Series / Tulsa King

Original Gangster. New Town.

Tulsa King is a American crime series created by Yellowstone creator Taylor Sheridan. It stars Sylvester Stallone (this marks his first major television project; he also serves as an executive producer), Max Casella, Domenick Lombardozzi, Vincent Piazza, Jay Will, A.C. Peterson, Andrea Savage, Martin Starr, Garrett Hedlund and Dana Delany. It premiered on November 13, 2022 and can be streamed on Paramount+.

Dwight "The General" Manfredi (Stallone) is a 75-year-old Mafia capo from New York who's just been released from prison after 25 years. Upon his release, his boss sends him to Tulsa to start a criminal empire there. Not knowing anyone in the area, Dwight slowly forms a crew of unlikely characters.

A second season has been greenlit.

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Tulsa Tropes:

• Actor Allusion: When asked how he learned all his computer skills, Bodhi says he "spent five years working at an internet start-up."
• All Bikers are Hells Angels: The Black MacAdam are an outlaw biker gang based in Tulsa. They have a history of meth dealing and murder, and are connected to right wing extremist groups.
• A Lighter Shade of Black: Dwight is a mobster who immediately forces an otherwise legal weed dispensary into his criminal organization under threats of violence and otherwise strong arms the Tulsa locals. However, he's not a racist like the local biker gang and is a generally much better person than his old school mob associates.
• Ambiguous Situation: It's questionable how much Pete's crew knew about Nico's rape of Dwight's daughter but there's a heavy emphasis that, yes, they did know and only deny it when Pete asks.
• Artistic License – Economics: Dwight shakes down a legal pot dispensary and points out that the government could randomly seize all of their money. In fact, Oklahoma has a checking based business and nothing they're doing is technically illegal.
• Artistic License – Geography: Tulsa is treated as a sleepy backwater community with lots of farms and only a small urban population. In actuality, it has over 783,000 residents as of 2022 and while nowhere near as large as New York, is certainly a thriving economy as well as one of the fifty largest cities of America (47th).
• Artistic License – Law:
  • The law of the Mafia, at least. An old-school mafiosi like Dwight would know damn well not to punch another made man in public, no matter how much of a Jerkass Smug Snake the other guy is. A cardinal rule of the Mafia is that made men are untouchable save for the direct sanction of violence by, and only by the don.
  • The gangsters frequently use trains to get around government agents checking their papers. Amtrak actually does check papers the same as airlines.
• Bad Boss: Waltrip rules his gang through fear and severely punishes anyone who disappoints him. When a gang member questions Waltrip's decision to go after Dwight, Waltrip shoots him dead.
• Bait the Dog: At the start of the series Chickie comes across as a bit smarmy, but overall friendly and supportive, it is clear he’s the one working to hold the Invernizzi mafia together in support of his ill father and attempts to keep things civil and diplomatic. With him even being an honorary nephew to Dwight. As the series goes on, it becomes clear just how vicious and vindictive Chickie truly is under the surface, with him regularly taking out his frustrations on those unable to fight back, climaxing in him murdering his father and attempting to kill Dwight. A flashback to the 90s in the final episode, reveals he always was a sadistic little thug who enjoyed hurting those weaker than him.
• Bald of Evil: Dwight notices that Chickie, Pete’s son and thuggish heir, wears a hairpiece and makes fun of him for it when ranting about his otherwise evil behavior… and Chickie stops wearing it when he takes a step forward in evil and kills his father.
• Batman Gambit: Dwight realizes that Waltrip's greed is his main weakness so he deliberately provokes him by having Bodhi electronically steal Waltrip's money. Waltrip loses it and leads his men into a trap where they are all killed.
• Beware the Silly Ones: Bodhi is a New-Age Retro Hippie who crumbles easily under pressure from Dwight but handles himself well against the FBI as well as McAdams. It's not until Episode 7 that we find out the real reason Bodhi is so accommodating to Dwight taking over his pot business: because his real business was running a crypto-currency scam that has already netted him a million dollars.
• Butt-Monkey: Bodhi is subject to threats, violence, robbery, and kidnapping for no other crime than being a New-Age Retro Hippie in charge of a pot dispensary.
