Taylor Sheridan’s goofy and wildly entertaining Tulsa King rolls past the midway point of its second season, continuing to bankroll the extravagances of the Stallone family. For those who haven’t tuned in, imagine a low-rent The Sopranos set in Tulsa, Oklahoma, with Sylvester Stallone channeling his Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot role. That’s not a dig; it’s part of the charm.
In a strange twist, Terence Winter (Boardwalk Empire) was ousted as showrunner after last season over creative differences, but he’s returned for season two, now as head writer. The tone hasn’t shifted much, which is a good thing. The show’s knack for bouncing between high-stakes and low-stakes drama remains intact. One moment, Stallone’s Dwight Manfredi is plotting mob wars; the next, he’s arguing over a preschool’s “woke” curriculum for his grandkid.
This season, Manfredi’s crew—played by familiar faces like Martin Starr, Max Casella, and Garrett Hedlund—is caught in a war on three fronts. First, there’s the New York mob, led by the Invernizzi family (Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza), who originally banished Manfredi to Tulsa but aren’t pleased that he’s taken the city as his own. Then, there’s a Kansas City crime syndicate led by Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo) that runs the Oklahoma mob, and finally, a territorial clash with the shady businessman Thresher (Neal McDonough). The show’s cast is a “Dad show” dream team, with recurring roles for Annabella Sciorra and Dana Delaney.
I don’t want to like the show as much as I do, but it’s all so easygoing. Stallone is playing a barely disguised version of himself, and there haven’t been this many great character actors on one show since Justified.
Jay Will shines as Tyson Mitchell, a cabbie-turned-Manfredi’s trusted driver, much like Rhenzy Feliz’s character in The Penguin. Drawn to the wealth and power that come with mob life (against his family’s wishes), Tyson buys his skeptical blue-collar father, played by another great character actor Michael Beach, a new car. But the gesture backfires when an enemy of Manfredi’s plants a bomb in the car, nearly killing Tyson’s father.
The question in this week’s episode? Who bombed the Navigator? Tyson wants vengeance despite his inexperience with killing, but Manfredi urges restraint, hoping to handle it himself. Tyson can’t hold back, though, and by the episode’s end, he’s involved in a shootout that appears to take down a major player. But who? (Many people are asking, because the image is so blurry it’s almost impossible to tell).
Here’s a clearer pic of him earlier in the episode.
Tyson’s unknowing victim is part of the Bevilaqua Kansas City syndicate, with whom Manfredi had just struck a deal. Tyson, alas, doesn’t yet realize that Thresher’s associate, Jackie Ming (Rich Ting), was actually behind the bombing attempt on his father. Ming is a cold motherf***er.
Now, Manfredi has a mess on his hands: his protégé just took out the wrong family’s enforcer, setting the stage for some serious blowback in the season’s final three episodes. But even that blowback will probably be seriocomic. It’s not a great show, but it is a hell of a good time.