High-Octane
Summary
Robert Patrick steals the show as the villainous Dunmire in season 3 of Tulsa King and Sam Jackson is always a welcome addition. There are plenty of tension-filled moments and the action-packed finale is like a classic 80’s action movie. Frank Grillo is underused and I still don’t think Dwight is especially sympathetic but this is still compelling television.
Plot: Dwight Manfredi deals with threats from law enforcement and rival gangs while trying to secure a distillery deal.
Review: I go into some minor spoilers in this, so if you haven’t watched season 3 of Tulsa King then you’d best move on… well, go on! Git! Good, now that they’re gone.
Tulsa King is the kind of show I watch just due to the cast even if I don’t really love it for reasons I can’t quite put my finger on. It might be the fact that Dwight (Sylvester Stallone) is a ruthless gangster who we only root for due to Sly’s sheer charisma. When you sit back and look at him as a character he isn’t a particularly good person and is no better than the adversaries he faces in this show. Still it makes for an engaging television series and is perfect for Stallone at this stage of his career.
Season 3 is a vast improvement over the second mostly due to the addition of Robert Patrick to the cast who plays Dwight’s nemesis Dunmire. Dwight is wanting to expand his empire into Liquor but Dunmire is already in control of it as well as the local authorities. Patrick is at his best here as the utterly crazy Dunmire; he treats his son Cole (Beau Knapp) like he’s an idiot and like Dwight he will stop at nothing to keep his grip on his business. You are never in any doubt that Dunmire is a monster especially when he burns people’s houses down that get in his way. He is the best villain of the series so far and every scene where he and Sly share the screen is bristling with tension. It’s also awesome to see Samuel L. Jackson show up for the final few episodes before his spin-off series NOLA King which is currently in production.
Frank Grillo is sadly underused disappearing half way through the season and never returning, so hopefully he comes back for season 4. I love how his character Bill Bevilaqua is a hothead who is always losing it with Dwight but you can tell he respects him at the same time. Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough) is running for Governor this season with the help of Dwight and Margaret (Dana Delany) but is he getting a little too close to Margaret? Not a good idea, Cal…
My other favourite character is Mitch Keller (Garrett Hedlund) who is just an all-round good dude and always has Dwight’s back; Mike ‘Cash Flo’ Walden also shines as Bigfoot with Martin Starr as dryly comical as ever as the world weary Bodhi. He does have an awesome scene this season and I will not say what it is, but you’ll know it when you see it.
On the action front this has the best finale yet with Dwight and his crew storming Dunmire’s compound and it feels like an 80’s action picture as they shoot up the bad guys and blow things up. There are a couple of fights and shoot-outs throughout the season as well which keeps things moving along. The episodes move along quickly for the most part and this season is well paced. I do find that Dunmire is taken down a little too easily at the end, but that’s a minor niggle as it is very satisfying.
Overall, Season 3 of Tulsa King is an improvement over the second with some great action especially in the final episode. We get a scene stealing turn from Robert Patrick as the evil Dunmire however, it’s too bad there isn’t more Frank Grillo, but I imagine he will return for the next season.