Sylvester Stallone and his first leading role in a series: why watch “Tulsa King”

A toad from another well trying to survive in another well. This is in summary King of Tulsa and this is also Sylvester Stallone on television: after so much cinematic action, He made his starring debut in a series after the 1970s.

With another celebrity in the central role, that’s likely to be the case King of Tulsa (Paramount+ and Amazon Prime) wouldn’t have worked. It works because it is a dress tailor-made for Stallone and essentially intended for his fans. The story of a bully whose wink reminds us of some memories Rocky: the search, again, for glory.

Our antihero, a gangster reintegrated into society, is a man who, on the threshold of old age, feels alien not only to a place, but also to a time (2022). He was released from prison after 25 years, they sent him to a sort of “purgatory” (the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma) and the world is now governed by applications and algorithms.

This dynamic in which the man does not fit makes him awkward and partly lovable despite being a monster. He doesn’t know what Uber is or how it is used, and on his journey his biggest enemy doesn’t seem to be the police, the FBI or competing mafia cells. Your main executioner is time.

“I remember going to the audition as a bonus, one of the 250 people present at the wedding. They said I didn’t look Italian enough” Stallone ranted in interviews.

The story: After nearly three decades behind bars, Dwight “The General” Manfredi has just regained his freedom, employee of the Italian-American mafia of New York, demands a place in the organization from the Invernizzi family. His silence for so many years comes at a price, but he is ordered to settle in Oklahoma to extend the dominance of that network.

This gunman could be classified for murders committed, for arms broken, for minds shattered, and yet, Taylor Sheridan (creator, writer, director) puts the knife in a way that presents us with a moral dilemma. Why do we “forgive” him? to Dwight even when he commits aberrations? What fiber touches us that we always long to be redeemed for? The script – and Stallone’s performance – creates a killer with so many grays it’s disconcerting.

This unstructured being, as violent as he is knightly and at times tender, is assembling a team of collaborators in his Phoenix plan. The first hire is a driver (Jay Will). Next, he recruits a marijuana dealer (Martin Starr).

The adventure will include reuniting with his daughter and grandson and even finding love (or something similar). Manfredi will retain some romantic spark with him Agent Stacy Beale (Andrea Selvaggio), however It won’t be easy for the girl in uniform to deal with such a dark soul..

From rebuilding an empire, on the loss of power and a certain place that youth gives “The General” Manfredi speaks to us, who also jokes about Stallone and his position in Hollywood. An effective detective film. Play with the character’s double and with Sylvester behind the mask.

“People break the law because legality creates obstacles” deduces this corpulent man from Brooklyn with an expired license and with his manual of maxims gives us the guidelines of what the man who in life seems to have inflicted more knockouts than Rocky is made of.

Banishment, banishment, the old men’s school and other themes surround us in nine episodes as we see that the historic metatarsal breaker keeps his strength intact. Stallone does not disappoint.

Tulsa -which will have a second season- puts us face to face with much more than the city on the banks of the Arkansas River, cradle of massacres and racial violence. He tells us about that other place from which it is difficult to escape: one’s own head.

File

Qualification: Well. Type: Drama, Thriller. Creation and direction: Taylor Sheridan. Distribution: Sylvester Stallone, Andrea Savage, Martin Starr. Problem: Paramount+ and Amazon Prime.