Tulsa King: Season One SteelBook review

Jun 03, 2023- Permalink

The Paramount+ series Tulsa King stars Sylvester Stallone as Dwight “The General” Manfredi, a New York mafia capo who has just been released after twenty-five years in prison. His boss sends him to watch over Tulsa, Oklahoma, which might as well be on a different planet to the New York mobster. The dramedy follows Manfredi as he builds a crew and begins to realize that maybe his mob family no longer has his best interests in mind. Over the nine episodes of the first season, he must deal with a new locale, new foes, and a world that’s changed in the quarter of a century since he was last free. Paramount has released a Tulsa King: Season One SteelBook and I had a chance to take a look.

The 1080p AVC encoded digital transfer is presented in two aspect ratios: 2.00:1 and 2.35:1. This is an artistic choice by the director to give you a different feel during changing locales. The video presentation has good detail on the usual suspects (facial features, textiles and environments) and there’s only the occasional moments of softness in some scenes. It’s a warm colour palette that brings out the dusty Oklahoma landscapes and vegetation. Black levels are quite good too, with no real loss of details in the shadows.

On the audio side of things, the disc comes with an English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 soundtrack. Subtitles are available for English SDH. The surrounds put you into the landscape nicely with ambient sounds. The score is clear and dynamic, while dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized in the mix.

The two-disc Blu-ray set does not come with a digital code. There are small featurettes for each of the nine episodes that delve into the characters and plot points, as well as other extras that look at the story origins, Stallone and the cast, costume design, stunts and locations. The SteelBook artwork features Stallone’s Manfredi and the show title on the front, a burning plane ticket on the back, and a shot of Manfredi at a bar in the interior of the case.

With an enjoyable performance from Stallone, good video and audio, and a nice selection of extras that you don’t usually see on TV releases, the Tulsa King: Season One SteelBook is a good addition to your collection.