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How ‘Tulsa King’ Shreds So-Called ‘Toxic Masculinity’

Paramount+ series shows Stallone celebrating manliness without regret

If Sylvester Stallone agreed to star in a TV show back in the ‘80s we’d all say the same thing.

It’s a shame Rocky Balboa’s career cratered just when he appeared at the top of his game.

Movie stars made movies back then, and TV stars did everything they could to make the leap to the big screen. Just ask Bruce Willis, Tom Hanks, George Clooney and Will Smith.

Now? Movie stars rush to make TV projects, eager to bask in the often-superior writing and zeitgeist-friendly titles. You can thank Kevin Spacey for popularizing the shift.

So seeing Stallone star in Paramount+’s “Tulsa King” late last year sounded like a smart move.

Tulsa King | Official Trailer | Paramount+

Even better? Stallone teamed with “Yellowstone” co-creator Taylor Sheridan, the hottest scribe in Hollywood.

“Tulsa King” proved so successful the Paramount suits quickly greenlit a second season. Stallone, a co-producer on a show shot in Oklahoma, delivered one of his best performances in years as Dwight “The General” Manfredi.

He’s a New York mafioso sent to Tulsa to start “earning” in a new state. In reality, his mob family wants him out of its hair … permanently.

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The nine-episode season delivered yet another antihero, an unrepentant ex-con willing to do whatever’s necessary to make ends meet.

Extortion. Violence. Murder.

Tulsa King | Dwight's First Visit To The Higher Plane (S1, E1) | Paramount+

Yet Stallone’s character is both the protagonist and the saga’s hero. He’s also unabashedly old-fashioned, from his musical tastes to his impeccably tailored suits.

He makes millions and he looks like a million bucks while doing it.

There’s something else that’s unmistakable about the series. Dwight’s traits, and often his results, are captured in an unabashedly positive light. And they represent a raw masculinity that, we’re told, is no longer acceptable in polite society.

He’s seen as a role model and mentor to Tyson (Jay Will), a savvy business associate for Bodhi (Martin Starr) and a caring pappy to his estranged daughter, Tina (Tatiana Lia Zappardino).

Dwight doesn’t shrink from any battle. He charges forward, always. His masculinity jumps off the screen early and often, whether it’s being fearless in times of danger or treating the women in his life with as much gallantry as he can muster.

He brings flowers along to his date with ranch owner Margaret (Dana Delany) and plants a gentle kiss on his frenemy, ATF agent Stacy Beale (Andrea Savage) after a near-death experience.

 

 
 
 
 
 
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A post shared by Tulsa King (@tulsaking)

He’s not just the anchor of the show but of the rag-tag mob he forms to keep his criminal enterprise afloat. He’s a leader, and they’ll follow him anywhere.

Late in season one a minor character stands up and assails Dwight for getting her, and her friends, into their current predicament. It’s your fault, she says. And she’s right.

So does she up and leave her erstwhile leader? Not a chance.

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And it’s Stallone, of course, who gives Dwight a raw charisma that aids any screenwriter tasked with giving his character life.

Anti-hero sagas brim with complexity. We always knew Tony Soprano was a monster and felt badly when we cheered him on. The same proved true with Walter White, doomed by a cancer diagnosis and his rise in the criminal underworld.

“Tulsa King” feels more generous to its protagonist.

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Yes, he’s crushed by regret for losing 25 years behind bars and missing out on meeting his grandchildren. He’s still unable to shake the manly elements so vital to his persona.

And “Tulsa King” leans into it. We’re even told how manly it was for Dwight to do his 25 years without snitching on his fellow mobsters.

Sheridan is renowned for avoiding woke pitfalls, and conservatives crave “Yellowstone” for its neo-western sheen and rugged characters. The show runner isn’t gunning for Heartland hugs here. He just wants to tell a rippin’ yarn.

That describes “Tulsa King” to a T.

