Everyone is a Critic: “Tulsa King”, Season 3

Posted: December 22, 2025 | Author: kayelynnebooth | Filed under: Everyone is a Critic, Television review | Tags: Everyone is a Critic, Kaye Lynne Booth, Tulsa King Season 3, Writing to be Read | 1 Comment

Back in December of 2024, I wrote my first review of what quickly became one of my favorite series, Tulsa King after I’d watched the first two seasons and was anxiously awaiting the third season, for which they kept us waiting until this past fall. Last week, I watched the season finale, and I just had to write a review for this season, as well.

At the end of the 2024 season, viewers are left with the General, Dwight Manfredi (Slyvester Stallone), being yanked from his home in the middle of the night with the impression that perhaps it is the Feds who took him. In the opening of this season, we learn that it was special agent Musso (Kevin Pollack), of the FBI, who took Dwight, and we find out he has a personal agenda for his actions. Setting up a main story line for season 3, as Musso uses Dwight to set up the terrorist who killed his partner.

We also see the return of an old girlfriend, Cleo Montague (Bella Heathcote), for Mitch (Garrett Hedlund), and an opportunity to take Manfredi’s business ventures in a new direction: bourbon. It seems Cleo’s father is being pushed into selling his distillery by a man named Jeremiah Dunmire (Robert Patrick), the head of the Dixie Mafia, setting up another main story line for season 3.

In the first two seasons, the General and his crew kicked butt and cleaned house on Kansas City and New York crews, as well as the Chinese Mafia. This third season with Dixie Mafia doesn’t disappoint. Added to the General’s crew is Spencer, played by Stallone’s daughter, (Scarlett Rose Stallone), who plays a major role as she moves up in the ranks of Dwight’s inner circle and befriends Dunmire’s son, Cole (Beau Knapp). And we have the reappearance of Cal Thresher (Neal McDonough) as Margaret (Dana Delaney) helps him rise up in the race for Governor of Oklahoma.

However, early in the season, Bill Bevilaqua (Frank Grillo), the Kansas City boss, who joined forces with the Tulsa crew in season 2, pushes too hard and Agent Musso takes him out of the equation, when he keeps too close an eye on Dwight as he tries to figure out what is going on, and threatens to interfere with Musso’s plans. Dwight spends a good part of the beginning of the season riling up Quiet Ray in New York, trying to find Bill, as Bill’s wife and crew are breathing down his back, suspicious that he has something to do with Bill’s disappearance. Mid-season, Musso admits to Dwight that he has detained Bevilaqua, but as soon as he does, Bill’s crew disappears from the scene. Apparently, once Manfredi knows where Bill is, no one else is worried about him anymore.

Frank Grillo playing the role of Bill Bevilaqua in Tulsa King, Season 3

Not to mention that this is a highly unlikely scenario anyway. Are we to believe the FBI is so powerful they can incarcerate people for convenience, since Bill had broken no laws, but was proving an obstacle to Musso’s plans? And, further, that his wife and crew would just fade into the background, once Musso admits arresting him to Dwight Manfredi? We don’t hear about Bevilaqua for the rest of the season, and they leave his storyline unresolved with the finale, so now Bevilaqua fans are just hanging until next fall. Wtf?!

While I had great interest in the third season story line, and Dunmire turned out to be a worthy adversary for the General. The two main story lines which are unraelated at first, come together quite nicely for an exciting climax in the final episode. I also liked the story line for Cole Dunmire, as well, even if his moment of self-realization is a little predictable. But, to leave one of my favorite characters in a not so believable situation, and then try to sweep it under the rug and pretend like he doesn’t exist, for me, is unacceptable and uncool.

About Kaye Lynne Booth

For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders and The D.I.Y. Author writing resource.

Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.

_________________________________

Did you know you can sponsor your favorite blog series or even a single post with an advertisement for your book? Stop by the WtbR Sponsor Page and let me advertise your book, or you can make a donation to Writing to be Read for as little as a cup of coffee, If you’d like to show your support for this author and WordCrafter Press.

________________________________

This segment of “Chatting with New Blood” is sponsored by the Time Travel Adventure Series and WordCrafter Press.