Tulsa King Season 3 Redeems Sylvester Stallone’s Rocky V Flop

Warning! This article contains SPOILERS for Tulsa King season 3.After 35 years, Sylvester Stallone is finally getting a chance to redeem his worst Rocky movie, Rocky V, thanks to Tulsa King. In most of the lists ranking every Rocky movie, Rocky V almost always comes in dead last. It made far less money at the box office than Rocky IV did, and it was almost universally panned by critics, as it achieved an abysmal 32% on Rotten Tomatoes.

Rocky V has been a black mark on Sylvester Stallone’s filmography for a long time. He famously made 2006’s Rocky Balboa to redo the ending of one of Stallone’s most iconic franchises, and the Creed franchise has taken it even further. Still, Stallone never had a chance to truly right the mistakes he made in Rocky V, at least until Tulsa King debuted.

Sylvester Stallone’s Tulsa King Season 3 Is Finally Making Up For Rocky V

Now, after 35 years, Tulsa King season 3 is finally making up for the failings of Rocky V. It’s mostly accomplishing this through Tyson’s relationship with Sylvester Stallone’s Dwight Manfredi. Since the beginning of Tulsa King, Dwight and Tyson have had a sort of father-son relationship. Tyson obviously has his biological father, Mark, but Dwight has taken over as his mentor.

Tulsa King season 3 has leaned into Dwight and Tyson’s relationship even further. In Tulsa King season 3, episode 5, Dwight and Tyson have a heartfelt conversation about what it means to be a man. Dwight eventually told Tyson that he’s a “man to me,” and the whole conversation felt reminiscent of Rocky’s conversation with his son in Rocky Balboa, even down to “that’s how winning/learning is done.”

Sylvester Stallone’s wholesome, motivational relationship with Tyson in Tulsa King is exactly what Rocky V should have done with Rocky and his son. Rocky V is essentially a story about Rocky needing to spend more effort on his own family, but he barely notices them until the end of the movie. Tulsa King, however, has given Stallone much more of a chance to play a good father than Rocky ever did.

Tulsa King Is Sylvester Stallone’s Perfect Creed Replacement

Even though Tulsa King is giving Stallone a chance to redo Rocky V and Rocky’s relationship with his son, it wasn’t the first to offer that chance. Stallone also got to play a good, motivational father figure role in the Creed movies with Apollo Creed’s son, Adonis. Unfortunately, however, Stallone was absent from Creed III, and he likely won’t be in Creed IV, either.

Luckily, Tulsa King also works as a replacement for the Creed franchise. Stallone won’t be a mentor to Michael B. Jordan’s Adonis anymore, but he’ll still be a father figure for Jay Will’s Tyson. Tulsa King is his last ongoing franchise where Stallone gets to play to his strengths as an actor: he gets to be the tough guy mob boss, but he also gets to be a warm and caring person through Tyson.

In fact, Tulsa King may be even better than Creed, at least in how it lets Sylvester Stallone play a mentor figure. Even Tulsa King seasons 1 and 2 featured Dwight’s fatherly relationship with Tyson, and they also had some great scenes about him repairing his relationship with his estranged daughter, Tina. While those moments aren’t in Tulsa King season 3, they’re what Rocky V should have done with Rocky’s son.

Release Date

November 13, 2022

Network

Paramount+

Showrunner

Dave Erickson, Terence Winter

Directors

Allen Coulter, Benjamin Semanoff, David Semel, Guy Ferland, Joshua Marston, Kevin Dowling, Lodge Kerrigan, Jim McKay

Writers

Joseph Riccobene, David Flebotte, William Schmidt, Taylor Elmore, Tom Sierchio, Regina Corrado, Stephen Scaia, Terence Winter