The show’s moral ambiguity opens itself up to doubters, of course. Its embrace of masculinity? Even more so.

That leaves a challenging query.

Will the show’s second season embrace Dwight’s masculinity as much as the first time around? That may depend on how much influence Sheridan has on the final product.

18 Comments

  1. Tulsa King is what it would be like if Rocky didnt fight Apollo and instead joined the mafia. Making the right choices in life matters!

  2. “Even better? Stallone teamed with “Yellowstone” co-creator Taylor Sheridan, the hottest scribe in Hollywood.”

    Sheridan might be one of the best paid scribes in Hollywood, but he’s also the most unoriginal one. “Tulsa King” is clearly adapted from Jack Bristow’s “Hard Time.” Sheridan is vastly overrated as a writer and series creator. He gloms onto the work of other authors and capitalizes off them. He also takes freely from other directors. Vince Gilligan or David Chase Sheridan clearly this guy isn’t.

  3. What’s up with this websites fascination with the trendy slur word “woke”?’
    On and on you whinge about this and that being “too woke” like where all meant to care about this obviously one-sided and personal vendetta the editor has against al that is “woke” but of course nobody ever bothers actually defining what this cringe worthy “cool word” of the day means?
    Nope. It’s just another try hard media outlet attempting to jump on the latest bandwagon of attacking all that is woke in the world. God knows what that actually is; except for maybe anything you decree as “bad about the world” and what else, oh oh yeah, anything that doesn’t align with your tastes or political views…
    It makes me want to vomit. It’s all just so try hard, vacuous and shallow. A vain attempt at looking cool to the masses of wringers and victims out there who want to ‘also be a victim’.
    It’s just boring, dumb & f..king stupid.
    Later,

    1. Hi, are you the black or white Tinkerbell?
      Woke is radical, anti-Christian, anti-Semite, anti-capitalist, anti-American, Alt-Left Socialist-Democrat Party.
      Literally every single person in the pitch room must understand that Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is destroying America. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is a system being used in liberal social engineering with no regard for profits or Financial performance. In business it is called “Go Woke, Go Broke”.

      Hollywood MUST know these things. So… why? Do they just have so much money laying around that they can afford to take a bath on these shows?
      WOKE…

    2. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) is destroying America. Diversity, Equity & Inclusion is a system being used in liberal social engineering with no regard for profits or Financial performance. In business it is called “Go Woke, Go Broke”.

    3. Marxism + Critical Race Theory + Intersectionality + Cancel Culture + language manipulation = Woke. These are all terms and theories the Left proudly came up with to silence(not debate) anyone not deemed leftist enough. Now that the word woke is properly used as a pejorative, backfiring on the left because of their extremist stances, they want to change the language again. Boo hoo

    4. You’re more than welcome to visit one of the woke sites that just about every other movie reviewer follows as a script to what’s good and what sucks. This site is making sure that we don’t waste money or time by getting indoctrinated into the (Alphabet) mafia and its lackeys.

    5. Can u grasp the term “preachy”. Thats the crux of woke. The empty , insecure Uber Libs virtue signaling. The height of naivete, wishful thinking, feel good b.s. Whats , also, ironic is most of the time it just promotes worse prejudice & bigotry than it originally sanctimoniously claims to dtest…

  4. Yellowstone is the biggest hit on cable. All Sheridan projects are hot because he is not making feminine men or blacks the stars. Woke Hollywood rather make black, feminist and Trans-LGBTQRST+ shows and continues to fail. Sheridan is the only one turning out quality shows for white normal Americans.

    1. So you’re saying only Americans who are “White” are normal. Everyone who isn’t is abnormal?

  5. If you paid your Mafia taxes, they PROTECTED you. Seen any sign of that from your government lately?

  6. Values of the woke:

    You are what your imagination says you are.
    Obedience is strength
.
    Bravery is dangerous
.
    Victimizing yourself is powerful
.
    Self responsibility is someone else’s responsibility
.
    Reality isn’t real.

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