Should You see Tulsa King? Ten Questions To Help You Decide
Sylvester Stallone, Tulsa King, Paramount+
Greg Ehrhardt, OnScreen Blog Columnist
We have approximately ten million, nine hundred thousand and seventy-two tv shows available across the networks and streaming options to choose from in 2023 (I actually counted them one by one, and that was the count, plus or minus five). As we all know, outside of a show with a tremendous hook or massive star/writing/directing power, it’s really hard to see a new show and decide to try and invest your time in it.
That brings me to Tulsa King, Paramount+’s new drama starring Sylvester Stallone as Dwight Manfredi, a New York mobster who gets exiled to Tulsa Oklahoma to generate income for his mob family.
I stared at the promotional images for this show for a while, deciding not to invest my time despite my affinity for Stallone. He’s 76 years old: can he really make a mob show interesting?
Well, in late December, I came down with COVID, which afforded me lots of opportunities to catch up on shows and try some new ones out. Tulsa King was one of them, and, as I will get to in the ten questions below, I was very pleasantly surprised by it. The mafia genre is one of my favorites across film and TV, and while this is nowhere near the best representation of the mafia across any platform, it is a fun enough representation to keep me engaged. Also, importantly, it is a good show for Stallone fans as well!
But, like any show, this won’t be for everyone. Is it for you? That’s what we’re going to figure out.
10 questions to help you decide whether Tulsa King is for you:
1) So what genre is this show exactly?
a. I would say its 60% mafia, 35% fish out of water, and 5% character study. The early episodes are much more imbalanced towards fish out of water humor and story-telling, while the later episodes are more in the serious mafia fare.
2) This seems like an odd choice for Stallone. Is he convincing in the role? Is he good?
a. It’s not the first time he’s played a gangster, but, at 76 years old, I would agree it is a little bit surreal to see him play a mobster, and that surrealism never really subsides during the course of the season. That said, he never really disappears into the Dwight Manfredi character: It is Stallone, so he is always going to come off charismatic and not that bad a guy. Is it a good Stallone performance? He’s not going to win any Emmys, but its an enjoyable performance if you go back a ways with Stallone.
I was left to wonder what this show could have been if this was made 10-15 years ago with Joe Pesci or Robert Deniro. They are probably too good for this script, but you would have immediately gotten more character buy-in if you had those type of actors involved in a mob show set in Tulsa.
3) Is this a gritty mafia show? Is it fun? Humorous? How dark is the show?
a. It is a serious show, but, unlike The Sopranos, it doesn’t devote a lot of time to the quieter moments where the character’s dark souls are examined. . The show is more interested, more or less, in the plot developments than the character development (that’s not an insult by the way). It does try its hand at character development scenes, and it falls significantly short almost every time. Overall, the show is serious enough where you are invested in the characters safety, in a good way, but not enough where you feel like you really know many of the characters at all, outside of Dwight Manfredi
4) Isn’t Terence Winter involved in this show? How is this not grittier?
a. Yep, Winter, of “The Sopranos” fame, is the showrunner, but you would never know it if you never read the credits. This is nothing like The Sopranos, outside of the genre.
5) Martin Starr is in this show. I love him in “Silicon Valley” and the Spiderman movies. How important is his character to the show?
a. He’s pretty important, but man, he is way over-qualified for the role. Like Stallone, it is weird to see him in this type of show, in this type of role. He doesn’t have a lot to do comedically, but, playing a character that owns a pot dispensary and mostly deals with Stallone in a dead-pan manner, he is perfectly cast in one way, and at the same time has no business being in the show that is mostly not a comedy in any significant manner.
6) If I don’t care for Stallone, is there any other actors or characters that I could get attached to?
a. There are a couple “that guys” in the cast, and Manfredi’s driver is generally a fun likeable character, but overall no. This is Stallone’s show. The mobsters in New York are mostly non-descript except for Vincent Piazza (you’d recognize him from Boardwalk Empire) who has a great distinct voice for mob characters. Max Casella is another notable name, and he’s fine in the show. Ultimately, if you’re not a Stallone fan, there’s not a lot to hold onto that would distract you from Stallone/Dwight Manfredi
7) I want to watch this show, but my spouse doesn’t care one way or another about Stallone or mob shows. Is there enough for them to get interested in this?
a. I think it’s going to be tough to get attached to this if you don’t already like Stallone or mob/crime shows.
8) Tulsa King is rated MA, but is it safe for my teenager to watch?
a. Its rated MA mostly for the language (there are f-bombs, but not particularly gratuitous in its use of foul language). Unless I’m forgetting something, there aren’t any sex scenes or nudity to speak of yet. There are some shootouts in the show, but I think all of it would qualify for PG-13 in the theaters. If you’re not concerned about language, it is fine for your teenager to watch
9) For comparison purposes, is this better or worse than Ozark, since it seems like there are a lot of similarities.
a. I liked Ozark a lot, and there are similarities, but Tulsa King, as much as I like it, is not nearly the caliber of show as Ozark. Why? Tulsa King, like Ozark, is a bit about the chaos a gangster can bring to a quiet, stable community, but, so far, Tulsa King has not embraced that (or frankly any concept like that) as a story telling theme the way Ozark did. Tulsa King will not (as of now) have you feeling as raw and depressed as Ozark did in its best episodes.
10) Is there anything the show does great?
a. It has an A+ example of the Hollywood age gap in relationships? Mild spoiler, Stallone has sex with Andrea Savage’s character, Stacy. She is 49 years old, Stallone is 76, and, as is key with highlighting the egregious examples of the age gap in on screen couples, it doesn’t make much sense in the show why they like each other to the point of having sex. But what I will end with is this; it is not an insult to say the show does a lot of things well, but nothing great. TV needs more shows where its trying to just entertain, and Tulsa King succeeds on that front.
That’s the best recommendation I can give it; if you need a show where you don’t need to think too hard, and you like Stallone and/or mob/crime dramas, then Tulsa King is worth your time investment.