Forget ‘MobLand,’ Taylor Sheridan’s 30-Episode Crime Series Is Paramount+’s Best

Published Oct 16, 2026, 7:18 PM EDT

Billy is a Senior Features Author for Collider. Having written over 300 articles in just over a year, Billy regularly covers the biggest TV shows and films releasing while also analysing some of the most underrated properties that may slip your attention.
Having studied for an MA in Screenwriting at UAL in 2023, Billy honed his writing skills and also developed his ability to critique the work of other creative minds.
Before that, Billy studied politics at the University of Nottingham, which helped him to bring nuanced and scholarly analysis to the frameworks within which filmmakers and writers have framed their thematic messages.

Gangster narratives are a dime a dozen. From The Sopranos to The Wire, The Godfather to Goodfellas, creating a premise that feels unique is arguably the hardest challenge a creative faces, with seemingly every facet of the genre being tackled over the last 60-plus years. However, never one to disappoint, Taylor Sheridan manages to smash this target with Tulsa King, which takes a fish-out-of-water approach to the crime genre by placing a big-city gangster in the rural city of Tulsa. While Paramount+'s MobLand leans into the ruthless power struggles of organized crime, Tulsa King finds its appeal in watching an old-school gangster build an unlikely crew, balancing mob violence with Stallone's comic charm.

With Sylvester Stallone leading the show in what feels like a victory lap at the twilight of an exceptional career, Tulsa King is easily one of Paramount's best shows and one of Sheridan's most impressive achievements, even if he will always be best known for Yellowstone. With Samuel L. Jackson's spin-off Frisco King now set to premiere on Paramount+ on December 18, there is fresh reason to revisit Dwight's criminal empire. The series launches with two episodes before continuing weekly on Fridays, following Jackson's Russell Lee Washington Jr. from Tulsa King Season 3 into suburban Texas. Its first teaser features Russell plotting with Dwight, making the original series the natural starting point before this new king arrives.

What Is 'Tulsa King' About?

Tulsa King's 30 episodes, spanning 3 seasons, follow Stallone's Dwight Manfredi, a mafia capo, after he is released from a long prison sentence. Rather than being welcomed back into the mob after refusing to cooperate with the police, he is viewed as a dinosaur by the younger head of the family, Chickie (Domenick Lombardozzi) and expelled to Tulsa under the pretense of creating a new revenue source. What immediately makes the audience respect Dwight is how he recognizes the expulsion for what it is and turns it to his advantage, turning Tulsa into his own mini New York, complete with his own crew and a legal marijuana store that serves as a money-laundering front.

Collider Exclusive · Action Hero Quiz Which Action Hero Would Be
Your Perfect Partner? Rambo · James Bond · Indiana Jones · John McClane · Ethan Hunt

Five legends. Five completely different ways of getting out alive — with style, with muscle, with charm, with luck, or with a plan so intricate it probably shouldn't work. Ten questions will reveal which action hero was built to have your back.

🎖️Rambo

🍸James Bond

🏺Indiana Jones

🔧John McClane

🎭Ethan Hunt

FIND YOUR PARTNER →

You're dropped into a dangerous situation with no warning. What do you need most from a partner? The first few seconds tell you everything about who belongs beside you.

ASomeone who already has three contingency plans running and is calmly working through all of them. BSomeone who reads the terrain instinctively and knows exactly how to use it against the enemy. CSomeone who keeps their nerve and their sense of humour when everything is falling apart. DSomeone who knows the history of wherever we are and what we're walking into. ESomeone with the right contact, the right cover identity, and the right exit already arranged.

NEXT QUESTION →

You have to get somewhere dangerous, fast. How do you travel? How you get there is half the mission.

AOn foot through terrain no one else would attempt — I move where vehicles can't follow. BOn a motorcycle, a cargo plane, or anything else that gets me there before I think too hard about it. CIn something that belongs to someone else — borrowed, stolen, or improvised under fire. DFirst class, with a cover identity and a gadget that does something I won't explain until it's needed. EBy whatever means are available — I've driven, flown, and once arrived by camel. The destination matters, not the method.

NEXT QUESTION →

You're pinned down and outnumbered. What does your ideal partner do? This is when you find out what someone is really made of.

ADisappears into the environment, flanks them silently, and ends it before I've reloaded. BCracks a one-liner, grabs a fire extinguisher or a chair, and improvises something that somehow works. CProduces a gadget specifically designed for this exact scenario and uses it with infuriating precision. DPulls out a whip, a pistol, and an archaeological insight that somehow gets us out alive. ENeutralises the threat with maximum efficiency and minimum words — they were already three moves ahead.

