Sylvester Stallone is out here quietly running Paramount Plus, and it’s time we gave him his flowers.
While everyone was busy debating whether Rocky or Rambo defines his legacy, Stallone went and built a third act that neither of those franchises could’ve predicted. Tulsa King , Taylor Sheridan’s crime saga where Stallone plays Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a New York mob boss exiled to Oklahoma of all places , just finished its third season and already has a fourth confirmed for later this year. Three seasons in and this show isn’t slowing down. It’s speeding up.
Here’s the part that should genuinely surprise people: Tulsa King is sitting at the top of Paramount Plus streaming charts right now, and it’s not doing that in a vacuum. It’s actively outperforming Landman , which has Billy Bob Thornton in it, by the way , and Mayor of Kingstown, which stars Jeremy Renner. Those are not small shows. Those are big swings from a network that knows how to spend money. And Stallone’s aging mob boss in Tulsa is beating both of them.
The Bosch comparison practically writes itself. There’s something about watching a genre icon settle into a slower-burn, character-first TV format in their sixties that just works. Stallone inhabits Manfredi the same way Titus Welliver inhabited Harry Bosch , with this quiet, lived-in authority that you can’t manufacture. You either have it or you don’t. Stallone, against most reasonable expectations, has it in spades here.
Taylor Sheridan deserves some credit too. The guy has built an entire television universe , Yellowstone, 1883, 1923, the list goes on , but Tulsa King might be his most purely entertaining entry. It’s less operatic than Yellowstone, less bleak than Mayor of Kingstown, and somehow more fun than either. That’s a hard balance to pull off four seasons deep.
At this point, asking what Stallone’s most iconic role is feels less like a fun debate and more like a trick question , because the answer might still be changing.
Rocky got him famous. Tulsa King might be what he’s remembered for last.
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