• Contrived Coincidence: During Dwight's incarceration, Armand Truisi quit the Mafia and fled to Tulsa where he led a quiet life. 19 years later he spots Dwight Manfredi in Tulsa and assumes that Dwight tracked him down and is there to kill him. Dwight only has a faint recollection of Armand and has no idea that he was in Tulsa. If Armand failed to spot Dwight that day, the two men might not have met again for the rest of their lives. This is lampshaded by the other mobsters who refuse to believe that Armand is in Tulsa by coincidence and instead suspect that Dwight planned it.
• Cool Old Guy: Dwight is well into his later years and while he struggles to adjust to the modern world due to his time in prison, it's clear he hasn't lost any of his cunning, charisma, or toughness.
• Culture Clash: Dwight is an old-school mafioso from New York. Thanks to a lengthy prison sentence and having nothing to show for it from his supposed Mafia family, he's now forced to live in Tulsa, Oklahoma in the midst of the modern age.
• Dirty Cops: A pair of local deputies turn out to be in bed with the local biker gang and arrest Tyson on their behalf before passing along his cellphone.
• Dirty Coward: The two corrupt Sheriff deputies on Waltrip’s payroll. Whilst happily abusing others when convinced they have the advantage, the moment it's gone they both immediately back down. Their attempts to intimidate Mitch in his saloon fall flat the moment he reveals to them it's built on Cherokee land, meaning they have absolutely no jurisdiction leading to them meekly walking away. Likewise, when Waltrip orders them to kidnap Dwight, the two end up chickening out when they realise he’s perfectly happy to get into a gunfight to death with them (made all the worse by the reveal immediately afterwards that Dwight didn't even have his gun on him at the time and was banking entirely on intimidation).
• The Don:
  • Pete Invernizzi is a literal one, being one of the last acting mafia bosses in America.
  • Caolan Waltrip acts like one but seeing as his "family" consists of a local biker gang, Dwight is unimpressed.
• Downer Ending: The end of season 1: Dwight gets arrested for bribery in front of his daughter just as the gang had resolved the vast majority of their problems in Tulsa. Worse, it was done as part of a gambit by Stacy to save her job.
• Dramatic Irony: While Dwight breaks a great many laws during his time in Tulsa, the bulk of his crime family's income is generated from legitimate businesses that were considered illegal during Dwight's prime.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?:
  • Dwight spent 25 years in prison for the Mafia and on his release, expected a warm welcome followed by him resuming his role as a captain in the family. Instead, he is told that he is being sent to Tulsa, Oklahoma with zero resources or support. Worse, he's treated with suspicion at best and condescending hostility at worst by the modern members of the family with no reprisal from the don he used to look up to since they cannot believe that anyone would spend that long in prison and not turn traitor. He is obviously Reassigned to Antarctica and feels that he deserved way better after sacrificing so much of his life for the family.
  • Caolan Waltrip runs the most feared gang in Tulsa and feels that he deserves respect similar to what a Mafia boss would get. He is not happy when Dwight disagrees.
  • Chickie Invernizzi gave up his dreams to become the type of mobsters his father wanted him to be. With Pete sick, Chickie has been acting as the family's underboss and running its day-to-day operations. He feels that this should earn him the respect accorded to a boss and is not happy when people try to go over his head and appeal to his father.
• Equal-Opportunity Evil: Mafia traditionally looks askance at working closely with different ethnicities. Dwight has none of these qualms and warmly welcomes anyone into his circle on the basis of merit.
• The Exile: Dwight is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma in order to get him out of the way.
• Evil Parents Want Good Kids: Averted with Pete Invernizzi. He has been grooming his son Charles for a life of crime from the beginning and sabotaged any attempts Charles made to have a legitimate life. He even made little Charles steal apples from street vendors.
• Fish out of Temporal Water: A non-magical version. Dwight Manfredi has been separated from the evolving world by a prison sentence of 25 years. As such, he's unfamiliar with anything later than the Nineties. It's implied that even that was something that Dwight considered past his (and New York's) prime.
