'Tulsa King' review: Sylvester Stallone feels right at home

WHAT IT'S ABOUT Sylvester Stallone recognizes the realities of the business in 2022 and makes his first significant foray into streaming television. Fortunately, he's chosen the right project for it with "Tulsa King," a dramedy created and overseen by TV royalty — Taylor Sheridan ("Yellowstone") with Terence Winter ("Boardwalk Empire").

Stallone stars in the 10-episode Paramount+ production as Dwight Manfredi, a mob capo who has just completed a 25-year stint in prison. As a "reward" for keeping his mouth shut about the family, he gets sent far from his New York home to Tulsa, Oklahoma, tasked with opening up the city to organized crime.

Dwight doesn't take this banishment well, busting up the jaw of a fellow capo on his way out of town, but the instant he lands in Tulsa, he starts setting up shop. This includes homing in on a marijuana business and more.

The series premieres Sunday, with episodes rolling out weekly. Co-stars include Martin Starr, Jay Will and Andrea Savage.

MY SAY "Tulsa King" recasts one of the sleepiest story templates around with its fish-out-of-water narrative. It heavily depends on the viewer not getting tired of jokes about this New York City crime figure trying to make sense of life in the Green Country region of Oklahoma.

But you don't go to a Stallone vehicle expecting breathtaking originality or otherwise boundary-pushing storytelling. The Hollywood icon has always been at his best in projects where the folks behind the scenes put him in the best position to succeed, maximizing his particular form of charisma without asking him to carry too much of an outside-the-box load.

Dwight Manfredi is the perfect role for him, fitting that series of requirements, while veterans Sheridan and Winter understand how to use Stallone appropriately. They make the most of his significant screen presence by playing up the culture clash here, shaping the character into an old-school New York crime figure imbued with Stallone's particular brand of machismo tinged with humor.

So even the hoary bits work: when Manfredi steps foot into a honky-tonk bar and gets to know the locals or has holy water splashed into his face after a rude comment, there's comic value in this Stallone archetype being so far outside its comfort zone.

The star is engaged enough in the project to pull it off with a real, substantial performance, instead of simply defaulting to mumbling through his dialogue en route to a paycheck. Thanks to him, highlights from a viewing of the first two episodes include even the most mundane bits of Manfredi getting settled in town, such as taking a driving test and opening a bank account.

There are warning signs ahead, of course. There's no avoiding the fact that this is a thin and familiar story. The big remaining, unanswered question is whether there's enough to the ways Sheridan and Winter utilize Stallone's iconic persona to sustain 10 episodes.

BOTTOM LINE Stallone desperately needs collaborators who understand how to get the most out of him. He finds that here.