Tulsa King review: Binge-worthy has never been so true

Sylvester Stallone is an interesting person. I remember him telling the story of Rocky and how that movie almost didn’t get made and how people doubted his ability as a leading actor. Don’t get me wrong, the man has made some terrible movies, but when he nails something, he nails it good. This isn’t any truer than his latest venture, Tulsa King. The point of all this is I have a lot of respect for Stallone, and he’s just as great as ever.

Estimated reading time: 4 minutes

Tulsa King airs on Paramount+, with new shows dropping every Sunday. Season one has nine episodes, and I am not sure there will be more, though there should be. This has, by far, been one of my top three shows to watch; you can add Mayor of Kingstown, and 1923 to that top three, also on Paramount+. Here’s my quick review of Tulsa King.

Tulsa King

Cast

• Sylvester Stallone: Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi
• Andrea Savage: Stacy Beale
• Martin Starr: Bodhi
• Jay Will: Tyson
• Max Casella: Armand Truisi
• Domenick Lombardozzi: Charles ‘Chickie’ Invernizzi
• Vincent Piazza: Vince Antonacci
• A.C. Peterson: Pete Invernizzi
• Garrett Hedlund: Mitch Keller
• Dana Delany: Margaret Devereaux
• Chris Caldovino: Goodie Carangi
• Ritchie Coster: Caolan Waltrip
• Dashiell Connery: Clint
• Emily Davis: Roxy
• Tatiana Zappardino: Tina

Synopsis

New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi is released from prison after 25 years and exiled by his boss to set up shop in Tulsa, Oklahoma; realizing that his mob family may not have his best interests in mind, Dwight slowly builds a crew.

Tensions quickly rise between an established biker gang in Tulsa and Dwight’s former mafia family. Words are said. Fists are thrown. Eventually, blood is spilled. Dwight is on the road to carving out Tulsa as his turf, and he’s not going down without a fight.

Review

Casting

I’ll be honest, even with Stallone’s Italian background, I never took him for the mafioso type, but he nailed Dwight Manfredi’s character in Tulsa King. What I appreciated most about Stallone’s performance was that it wasn’t entirely cliched or molded to what we generally think a mafia character is. Domenick Lombardozzi’s character Chickie was closer to that cliche than Stallone’s Dwight character.

Aside from Stallone, the two strongest performances in Tulsa King came from Jay Will (Tyson) and Martin Starr (Bodhi). Will’s portrayal of a good man just trying to make something of himself but getting caught up in the mess that is Dwight Manfredi was outstanding.

Starr’s performance as the weed-smoking and selling Bodhi was equally excellent, and by episode nine, you find out there is more than meets the eye to this cat.

The rest of the cast is excellent, and you have veterans like Dana Delany and Andrea Savage, who also deliver great performances.

Overall, I think the casting was spot on. Every player on the board works, and they quickly play off each other. It’s always great when you have a cast that seems to mesh well and create a true sense of reality to their characters and space.

Production

The production quality is excellent, and the locations they chose to shoot were perfect. I’m sure not everything was shot on location, but you wouldn’t know that because everything looks well done.

This type of TV show is sometimes a good break from sci-fi or period shows, as you can relate to the time and space. This also gives set designers an easier time recreating spaces without worrying about creating elaborate sets and special effects. Speaking of effects, practical effects are 100% better, and due to the subject matter and time period of Tulsa King, practical effects work amazingly well here.

Overall, there’s not much to say about the production; it’s an excellent show with everything you could want in a quality TV show.

Wrap Up

There are very few TV shows out right now that are worth binge-watching. Now that Tulsa King has nine episodes in the tank, binge-worthy has never been so true. Overall, Tulsa King is 100% worth watching; my only complaint would be that the episodes could have been a bit longer.