Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount+) Premiere TV Show Review

"Everybody in this m**********r would be dead if it weren’t for you."

by Casimir Harlow
Movies & TV Shows Review

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Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount+) Premiere TV Show Review

A welcome change of gear for Jeremy Renner as he takes the reins of this gritty crime drama.

Renner's had an interesting career, with a few bit parts in his early years (good sniping in 28 Weeks Later) before really coming into his own with Kathryn Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, which he actually got a Best Actor nod for. Following this up with a strong turn in The Town, it wasn't long before Renner started down the franchise route, first with Mission: Impossible - Ghost Protocol (which was, at the time, intended to be something of a potential handover vehicle for him to take the reins of the franchise), then with his ongoing Hawkeye role in the MCU, and finally with another aborted takeover in The Bourne Legacy. It took a decade for Hawkeye to finally get some good moments - Endgame, What If and the Hawkeye series - with Renner's best work still largely top-ended, but for maybe a couple of smaller projects like Wind River.

... treading extremely close to gangster territory, albeit ostensibly without the traditional organised crime element - even if that's pretty-much precisely what the show is about: organised crime

Reuniting with Wind River writer/director Taylor Sheridan (who has himself one hell of a reputation in the modern western noir genre, with the likes of Sicario, Hell and High Water, and the excellent show Yellowstone under his belt), Renner plays Mike McLusky, the unofficial 'Mayor' of Kingstown, Michigan, a prison town where business is basically all about incarceration. The McLusky brothers act as intermediaries between rival gangs, malleable prison guards, the police services (the youngest brother being a cop) and just about everybody, keeping as many happy as possible along the way - or, at the least, preventing all-out war and bloodshed.

Mayor of Kingstown

Mayor of Kingstown is another gritty crime affair in the vein of all of Sheridan's previous work, but also the likes of Ozark, Ray Donovan and Bloodline, treading extremely close to gangster territory (a la Godfather of Harlem), albeit ostensibly without the traditional organised crime element - even if that's pretty-much precisely what the show is about: organised crime. The show, perhaps unambitiously, posits the McLusky's as a very necessary evil in this landfill of a town, and the only people keeping it from falling to ruin. It's something we've seen a dozen times before, even in the likes of shows like The Shield, but done right it's still compelling, and Sheridan is very rarely less than that - with this no exception.

... clearly Renner's baby, it will be interesting to see whether he capitalises on the opportunity to do something a little out of his wheelhouse

Renner doesn't convincingly jettison his cleaner image (much like when he attempted to embrace the 'Ronin' in the MCU), but it's early doors yet and his character is surrounded by enough crime, dirt and death that a shift to the darker side is inevitable. The pilot offers plenty of support, from the likes of the frequently underrated Kyle Chandler (Friday Night Lights, Bloodline, and the Godzilla-verse) to Hugh Dillon (another veteran detective role after Yellowstone), to Taylor Handley (APB) as the youngest of the brothers. And seasoned actress Dianne Wiest (In Treatment, I Care a Lot) is suitably commanding as the matriarch of the family. Ultimately though, it's clearly Renner's baby, and it will be interesting to see whether he capitalises on the opportunity to do something a little out of his wheelhouse.

MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN is on Paramount Plus in the UK from 22nd June 2022 (free to Sky Cinema subscribers).

Scores

Verdict

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8

8
AVForumsSCORE
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