• Foil: The series draws attention to the similarities and contrasts between Dwight and Chickie. Both of them are hardworking, hands-on gangsters with big ambitions, whose work and sacrifices are not adequately respected and rewarded by their fellow Mafia members. Dwight is a charming old-school mobster, the son of immigrants, who had the opportunity for an honest life but instead chose to be a gangster buying into glamour and idealisation of codes of honour, only coming to realise how false it all was in his later years. Chickie is the son of the Don and was forced from a young age into a criminal career despite yearning for a normal life, being aware of how phoney it all was from the start. Dwight takes his disillusionment and mistreatment as a drive for him to rise and be the genuine example he believed in, whilst Chickie uses it and his miseries as an excuse to indulge in his more negative impulses and become all the more thuggish and cruel. Dwight is cunning, pragmatic and supremely confident in his capabilities whilst also knowing how to play his cards close to his chest and despite his capabilities prefers negotiation and partnership to violence. Chickie meanwhile is impulsive, ruthless, vindictive and struggles with deep-seated insecurities, who whilst projecting the image of diplomacy proves to prefer viciously crushing opponents and taking out his frustrations on those who can’t fight back. Fittingly Chickie is convinced that he could have been a great military leader idealising his brief period at the military academy, however, his actual leadership style is shown to be bullying and out of touch, with him being caught off-guard in the climax. Dwight meanwhile proves to be a brilliant strategist and charismatic leader, living up to his nickname of “the General.”
• From New York to Nowhere: Dwight made his living as a New York caporegime before being sent to prison. Then upon release, he is ordered to go to Tulsa and stay there.
• Genius Bruiser: Dwight is this compared to the other mobsters, in spite of his age and time in prison. With little to do in prison but read, he devoured several texts on strategy and philosophy, and upon exiting is still in good enough shape to knock out another capo with one punch and beat another, significantly younger one to death.
• Gone Horribly Right: Old Pete raised Chickie to be thuggish criminal who valued material possessions and power over everything else, even when Chickie desperately wanted a more normal, dignified life… and he gets a thuggish, impulsive heir clashing with Pete’s old school values who kills him and replaces him as the head of their mob.
• Hidden Depths: Both Bodhi's employees at the pot dispensary turn out to be far more useful to Dwight’s syndicate than they first appear:
  • Clint initially comes across as a dim-witted stoner who appropriates Jamaican culture, however, it turns out he’s actually a fully qualified lawyer. Whilst he admits to specialising in property law, he still knows enough about criminal law to get Dwight out when the police attempt to hold him for questioning.
  • Grace comes across as a timid young lady, as well as a huge stoner in her own right. To the point of nearly having a breakdown at seeing Dwight assault security guard Fred. However, when Dwight is training his followers in preparation for war against the Black MacAdams, she’s revealed to be the only member (outside of Mitch and Dwight himself) who already knows how to handle firearms and is a crack shot, revealing her father took her hunting since she was a little girl. In the final battle, she successfully kills several of the attacking gang members.
• Homefield Advantage: How Dwight defeats Waltrip and the Black MacAdam’s in the final. Despite their many setbacks and Dwight’s growing advantages, Waltrip’s gang still have them severely outnumbered and outgunned. However, realising his greed is his weakness, Dwight has Bohdie steal his online fortune, provoking the furious Waltrip into having his gang attempt to storm Mitch’s saloon and wipe them out. Realising too late they’ve walked into a trap, a bomb kills most of Waltrip’s gang, forcing the survivors out into the open with no cover, allowing Dwight’s syndicate to open fire on them from their fortified positions and Dwight personally killing Waltrip. The result of the conflict was them wiping out the entire enemy gang, whilst only suffering one member being wounded.
• Honor Before Reason:
  • Dwight served a twenty-five year sentence for the mob without snitching. Only when he gets out, does he find that no other mobster believed anyone could do that kind of time without doing so and that he was viewed with more pity than admiration.
  • Dwight refuses to help Stacy take down the Black MacAdam despite the fact it would help him because he's not a rat.