NEXT QUESTION →

The mission is paused. You have one evening to decompress. What does your partner suggest? Who someone is when the pressure drops is who they actually are.

AA bar with terrible lighting, cold beer, and absolutely no questions about feelings. BThe finest restaurant in the city, a bottle of something expensive, and a conversation that is equal parts brilliant and exhausting. CA local dig site, a museum after hours, or a long story about why that particular artefact matters to human civilisation. DPizza. Bad TV. Falling asleep halfway through a movie neither of you were watching anyway. EA debrief that turns into three hours of contingency planning that somehow becomes the most fun you've had all week.

NEXT QUESTION →

How do you prefer your partner to communicate mid-mission? Good communication is the difference between partners and a liability.

APrecise and minimal — tell me what I need to know and nothing else. Every word has a cost. BDeadpan and dry — keeping it light keeps me sharp, even when everything is on fire. CEnthusiastic and slightly chaotic — but always with useful information buried somewhere in the noise. DCalm and controlled through an earpiece, with a plan that covers every variable I haven't thought of yet. EBarely at all — silence is a language and they speak it fluently.

NEXT QUESTION →

Your enemy is powerful, well-resourced, and has the upper hand. How should your partner approach them? The approach to the enemy defines the partnership.

AInfiltrate their inner circle, learn everything, and dismantle them from inside out before they know we're there. BStudy the historical pattern — every villain of this type has a weakness written somewhere in the past. CGet them talking. The more they monologue, the more time I have to figure out how to beat them. DGo through them. Directly. With as much force as the terrain allows. EFind the one thing they haven't accounted for — there's always one thing — and make sure we're holding it.

NEXT QUESTION →

Things go badly wrong and you're captured. What do you trust your partner to do? Who someone is when you need them most is the only thing that matters.

ACome in alone, quietly, and get me out before anyone knows they were there. BHave already been working on the extraction since the moment I disappeared — the plan is already running. CCome in loud, come in fast, and worry about the collateral damage later — I'd do the same for them. DUse every resource, every contact, and bend every rule until I'm out — they don't leave people behind. ECharm their way in somehow, bluff through the hard part, and still manage to look good doing it.

NEXT QUESTION →

What does your ideal partner bring to the table that you couldn't replace? A great partner fills the gap you didn't know you had.

ATechnology that shouldn't exist yet and the training to use it under any conditions. BSurvival instinct so refined it borders on supernatural — and the scars to prove it's been tested. CKnowledge of history, language, and culture that makes them invaluable in places where force is useless. DThe ability to walk into any room in the world and immediately become the most trusted person in it. EStubbornness that refuses to accept a situation is hopeless — and the improvisational skill to back it up.

NEXT QUESTION →

Every partnership has a cost. Which of these can you live with? No one comes without baggage. The question is whether you can carry it together.

AA partner who never fully switches off — always watching exits, always calculating threats, even at dinner. BA partner who gets the job done brilliantly but has the emotional availability of a locked filing cabinet. CA partner who makes everything ten times more complicated than it needs to be — but who always comes through. DA partner who gets personally attached to every relic, ruin, and artefact we encounter, which slows everything down. EA partner who was not built for this and knows it — but shows up anyway, every time, without being asked.

NEXT QUESTION →

It's the final moment. Everything is on the line. What do you need from your partner right now? The last question is the most honest one.

AOne line. Absolutely dry. Delivered like the world isn't ending. Then we move. BNothing said at all — just a look that means we both already know what has to happen. CA plan I don't fully understand that somehow accounts for everything, delivered in thirty seconds flat. DA piece of historical context that reframes the entire situation and tells us exactly what to do next. ESomeone who steps forward instead of back — because that's who they've always been.

REVEAL MY PARTNER →

Your Partner Has Been Assigned Your Perfect Partner Is…

Your answers have pointed to one action hero above all others. This is the person built to have your back — for better or considerably, spectacularly worse.

Rambo

Your partner doesn't talk much, doesn't need to, and will have assessed every threat in your immediate environment before you've finished your first sentence. John Rambo is not a man of plans or politics — he is a force of nature shaped by survival, loyalty, and a capacity for endurance that goes beyond anything training can produce. He will not leave you behind. He has never left anyone behind who deserved to come home. What you get with Rambo is the most capable, most quietly ferocious partner imaginable — one who has been through things that would have broken anyone else, and who chose to keep going anyway. You'll never need to ask if he has your back. You'll just know.

