Tulsa King and Enjoying Sheridan
I just finished season one last night and I said the same thing that I did after binge-watching 1883. How have I slept on Taylor Sheridan? I haven’t, but I didn’t realize I’d been a fan.
He was on Sons of Anarchy. He wrote Sicario, Hell and High Water, and Wind River. None of this was clicking in my mind during the above shows and then I’m realizing that he’s the bread and butter of Paramount.
Tulsa King was recommended to me. I remember nodding and not thinking too much of it. Stallone in a gangster show seemed a little cheesy and I remember replying, “So he’s headed to Oklahoma.”
Lying in bed on the long weekend before the New Year, I needed a show and started this one. The truth is that I had signed on to Paramount to watch Yellowstone and realized the first four seasons had been moved to Peacock. With a month subscription left, I needed something to occupy my time and so I started Tulsa King.
I was shocked that I found it funny off the bat. Stallone was comfortable and he was delivering his lines like he was coming up with them on the spot. I was invested in him creating a motley crew of gangsters in Tulsa.
Having Garrett Hedlund is a bonus. Sheridan knows his target audience and it’s me — people that love watching bearded walking Ken Dolls on screen tempting to rob us of our hard-earned peace. I wonder if Hedlund auditioned for the role of Kayce Dutton. They both have that Palomino swagger that Sheridan seems to understand we all need in 2023.
My shock when I realized Sheridan wrote Tulsa King as well. He also wrote Mayor of Kingstown. He has three regular series with two additional standalone series on Paramount, with another on the way. I love all of his shows. This has all happened in the past couple of years which is insane to me.
He credits Larry McMurty and Cormac McCarthy as his writing inspirations, but I think he needs to add Elmore Leonard to the list because that’s who I’m reminded of when I watch his work. Leonard wrote Justified, which is another show that I loved. Have I always loved cowboys?
Sheridan also has a supporting role on Yellowstone and of course he has some of the best lines. Driving to Texas with Jimmy in the car he says, “Roadhouse…hands down is the best movie ever. Swayze with a mullet. I wanna be Sam Elliott when I grow up.”
Sam Elliott was on 1883. He got to Sam Elliott his way across the Oregon Trail and it was beautiful. Sheridan is giving us men. We’re getting a bunch of shows with alpha men that are three-dimensional with a lot of dialogue. He’s the male Shonda Rhimes, except instead of Regency ballgowns he’s giving us denim and cowboy boots. Any girl that reads romance novels knows that after Regency, the next best-selling sub-genre is Westerns.