• I Coulda Been a Contender!: Chickie Invernizzi laments the fact that he wanted to be an army officer, being quite successful at a military academy he briefly attended, but his father forced him into a life of crime instead. He even had money saved up for college but his father spent it all.
• The Last DJ: Dwight has been out of the game for decades so he has old-school views on honor and respect that his fellow gangsters slowly moved away from while he was in prison. This works to his benefit as others find it preferable to work with him rather than groups prone to overt violence.
• The Mafia: Dwight is an old school gangster from The '90s who is released from prison after a twenty-five-year stretch. He is bemused to discover that the mob is no longer based in New York, that it is far weaker, and loyalty is not as respected as he thought it would be.
• May–December Romance: Dwight's relationship with Stacy, that turns into more than a one night stand.
• Meaningful Name: Dwight Manfredi was named after Dwight D. Eisenhower. He explains his parents were patriotic immigrants who decided to name him after "America's greatest military commander." In the spirit Dwight proves himself to be a brilliant tactician and charismatic leader.
• Mercy Kill: A flashback reveals that this is the reason Dwight went to prison. Chickie kidnapped a man and had him chained up in an abandoned building. When the building caught on fire, Dwight was not able to free the prisoner so he shot him in the head to spare the man from being burned alive. However, to the cops and the jury it looked like Dwight executed a man and set the fire to cover his tracks.
• Miscarriage of Justice: In the 5th episode, "Token Joe", Tyson is wrongfully arrested and robbed by the police in prison despite just being Dwight's chauffeur.
• Mob War: It quickly becomes apparent that Dwight Manfredi and Caolan Waltrip cannot co-exist in the same town. Soon guns come out and violence erupts.
• New-Age Retro Hippie: The stoners working at Bodhi's shop. Tyson points out that their appropriation of Jamaican culture is inappropriate but they're too stoned to care.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: The ending of season 1 ends with Dwight giving a million dollars to Stacy after destroying the McAdams gang. She uses this to keep her job as she turns it over and reveals that she was in a relationship with Dwight. The FBI arrests him on bribery charges.
• No Honor Among Thieves:
  • One of the things that Dwight discovers is that his belief in the Mafia Honor Code was completely erroneous. Not only does the mafia not honor the fact he did 25 years without snitching but they might have arranged a hit on him in prison.
  • His daughter later confesses that while he was imprisoned and not talking to them, she was raped by one of his associates despite a promise of protection.
• No-Respect Guy: Ironically, Dwight is this back in New York after his stint in prison… even though he seems to easily be the most formidable and honorable member of their organization. This comes to a head when he discovers that another member of the organization sexually assaulted his daughter while he was busy keeping his mouth shut for 25 years, resulting in him beating the man to death in front of their ostensible superior.
• Normal Fish in a Tiny Pond:
  • Dwight was apparently a loyal but otherwise forgettable mobster back in the 90’s, but Tulsa is portrayed as so much less competitive than his experience in New York that he establishes a foothold and extorts a weed shop for money before he even checks into his hotel. This is partially Subverted when he gets in a gang war with the local bikers as it's not that Tulsa was unclaimed criminal turf, it just wasn't by the mob.
  • Plays with in regards to the modern New York mob and Dwight’s relationship to them; the Mafia appears to have degraded so much they’re practically a Vestigial Empire compared to what Dwight left behind in prison. The result? Dwight is far more formidable and dangerous than the modern capos who took his place. It’s like the New York mob shrank into a tiny pool while he stayed normal sized.
• One-Word Title: Caprice.
• Papa Wolf: Upon learning that Nico raped his daughter, Dwight calmly confirms it with her while suffering Tranquil Fury then goes over to beat Nico to death in front of his stunned crew.
• Reassignment Backfire: Dwight rapidly starts making inroads with the local pot business in Tulsa, Oklahoma as well as starts recruiting a crew drawn in by his personal charisma as well as money. Given the diminished state of the New York mob, Dwight becomes someone who may soon be more powerful than his former boss.
• Reassigned to Antarctica:
  • Dwight is assigned by the New Jersey Mob to Tulsa, Oklahoma to become a Boss. Given there is no mafia presence in Tulsa, this is essentially making him The Exile.
