After more than a year away, Tulsa King returned to set audience records on Paramount+. Viewers clearly hadn’t forgotten about the drama, which stars Sylvester Stallone as Dwight Manfredi, a New York mobster looking to establish his own business in Oklahoma. The ten-episode Season 2 is now being released on Blu-Ray and DVD via Paramount to reach a wider audience.
Tulsa King Season 2 picks up with Dwight manuevering his way out of prison, after being arrested at the end of Season 1. But he returns to find that there are new enemies he wasn’t even aware of, and winds up in another battle for territory. Meanwhile, tensions among his former crew in New York reach a boiling point. It’s an uneven if entertaining season, and the same can be said of the Blu-Ray release.
Tulsa King Season 2 Has Its Ups and Downs
The Season Is Better in the Middle Than the Beginning or the End
The extended hiatus doesn’t do Tulsa King any favors. The Season 2 premiere is actually one of the season’s weakest episodes, because it bends over backwards to re-establish Dwight as a larger than life protagonist. The hour spends far too much time trying to make him look good, and then has to use the remainder to explain basic information to viewers who probably forgot it between seasons. Luckily, the storytelling does get better in the middle part of the season — only to start sliding backwards again near the end.
Season 2 brings in not one, but two new adversaries for Dwight to spar with. Marvel and DC veteran Neal McDonough plays Cal Thresher, who is Dwight’s primary rival both professionally and romantically. Thresher is introduced as an acquaintance of Dana Delany’s character Margaret Deveraux, and the biggest medical marijuana supplier in the area.
McDonough, as he’s done so many times on other projects, does a great job of peeling back Thresher’s seemingly genial facade to reveal his less scrupulous intentions. The two butt heads early and often over marijuana and Margaret, who starts seeing Dwight this season; his previous love interest, Stacy Beale, has a minimal presence in the season before she’s written out for good. It’s not a great season for the female characters, as Tatiana Zappardino is also short-changed as Tina Manfredi.
But Thresher joins forces with Bill Bevilaqua, portrayed by Frank Grillo, but Bill has a few episodes where he only shows up for a scene or two since he and his mob crew are headquartered in Kansas City. Season 2’s better story is actually the tensions that develop among Dwight’s team as he pushes them to expand. Tyson Mitchell thinks he wants to jump from driver to being a full-time gangster, except he doesn’t know what that actually means. After getting killed off in Mayor of Kingstown, Michael Beach gets a big subplot in Tulsa King to make up for it. There are plenty of heated conversations between characters, lots of threats, and several big action scenes throughout the season. But in the final few episodes, the writers seem like they’ve forgotten their pacing and are trying to just wrap things up on time.
Tulsa King Season 2’s Blu-Ray Has Some Extras to Offer
The Home Video Release Peeks Behind the Scenes
The biggest selling point for the Tulsa King Season 2 Blu-Ray release is the five special features that Paramount+ doesn’t have. Four of the five featurettes provide some behind-the-scenes footage and information about the making of the season, which is more interesting for this show than it usually is for other series, given Tulsa King’s various production changes in Season 2. Two videos are cast-based, while one is about the writers’ room and one is about the production crew.
“The Boss is Back” is a very standard “making of” featurette, talking about the show’s return and providing a good general overview of the plot, with plenty of Stallone — which makes sense since he’s still the show’s biggest selling point. “Meet the Rivals” is a solid companion piece to that video, diving into McDonough and Frank Grillo’s collaboration with Stallone. It’s nice to have something specifically devoted to those actors as they drive so much of the season, and are both recognizable names that viewers will want to know more about.
“Mob Rules: Writing a Season of Crime” is a brief look into Tulsa King’s writing process, while “Best in Crew” is obviously a tribute to the crew members who make the show possible. These two are the most interesting, simply because they cover elements of TV that aren’t normally in the spotlight. It’s particularly meaningful to have Stallone recognize the crew members, even if the piece feels like it’s just scratching the surface. The last bonus feature is a forgettable piece simply titled “Who Said It?” that’s fun, but doesn’t add anything to viewers’ comprehension of the season.
Is Tulsa King Season 2 Worth Watching on Blu-Ray?
The Season Has Some Rewatch Value
The Tulsa King Season 2 Blu-Ray faces the same question every release has in the streaming era: is it worth owning a physical media copy when the episodes are easily available online? The answer is that die-hard fans will want it to get the special features, while more casual viewers will be able to skip. The bonus features are over half an hour long, but that still pales in comparison to the golden days of home media, when box sets would come with hours of material. However, Paramount deserves credit for coming up with features that provide some true insight into the making of the season. They don’t just feel like an afterthought chucked on to drive retail sales.
As for the season itself, it definitely shows the signs of the extended hiatus, but there are enough big moments to keep viewers talking. Many people are going to be tuning in for what Stallone does, and in that sense Tulsa King Season 2 does not disappoint. It gives him lots of scenery to chew and makes Dwight feel like an unstoppable force. While there’s no sign that the season will be leaving Paramount+ anytime soon, the streamer has purged shows from other ViacomCBS brands before, so anyone who’s a fanatic may take comfort in owning a physical copy that’s never at risk of going anywhere. Tulsa King Season 2 comes to Blu-Ray with more than most physical releases offer, and it’s worth a look just for the fun of it.
Tulsa King Season 2 is now available on Blu-Ray, DVD and digital, and streaming on Paramount+.