shop and turning the western city on its head.
Tulsa King has that classic fish out of water feel, complete with funny references to technological advances he’s missed over the last several decades, but rather than adapting to his surroundings, Dwight imposes his will. This type of character is one that Stallone excels in: a tough guy, but a likeable one. One of his endearing qualities is that he treats everyone with respect until you give him a reason not to. He draws people in, and that’s why he finds his way into partnerships with all different sorts.
Sure, dispensaries make the sale of weed legal, but that doesn’t mean Bodhi (Martin Starr, Freaks and Geeks) still shouldn’t pay Dwight for protection. Mitch (Garrett Hedlund, Tron: Legacy) is an ex-con himself, but has built himself a life as a respectable bar owner – but why not take Dwight on as a partner, sell nitrous, and start a turf war against a local biker gang? Tyson (Jay Will, The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel) drives a cab and lives at home with his parents – OK, makes sense why he agrees to be Dwight’s driver and get on the payroll.
Still, it’s a bit comical how agreeable everyone is when it comes to Dwight, and not just because he’s content to beat the hell out of you until you see things his way. He’ll do that if the situation calls for it, but the cops – crooked or not—never come for him, and nobody in Tulsa really pushes back. It has a bit of that Cobra Kai suspension of disbelief working for it, as all hell continues to break loose with very little police involvement, and he escalates tense situations, putting people in harm’s way that otherwise wouldn’t be.
If you are concerned that Sheridan may have forgotten to include horses in this project, fear not. After Dwight inexplicably is discovered in Tulsa by a member a member of his old crew (Max Casella, Kaleidoscope) who assumes he’s been sent there to kill him, we learn that Manny works on a horse ranch. So, crisis averted, and Dwight also later rescues a horse for good measure.
The dialogue can be heavy-handed, which is something that Sheridan forgivably falls into from time to time on his other projects, especially Yellowstone. It’s most evident during monologues, but Stallone has the gravitas to keep it honest enough. It’s more of an issue as the series attempts to create stakes and a primary antagonist for the season with the leader of the motorcycle gang, Caolan Waltrip (Ritchie Coster, The Dark Knight).
The problem doesn’t lie in Coster’s ability as an actor, but the character and entire storyline seemed derivative of Sons of Anarchy, which Sheridan once acted in. Despite Caolan doing some very ruthless things, they typically involve secondary characters you have no investment in. While it would be a shame to lose a likeable character in the first season, it would have better served the narrative if they wanted to make viewers believe Dwight’s crew was ever in any real peril.
Despite a few abrupt tonal shifts, Tulsa King remains rather lighthearted compared to the Sheridan standard. It’s not Analyze This, but it’s certainly not Goodfellas either. The only real weight ever felt comes with Dwight’s relationship with his traditional family, and his shaky ground with his mafia one. He’s desperate to establish a relationship with his daughter Tina (Tatiana Zappardino, Superstition) and proves that he will fiercely protect her over all else. Though, if he was serious about redeeming himself, he was a bit quick to jump straight into illegal activity. Additionally, despite genuine love and respect towards the mafia’s leader Pete (A.C. Peterson, Shanghai Noon), tensions are high with Chickie (Domenick Lombardozzi, The Wire), Vince (Vincent Piazza, Boardwalk Empire), and others, which are clearly poised to step into the adversarial role as the show moves into its second season.
One of the more enjoyable scenes of the first season happens in the debut episode, “Go West, Old Man,” where after sleeping with Dwight following her friend’s bachelorette party, Stacy (Andrea Savage, I’m Sorry) is appalled to discover their age gap, which she refers to as an “age canyon.” Stallone is playing his age (76) in this role, and so often we see older leading men sleep with clearly younger women and nothing is said of it. There is some terrific back and forth between them as she hurriedly gets dressed to get out of the hotel room as quickly as possible. If that was the last time we saw her, it would have been a perfect sequence, but we get a cliffhanger twist at the end of the episode that’s reminiscent of the show Weeds and realize she’s going to be a key character, which is also fine.
Truthfully, its easy to nitpick things about the show that don’t fully work, but Stallone works, and the show is perfect vehicle for him to do what he does best, playing a tough, nuanced, and affable man, interacting with an assortment of different personalities. The characters are fun, and the show leans into humor and friendly banter more than you would initially expect. In Tulsa, Dwight has put together one of the strangest crews ever assembled, and it should be interesting seeing them square up against his old one next season.
