Tulsa King Is Fuckin Awesome
Self-proclaimed "mafia connoisseur", and my proclaimed menefreghista Jeff Nadu blogged about "Tulsa King" back when it premiered in November.
As Jeff said after the first episode, one of the funnier and more unique angles in the show is that Stallone's character, Dwight Manfredi, has been doing a 20-year bid in federal prison, and has subsequently missed out on an entire technological revolution, and societal devolution.
He gets back into the real world as a free man and it's one he barely recognizes.
Cell phones, apps, and pronouns are just a few of the things he rails on. He reminds me of my uncle who still picks up two newspapers every morning, refuses to upgrade from his flip phone, and thinks the world has gone to hell in a handbasket. Manfredi is a fish out of water in every sense of the word. Not only is he dealing with becoming acclimated to the fast paced, new world around him, but he's also trying to repair his relationship with his estranged daughter, and his two grandsons he's never met, while being shipped down to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to set up shop and get a cashflow going for his crime family back in NYC.
Now, is the shows writing stellar? It's a Taylor Sheridan flick, so no. This is far from "The Wire". But it never tries to be anything it isn't. There are lots of one-liners, zingers, and straight-to-the-point dialogue.
The characters are great. And all over the place. It reminds me of an old Grand Theft Auto game. You've got a wanna-be gangster, a real-life one, a cowboy bar owner, a conflicted ATF agent (played by that minx Andrea Savage),
Charles Sykes. Shutterstock Images.there's a biker gang, legal and illegal drug dealers, corrupt cops, the whole shebang.
The storyline is also decent.
Without spoiling anything, the guy who plays "Chickie", the son of Stallone's characters' best friend, Crime Boss Pete Invernizzi, is phenomenal.
He's played by THE MAN, Domenick Lombardozzi, who played "Herc" in "The Wire".
He plays an ALL-TIME piece of shit, low-life, scumbag. And he does an amazing job pulling it off.
It also features the guy who played "Gilfoyle" in "Silicon Valley", and he's awesome in this too.
Again, without spoiling the show for anybody, it's a great "wind-down" show. That's what I like to call a show you throw on when you're in bed and you're not trying to fall asleep in the middle of it, but you're trying to wind down your day with some mindless entertainment. "Tulsa King" delivers that in spades.
It's not difficult to keep up with, or remember characters' names or faces. It's got some romance but it doesn't overdue it and ruin the show. And for all the violence in it, it's got some really heartwarming moments too. And again, it's pretty funny in an off-color way. Something I actually give Sheridan credit for having the balls to push the envelope on in 2022/23.
Overall, I give it 4 balls.
The first eight episodes are now out on Paramount+, and the final episode hit Paramount+ on this past Sunday, January 8th.