ONLY ONE WILL BECOME INVINCIBLE
From the start of the first season, it was obvious that Tulsa King would be a new vessel to the glory of Sylvester Stallone, who had no intention of falling into self-deprecation, but rather into an uninhibited egotrip. Too uninhibited, even. Season 2 continues to paint his character well in the right direction.like a groom intimidated by his (Italian) stallion.
It is therefore not in this new batch that the gray areas of the character are highlighted – even though we are talking about a gangster who has blood on his hands and has been scattering corpses since he arrived in Tulsa .
If we had to summarize the season: Stallone Dwight Manfredi is super strong, super smart, super nice, loyal and charismatic. The old mafioso gets out of prison 10 minutes after the alarmist cliffhanger of the previous season, wins his trial without a lawyer, makes all his enemies give in, foils almost all their plans and puts everyone in the pocket. And if that's not clear (or ridiculous) enough, a character says in the first minutes of the first episode thatthey all form a family whose leader is obviously Dwightwho, the icing on the ego, is nicknamed “The General”.
Especially since the series continues to embrace the (outdated) vision of the world and society of its “anti”-hero. Anything that is too progressive or judged as such is therefore mocked or caricatured (the transition to school, etc.), and family values still boil down to honor, revenge and resilience, against a backdrop of cheesy virilism. But if anyone tries to leave this drifting ship, random Bodhi (Martin Starr) who was forced on board in the first season, then he is the traitor…
ALL THE WOMEN IN HIS LIFE
As for the other characters, they only exist to go around in circles around their big boss, sing his praises and relieve him of guilt at the slightest start of questioning on his part. Ultimately, it's not really Dwight who lives in denial and the illusion of being a reliable person, it's the others, although this is in no way a subject or theme treated in the scenario. As in season 1, everyone shows absurd complacency towards himespecially his daughter Tina, who prefers to arm herself to protect herself from her father's enemies rather than distance herself from him and even tells him that she is proud of him.
After failed attempts with Tyson (Jay Will) and his father, we have to wait until the eighth episode for even a little emotion to emerge, the time for a short exchange in field against field where the old man is finally put facing its contradictions. And as long as we're talking about female characters, we might as well emphasize the meagerness of their rolewhich mostly consists of looking at Dwight with stars in his eyes or betraying him in the case of Stacy (Andrea Savage), whom Dwight infantilizes and whom the series makes him feel guilty before sending him elsewhere.
Except that by wanting to polish its protagonist too much, the series just makes him an infallible and invulnerable superman, which annihilates all suspense, all surprise or gravity. This season struggles to create tension, even more to maintain itwhile the context largely allows it, we are still talking about gang, drug and turf war.
All the grenades thrown are therefore quickly re-pinned, so that nothing seems to happen in this season, which is nevertheless overloaded with characters, and especially enemies (including Frank Grillo and Neal McDonough among the new ones). Fatally, the ending and its cliffhanger make it difficult to wake up after nine episodes of drowsiness. Is this the consequence of the departure of showrunner Terence Winter? Taylor Sheridan's overwork or Stallone's meddling? Let's say that the question is more interesting than anything that can happen in this very boring season 2.
All 10 episodes of season 2 of Tulsa King are available on Paramount+ (also available via MyCanal)