James Bond

Your partner will arrive perfectly dressed, perfectly briefed, and with a cover story so convincing it'll take you a moment to remember what's actually true. James Bond is the most professionally dangerous person in any room he enters — and the most disarmingly charming, which is the point. He operates in a world of layers, where nothing is what it appears and every advantage is used without apology. You'll never be bored. You'll occasionally be furious. But when it matters — when the mission is genuinely on the line and the margin for error has collapsed to nothing — Bond is exactly the partner you want. He has survived things that have no business being survivable. He does it with style. That is not nothing.

Indiana Jones

Your partner will know the history, the language, the cultural context, and exactly why the thing everyone else is ignoring is actually the most important thing in the room. Indiana Jones is brilliant, reckless, and occasionally impossible — but he is also one of the most resourceful, most genuinely knowledgeable partners you could find yourself beside. He approaches every situation with a scholar's eye and a brawler's instinct, which is an unusual combination and a remarkably effective one. He hates snakes and gets personally attached to objects of historical significance, both of which will slow you down at least once. It doesn't matter. What Indy brings is irreplaceable — and the adventures you'll have together will be the kind people write books about. Assuming you survive them.

John McClane

Your partner was not supposed to be here. He does not have the right equipment, the right information, or anything approaching the right odds. He has a sarcastic remark and an absolute refusal to accept that the situation is as bad as it looks. John McClane is the greatest accidental hero in the history of action cinema — a man whose superpower is stubbornness, whose contingency plan is improvisation, and whose capacity to absorb punishment and keep moving would be alarming if it weren't so useful. He will complain the entire time. He will make it significantly more chaotic than it needed to be. And he will absolutely, unconditionally, without question come through when it counts. Yippee-ki-yay.

Ethan Hunt

Your partner has already run seventeen scenarios by the time you've finished reading the briefing, and the plan he's settled on involves at least two things that should be physically impossible. Ethan Hunt operates at the absolute edge of human capability — technically, physically, and intellectually — and he brings the same relentless precision to protecting his partners that he brings to dismantling organisations that shouldn't exist. He is not easy to know and he will never fully tell you everything. But he will carry the weight of the mission so completely, so absolutely, that your job is simply to trust him — and the remarkable thing is that trusting him always turns out to be the right call. The mission will be impossible. He will complete it anyway.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

Most of the comedy throughout Tulsa King comes from the contrast between Dwight's hardened criminal outlook and the more civilized lives the residents of Tulsa lead. Characters such as Bodhi (Martin Starr) and Grace (McKenna Quigley Harrington), who work in the store, are shocked by Dwight's bold dismissal of the law, yet reluctantly begin to embrace his approach over the course of the series. Other characters, such as Tyson (Jay Will), jump at the chance to be a part of something more dangerous and rebellious than suburban life, creating a fascinating dynamic between the young Tyson and veteran Dwight. Tulsa King manages to maintain tension by giving Dwight enemies from New York and within Tulsa, as he begins to separate himself from Chickie's family, which keeps Tulsa King feeling like a classic mob show that has been revitalized for modern times. It also allows for fantastic antagonists such as Neal McDonough's Cal and Frank Grillo's Bill in later seasons, who present both strategic and physical threats to Dwight's operations.

'Tulsa King' Embraces Sylvester Stallone's Gravitas and Experience

Sylvester Stallone has been entertaining audiences for decades, going back to the Academy Award-winning Rocky and Tulsa King makes an effort to reward Stallone by allowing him to play a character who embodies the idea of a veteran who is always the coolest in the room. Stallone's deep, charming tone gives the character a level of gravitas, and quips such as "when I play my hand, you won't see it coming" elevate the character's intellect, reminding audiences that Stallone is far more than just a physical presence despite his bodybuilder image. Yet, there are still plenty of scenes where Dwight beats up his foes when words fail, allowing Stallone to, at times, reignite his action hero persona.

Some may find it ridiculous at times just how awesome Dwight gets to be, yet Tulsa King does well to hang a lantern on these kinds of issues by consistently acknowledging the character's, and therefore Stallone's, age. Even when he is sleeping with a detective or flirting with a ranch owner, it is pointed out that he is no spring chicken, allowing the audience to have a bit of fun and suspend their disbelief at just how unbeatable a force Stallone is throughout Tulsa King. Stallone can laugh at himself, so his hero moments become more appreciated.

Tulsa King's drama-comedy approach may lead some to consider it a guilty pleasure, as it isn't the deepest or most complex show on television. But Tulsa King uses that to its advantage and invites the audience to simply enjoy watching a gangster take control of his life when others seek to put him in a box. In the end, this is exactly why the genre has been a favorite for so many decades, as audiences love to watch a character gain and wield agency. It may not make you want to move to Tulsa, but Tulsa King will have you binging episode after episode, and by the end, you may just believe you can be a king yourself.