Sylvester Stallone had never led a scripted television series before Tulsa King. Taylor Sheridan built him one anyway, and the result is a show that knows exactly what its star is for.
Paramount+ released the first season from November 13, 2022, to January 8, 2023. Stallone plays Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a New York Mafia capo who finishes a 25-year prison sentence and gets sent by his boss to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to set up criminal operations. He knows no one there. That is the joke and the engine.
Trailer, via Paramount Plus.
The Man From New York
Dwight’s first recruit is Tyson Mitchell, a taxi driver who becomes his personal driver. His first money comes from Lawrence “Bodhi” Geigerman, a dispensary owner Dwight threatens and then befriends. Martin Starr plays Bodhi, Jay Will plays Tyson. A bar owner named Mitch Keller becomes another associate.
The premise does the heavy lifting. A mobster out of time, dropped into a city with no family and no infrastructure, has to build from nothing. Stallone is the reason it works. Dwight is 25 years out of practice and still the most dangerous man in any room, and the show lets him play both facts at once.
What Dwight Is Up Against
The enemies stack up in order of how much they matter.
- The New York syndicate that exiled him and may not have his best interests in mind.
- The Black Macadams, an outlaw biker gang.
- Stacy Beale, the ATF agent investigating him — and his love interest.
That third one is where the show takes its biggest swing. The relationship reads as a bad idea from the start, and the show never pretends otherwise.
Vincent Piazza plays Vince Antonacci, Chris Caldovino plays Goodie Carangi, and Annabella Sciorra plays Joanne. Frank Grillo arrives as Bill Bevilaqua, a Kansas City mobster. Neal McDonough plays Cal Thresher. The bench is deep and Sheridan uses it.
A Show That Kept Changing Hands
The production story is as restless as Dwight’s. Terence Winter ran the first season, then was demoted to head writer before the second over differences with Sheridan. Craig Zisk produced season two. Dave Erickson took over as showrunner for season three.
Season one filmed largely in Oklahoma City. Primary production on season two moved to Atlanta after the cast and crew complained. The show has aired 39 episodes. Season three concluded November 23, 2025, and a fourth season is set to premiere October 16, 2026.
Tulsa King is Stallone’s show and it behaves like one. The crime plotting is competent but rarely surprising, and the supporting cast does more work than the scripts ask of them. What holds it together is the central performance and the simple, durable idea underneath it — a man whose whole world is gone, building a new one in a place nobody would pick. That is enough for 6.5. It is not enough for more.
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