Sylvester Stallone is back and helping Oklahoma get in shape

The Taylor Sheridan-produced crime series raises the bar in an intense second installment.

Storyline: Dwight and his crew continue to build and defend their growing empire in Tulsa, but once they find their feet, they realize they’re not the only ones staking their claim. With threats looming from the Kansas City mob and a very powerful local businessman, Dwight struggles to keep his family and crew safe while also juggling all of his business. On top of that, he still has unfinished business in New York.

Judgement: Taylor Sheridan has diversified his television series following beyond the world of Yellowstone to include historical epics, crime stories set in Michigan, and this unique story set in Oklahoma. The first season of Tulsa King was a welcome small screen project for big screen star Sylvester Stallone, who embodied Dwight Manfredi as a New York fish out of water in the Midwestern city of Tulsa. Featuring a new local crew, Dwight’s adventures were a nice mix of comedy and action, quite unlike any other Sheridan-produced project. With the second season, Taylor Sheridan’s influence has diminished. At the same time, Winter and Stallone’s creative input has increased, creating a solid evolution for the series from mob drama to a definite foray into a familiar genre thanks to new antagonists in Frank Grillo and Neal McDonough.

At the end of the first season of Tulsa KingDwight (Sylvester Stallone) had amassed a decent crew in Oklahoma and began manipulating the pot business, much to the chagrin of new boss Chickie Invernizzi (Domenick Lombardozzi), who murdered his father, Pete (AC Peterson), to take over the family business. With his sights set on getting rid of Dwight, Chickie may get lucky, as a gift he gave to ATF agent Stacy Beale (Andrea Savage) results in Dwight being arrested on bribery charges. As season two begins, Dwight is in jail, his crew is trying to get him out, and Tulsa is unprepared to discover that there’s a mobster in town. The first three episodes of the new season find Dwight prepping for his trial while learning about new ways to expand his business interests across the Midwest, including wind farms, car dealerships, and more, leaving Chickie furious in New York, and causing divisions within Dwight’s crew as well.

Although I only watched the opening episodes of Tulsa KingIn its second run, the series has already made substantial improvements that have transformed the story from another twist on the Yellowstone formula to a new take on the familiar tropes of mob stories. The culture shock of a New Yorker moving to a suburban and rural environment has been done before in films like My blue sky. Yet the tone and style of Tulsa King is ripe to give us a metropolitan area that is rarely seen in mainstream programming. Like Albuquerque of The bad news And Just call Saul, The Tulsa that Dwight now calls home is a mix of cowboys like Yellowstone and the gangsters like in The Sopranosall wrapped up in a sense of humor. The first episodes of this season offer some good laughs, mainly from Stallone himself, as well as the new and returning cast of Martin Starr, Jay Will, Max Casella and Garrett Hedlund.

The two new antagonists this season are Kansas City gangster Bill Bevilaqua, whose turf includes Tulsa and whose family rivals the Invernizzi clan, and Cal Thresher, the local Tulsa businessman whose business Dwight is encroaching on. Frank Grillo has been a fan favorite in recent years due to his numerous action films and his inclusion as Crossbones in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Grillo has the right amount of grit as Bevilaqua, a solid counterbalance to Stallone’s energy. Neal McDonough also serves as a sinister force, something he became known for after playing villain Damien Darhk in The Flash And ArrowRobert Quarles on Justifiedand Malcolm Beck on Taylor Sheridan’s own Yellowstone. Thanks to their local presence in Tulsa this season, they’ll both certainly be stronger opponents to Dwight’s plans. On the plus side, Dana Delany gets a stronger role this season, as she takes on the lead role opposite Dwight now that Andrea Savage’s Stacy Beale has been revealed as an ATF agent.

While the first season had five directors directing nine episodes, the second season features Craig Zisk (Halo, interview with the vampire) in multiple episodes, with Joshua Marston (Ray Donovan, billions) and Kevin Dowling (The Americans, Maya’s MC) also handle submissions. Instead of a conventional showrunner, Tulsa KingFor the second season, Zisk oversees the series as director and executive producer. Terence Winter, who left after a rift in season one between him and Taylor Sheridan, returned to assist with the script for the second season, but outside of Taylor Sheridan’s direct supervision. As such, Sheridan has no writing credits this season, while Winter wrote one episode and collaborated on six episodes, two of which were co-written by Sylvester Stallone. The odd arrangement between writers and directors doesn’t affect the final product, as this season feels slightly more balanced than the first, as it continues to forge a distinct voice from the Sheridan-produced series that came before it.

While the tension and controversy behind the scenes led to Tulsa King‘s premiere left me worried about how the new episodes would turn out, I’m happy to report that the series is just as good, if not better, than last season. Sylvester Stallone has really gotten into the act as Dwight Manfredi, and his energy and sense of humor are matched only by his intensity as the new boss of Tulsa, Oklahoma. With Frank Grillo and Neal McDonough already proving themselves to be worthy adversaries, this new season further sets itself apart from other Taylor Sheridan-created series rather than being lumped in as another show from the man who Yellowstone, Tulsa King is violent, funny and the best mafia series to hit television since 2009. The Sopranos.

Tulsa KingThe second season of will premiere on September 15 on Paramount.