Tulsa King Season 4 feels like a bit of a lame duck. The Sylvester Stallone drama returns to Paramount+ after fans have already learned that the show is both renewed and filming in New York for Season 5. That makes what’s happening now feel less urgent and less relevant.
Paramount+ confirmed earlier this month that Tulsa King is coming back for Season 5 and moving filming from Atlanta to New York, as the show will “return to Dwight ‘The General’ Manfredi’s mafia roots.” The side effect of that is two things: the audience knows that Dwight can’t ever be in any real life-threatening jeopardy in Season 4, or he wouldn’t make it to next season, and it becomes harder to care about what happens in Tulsa since the action is moving away from there anyway. There’s one scene in the Season 4 premiere with Mitch Keller that perfectly encapsulates how the show is basically ending an era. Which is a big deal, and a bigger deal on this series, because the Tulsa setting is what originally made it unique.
Plot-wise, people who love the show will get more of the same. It’s Stallone being Stallone, as Dwight banters with his enemies and reminds everyone that he’s the head of his own crime family now. While there’s been a brief time jump between seasons, it’s not long enough to have changed much with the characters—aside from one major gamble that Terence Winter takes in the premiere. But past that, the mafia players still don’t like each other, there’s still an outside force trying to come in and mess with Dwight, and Tyson’s aspiring gangster persona has gotten old fast. Viewers know what they’re going to get from each character.
That makes Tulsa King Season 4 a mixed bag. Those watching it as fans of Stallone, who enjoy Dwight’s deadpan banter and big speeches, or who are fans of the mob genre will have fun with it. Dwight talks about being above board, but it’s no spoiler to say there’s still plenty of scheming and violence. Winter knows the series he’s overseeing; as cool as Mitch is, nobody’s tuning in to watch the legitimate business of a car dealership. Frank Grillo brings Bill Bevilaqua back from his unscheduled federal vacation and is still perfectly smarmy with Stallone, too. All the hallmarks of a mob drama are still packed into this series.
But some viewers may be frustrated by the fact that Tulsa King is sticking to its admittedly successful blueprint, especially when it’s the last season with Tulsa at the center. This is another battle between Dwight and some outside forces trying to tear down the empire he’s building. The characters rally together against those forces, because as Dwight says, they’re family. This is a solid mob drama, and a perfectly good hour of escape on a Friday or a weekend. Yet Tulsa King Season 4 doesn’t have that burst of energy, one thing that grabs the audience’s attention, that makes it unique—like when Dwight first arrived in Tulsa and everyone (including him) wondered what this was going to be. There’s nothing glaringly wrong, but something is missing.
Tulsa King Season 4 premieres Oct. 16, 2026 on Paramount+. Photo Credit: Courtesy of Paramount+.
Article content is (c)2020-2026 Brittany Frederick and may not be excerpted or reproduced without express written permission by the author. Follow me on Twitter at @BFTVTwtr and on Instagram at @BFTVGram. For story pitches, contact me at tvbrittanyf@yahoo.com.
