Summary
The new villains being introduced inTulsa Kingseason 2 already look interesting, and I feel confident they’ll be better than Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams.Tulsa Kingseason 2is set to pick up with Dwight Manfredi’s (Sylvester Stallone) story as he continues his takeover of Tulsa, Oklahoma. While thenew trailer forTulsa Kingseason 2shows that Dwight’s criminal empire will definitely expand, it won’t be easy. He’s got new competition in the coming season, and those new villains are making me very excited for the show.
InTulsa Kingseason 1, Dwight had quite a few enemies. He first had to contend with Chickie and the Invernizzi crime family, as they banished him to Tulsa and eventually tried to take him out. Dwight also caught the attention of Stacy Beale and the ATF, both of whom tried to stop his illegal operations. While both of those enemies seem to be returning forTulsa Kingseason 2, one isn’t: Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams.Tulsa King’s new villains are replacing the biker gang, and I feel like they’re already proving that they could be an improvement.
Tulsa King Season 2’s Story Change Makes It The Exact Opposite Of Yellowstone
Tulsa King season 2 already looks very different from the first season of Stallone’s hit show, and it could be very different from Yellowstone too.
Cal Thresher & Bill Bevilaqua Seem Like Compelling Villains For Tulsa King Season 2
Since Caolan Waltrip died at theend ofTulsa Kingseason 1, the show brought in two new villains to oppose Dwight: Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough) and Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo).Based on the trailer forTulsa Kingseason 2, it looks like Thresher and Bevilaqua are members of a rival gang that’s trying to take control of Tulsa, and they both seem like a cross between gangsters and cowboys. Thresher has been described as a ruthless business person who likes to wear cowboy hats, while Bevilaqua is a Kansas City mobster who shoots skeet and rides horseback for fun.
Tulsa Kingseason 2 premieres on Paramount+ on September 15.
Aside from just their unique status as combinations of cowboys and mobsters, there are a few reasons why I’m so excited about seeing Bevilaqua and Thresher in action. For example,Thresher and Bevilaqua are almost perfect parallels to Dwight: all of them are gangsters, andTulsa Kingseason 2 will be a battle between their Western ways and Dwight’s Eastern methods. On top of that, both Grillo and McDonough are great actors, and they both have some extensive experience playing villains. Their skills as actors, coupled with the way their characters serve as a parallel to Dwight, should make them much more compelling than Caolan Waltrip.
Caolan Waltrip & The Black Macadams Weren’t Great Villains In Tulsa King Season 1
A big reason I believe Thresher and Bevilaqua can surpass Caolan Waltrip asTulsa King’s best villains is because Caolan just wasn’t a very good villain. Caolan himself was fairly interesting, as the way he dodged Stacy and the ATF was fairly impressive.Caolan also didn’t really stand on his own, though, as everything he did was a reaction to the ATF or to Dwight’s growing power. To me, he never felt like more than a simple obstacle for Dwight to get past. The Black Macadams were even worse than Caolan, as they could have been swapped out for any generic biker gang without notice.
To me, Caolan Waltrip never felt like more than a simple obstacle for Dwight to get past.
Caolan Waltrip and the Black Macadams aren’t entirely at fault for not being the most interesting villain inTulsa King, though.By design, they had to compete with two other (and more interesting) major adversaries in Chickie and the ATF, so they just didn’t get enough screen time to really become a memorable part ofTulsa King. Caolan wasn’t even introduced until episode 3, and he only appeared in a fraction of each episode after that point. While Thresher and Bevilaqua will also have to fight with other enemies for screen time, I still think they’ll be able to use it more effectively.
Tulsa King Season 2’s Villains Could Make The Show Even Better
Even though Caolan Waltrip wasn’t as great of a villain as I would have hoped for, that doesn’t mean I didn’t like him. I thought he played an important role inTulsa Kingseason 1, and that role was a big reason it became one of my favorite shows.Tulsa Kingseason 1 was mostly about Dwight and his transition from prison life in New York to running a criminal empire in Tulsa.Caolan and the Black Macadams supported that narrative goal well: they provided some resistance and represented how Dwight was clashing with his new environment.
Convincing Tulsa King Season 2 Theory Would Make Chickie The Show’s True Villain
Chickie was an underwhelming villain in Tulsa King season 1, but a new theory could position him as the biggest threat to Dwight’s gang in season 2.
Caolan Waltrip accomplishedTulsa Kingseason 1’s goal fairly well, butTulsa Kingseason 2 is a completely different story, and Cal Thresher and Bill Bevilaqua are already presenting some intriguing ideas for that new narrative.Now that Dwight’s gotten used to life in Tulsa, Thresher and Bevilaqua are going to elevate the show’s stakes and really force Dwight to adapt or die in a way that Caolan couldn’t. Finding out whether Dwight sticks to his old New York mafia ways or adopts some of Tulsa’s cowboy culture to rise to the challenge sounds like endlessly entertaining television to me.
Tulsa Kingseason 2 also seems to be structured differently than season 1 was. Most of the suspense and drama ofTulsa Kingseason 1 came from watching how Dwight could handle a bunch of small problems at the same time. Dwight has grown beyond that challenge, though, and so has his gang. Small problems shouldn’t be much of an issue anymore, so the massive threat that Thresher and Bevilaqua are likely to pose should be the perfect way to raise the stakes. With these new villains and the problems they’ll create,Tulsa Kingcould be bigger and better than ever.
Tulsa King
Cast
Tulsa King follows New York mafia capo Dwight “The General” Manfredi, who, after 25 years in prison, is exiled to Tulsa, Oklahoma, by his boss. Faced with the possibility of betrayal, he assembles a crew of unlikely characters to establish a criminal empire in unfamiliar territory.