  • Stacy worked out of the New York office but screwed up a case so badly that she was reassigned to Oklahoma.
• Refuge in Audacity: Dwight effectively thrives on this. He routinely openly breaks the law in daylight and with multiple witnesses but counts on no one being courageous enough to call the police or disagree with him.
• Right-Wing Militia Fanatic: One of the things that afflicts Tulsa is large groups of these allied with the local white supremacist biker gangs. Stacy Beale actually deals with one who blows himself up in the second episode.
• Rural Gangsters:
  • The premise of the series, Dwight "the General" Manfredi is an old school New York mafia Capo who following serving a 25-year sentence in prison, is "rewarded" by his family by being sent to the largely rural Tulsa, Oklahoma to set up a new operation there, without being provided any resources. Despite recognising this for the exile it is, Dwight immediately adapts to his new environment forming partnerships with Bohdi, a legal marijuana dealer, Mitch Keller, a former rodeo star turned Saloon owner, and Jimmy, an indigenous Marijuana farmer, propping up their businesses and expanding his operations into dealing party drugs and gambling, as well as building up his crew, including using Mitch and Jimmy contacts to get his hands on quality muscle (leading to him joking about hiring "Cowboys and Indians"). By the season one final, following wiping out the Black Macadams who previously controlled crime in Tulsa and realising his previous loyalty was misplaced, Dwight declares independence from his former family dubbing Tulsa his city.
  • Whilst primarily a Biker Gang, the aforementioned Black Macadams also have shades of this, with their leader Caolan Waltrip certainly believing he's entitled to the status and respect benefiting a rival mafia Don. Considering Tulsa his domain, it is made clear that before Manfredi's arrival, they ran all the serious crime throughout Tulsa, dealing in meth, party drugs, guns and murder for hire. They likewise have links to several militia groups, providing them with arms and explosives (something that's put them on the ATF's radar). Caolan likewise has two corrupt Sheriff's deputies on his payroll, and responds to any threats to his authority with brutal and often unnecessary violence. The final revealed he had his fingers in more pies than anyone expected, with him managing to build himself a massive fortune well into the millions through his illicit dealings.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
  • After what happened to Dwight, Armand figured that Chickie would see him as a loose end and have him killed. He fled New York and moved to Tulsa.
  • After Peter Invernizzi's death Dwight has enough and proclaims his independence from the New York Mafia.
  • Given the choice of working for Chickie or Dwight Goody quickly jumps ship.
• Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Dwight claims that the FBI will come and seize all of Bodhi's marijuana and cash on the flimsiest pretexts. Bodhi, correctly, points out that pot dealing is legal in most parts of the country now. Instead, the FBI try to shut down his business and take his assets—but because he's associated with Dwight.
• Small Name, Big Ego: Caolan Waltrip is very annoyed that Dwight didn't ask for his permission to operate in Tulsa and suggests he would have been fine with it if he'd done so as well as offered tribute. Dwight, who is familiar with the New York mob, is unimpressed with a local biker gang acting like a Don.
• Stockholm Syndrome: Bodhi has been robbed multiple times by Dwight and physically threatened but ends up siding with him against the FBI. This is due to a combination of Dwight's personal charisma and the fact the FBI fully intended to shut down his business despite his legality. Even Dwight is initially surprised at his loyalty.
• What Did I Do Last Night?: Dwight sleeps with Stacy Beale, a much younger woman who mistook him for being in his fifties rather than mid-70s. Later, she's revealed to be an ATF agent, and is shocked to find out he's a gangster.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Dwight and his New York mafia have severe cases of this towards each other. Dwight is basically the idealized Damn, It Feels Good to Be a Gangster! Cool Old Guy and Genius Bruiser expected from the more glamorous types of mafia fiction, while the modern mafia he’s technically loyal to are the greasy collection of Lower-Class Lout types with No Honor Among Thieves expected from a deconstruction of mafia fiction. The result is that he expects them to uphold standards they completely disregard, while they suffer a severe case of Underestimating Badassery.
• Villain Protagonist: Dwight is a Mafioso.

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