Tulsa King review: Stallone swaps Rambo for the Rackets
Sylvester Stallone plays a mob capo exiled to Oklahoma in Taylor Sheridan’s crime caper. It’s daft, slick and a lot of fun, and season four is now on Paramount+.
Reviewed, edited and approved by Editor-in-chief Daniel Sköld · Updated 24 October 2026
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Sylvester Stallone has spent nearly fifty years punching things: meat carcasses, Russians, Vietnam-era flashbacks, and on one memorable occasion a very surprised arm-wrestling opponent. So it’s a small shock to learn that Tulsa King, which arrived in 2022, was his first time leading a television series. The man who played Rocky and Rambo had somehow never got round to the medium most of us actually watch on a Tuesday night.
Now, with season four rolling out weekly on Paramount+, it’s a good time to ask whether the show is worth catching up on. The short answer is yes, as long as you know what you’re signing up for. This isn’t The Sopranos. It’s Stallone in a nice suit, dishing out wisecracks and the odd left hook to anyone who annoys him, and frankly that’s a more relaxing way to spend an evening than most prestige drama.
Premiere2022-11-13
GenreCrime, Drama, Comedy
CastSylvester Stallone, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Vincent Piazza
Watch onParamount+
83%
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Twenty-five years inside, then off to Oklahoma
The set-up is lovely and simple. Dwight Manfredi, known as The General, is a New York Mafia capo who comes out after 25 years in prison. He kept his mouth shut and did his time, and he expects a little gratitude. Instead he finds the younger generation have taken over, and his reward is exile to Tulsa, Oklahoma, to set up a new operation in a city that, as far as organised crime goes, is a bit of a backwater.
What follows in the opening episodes is a fish-out-of-water story with a gangster’s swagger. Dwight is an old-school mobster in a place full of cowboy hats and cannabis dispensaries, and he sets about building a crew of misfits from whoever happens to be nearby. Stallone described it neatly himself when the show launched: the character can either make a fresh start or die of loneliness out there. I’ll leave it there. The fun is in watching him work out how Tulsa works, and then bending it to suit him.
Sheridan’s idea, Winter’s writing, Stallone’s show
Tulsa King was created by Taylor Sheridan, the Yellowstone man who seems to be personally responsible for half of Paramount+’s schedule. The day-to-day writing comes from Terence Winter, who worked on The Sopranos and created Boardwalk Empire. He ran the first two seasons, stepped back somewhat for the third, and has returned as showrunner and head writer for season four. That pedigree shows. The dialogue has more snap than you’d expect from what is, at heart, a comfort-food crime show.
Stallone carries the whole thing, but he has decent company. IMDb lists Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza and Garrett Hedlund among the cast, and later seasons bring in faces such as Frank Grillo, Dana Delany and Neal McDonough. The first season ran to ten episodes of around 40 minutes each. That’s a far more manageable commitment than the 70-minute monsters some streamers inflict on us.
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Peaky Blinders with a Stetson
The obvious British comparison is Peaky Blinders: a charismatic boss, a ragtag firm, and an ambition to go legitimate that you suspect will never quite stick. But Tulsa King has none of Tommy Shelby’s brooding torment or Steven Knight’s operatic gloom. In tone it sits much closer to Guy Ritchie. Think Lock, Stock or The Gentlemen, where the violence comes with a punchline and the villains get the best lines. Dwight is a criminal, and he leans on ordinary people for money, but the show makes sure he does it with a grin and a code of honour. You’re meant to root for him, and you will.
It’s not a hard look at the Mafia. It’s a 70-something action hero discovering that charm and a firm handshake still beat everyone else’s gadgets.
What works is Stallone. He’s funnier than his reputation suggests, his timing is bone-dry, and he knows exactly how to play a man who is too old for this nonsense and secretly enjoying every minute. The age jokes land because he’s in on them. For those of us who grew up watching him take on entire armies single-handed, there’s something quietly satisfying about seeing him use his mouth more than his fists.
What doesn’t work is just as plain. The supporting characters are often sketches rather than people, the plotting goes for convenience over credibility, and the show never really wrestles with the fact that its hero is a thug. Every problem can be solved with a punch-up, and Dwight is never seriously out of his depth. If you want moral complexity, The Sopranos is still there, waiting for its annual rewatch.
What the critics said
Critics have mostly been warm, with the odd raised eyebrow. On Rotten Tomatoes, season one scored 78 per cent from 46 reviews, and according to Forbes the aggregate for all four seasons now stands at 86 per cent. Audiences are keener still: the series holds 7.9 out of 10 on IMDb from more than 116,000 ratings.
Slant Magazine’s Ross McIndoe called it a vanity project, but a charming one. He said the series was “tailor-made for Stallone” and played to the star’s “mealy-mouthed charisma”, and he argued that it lacked the weary power of the Creed films while Stallone still carried the whole show. In the UK, AVForums described season three as a “lightweight but entertaining crime drama” and gave the season four premiere 7 out of 10, which feels about right to me.
Where to watch Tulsa King in the UK
Tulsa King is a Paramount+ original, and in the UK it lives on Paramount+. Each season has arrived here on the same day as in the US: season one on 14 November 2022, season two on 15 September 2024 and season three on 21 September 2025. All of them are available to stream with a subscription.
Season four started on Paramount+ on 16 October 2026, with new episodes every Friday until the finale on 18 December. That’s the same day the spin-off Frisco King, with Samuel L. Jackson, is due to launch. A fifth season has already been confirmed, so there’s no danger of getting attached and then being dumped mid-story.
Verdict
Tulsa King is the television equivalent of a good pub steak: not fancy, not clever, but exactly what you wanted after a long week. Stallone is having a whale of a time, and it’s infectious. It’s ideal for anyone who loved Peaky Blinders but wished it cracked a smile now and then, and for anyone who grew up on Rocky and Rambo and wants to see how the old boy is getting on. Three stars, plus a bonus fourth if you’re a lifelong Sly fan.
Ashley Isaacs picks what's worth your evening – film, TV, streaming, music and books for men 45 and over with limited evenings and too many subscriptions. Reviews of what's new on Netflix, Prime Video, BBC iPlayer and the rest, crime dramas worth a weekend, and classics worth a second look. What's worth watching, what isn't, and where to find it in the UK.
One of Midcent's writers. Spotted something? Write to ashley@midcent.uk.
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