Mayor of Kingstown: Season 4 TV Review: Taylor Sheridan’s latest tale of corruption is also its best
Plot: As Kyle McClusky prepares for his prison sentence, his brother Mike exhausts himself by continuing to be Kingstown’s puppet master of death and destruction.
Review: When I was nine years old, my father locked me in a jail cell. He had a friend who worked at the local Huntington Station precinct in New York, and thought it would be hilarious to have me arrested, jokingly, and tossed in a cell. The officer on duty ushered me inside the cell and then instructed me to pay close attention to the sound of the bars as they slammed shut. I never forgot that sound. I say this because, as I binged on four seasons of Taylor Sheridan‘s Mayor of Kingstown to prepare for this review, I kept hearing that sound, propelling me back to that day when I learned about the fear of incarceration.
Sheridan’s universe isn’t for the timid. His intricate web weaves bold tales of crime, dangerous love, and death. Mayor of Kingstown includes all three, and more. While some series suffer from needless longevity, I’m thrilled to say that Season 4 is Kingstown‘s most intense, thrilling, and focused season to date.
The season begins with Mike McClusky and his brother Kyle preparing for Kyle’s prison sentence after he shot a fellow cop before they could commit a murder. The punishment and reality of being locked up hit the brothers hard, paving the way for familial drama, uncertainty, and close calls. Kyle has never questioned his life or family more than he does as he lives among those he helped put away.
While Renner commands the bulk of the season and does a fantastic job navigating the narrative’s constant twists and turns, it’s Taylor Handley who undergoes a remarkable transformation throughout the unfortunate events. By the end of the series, Kyle is a broken shell of the man he used to be, as the Devil of Survivors’ Guilt sits menacingly upon his shoulder. You can see the light leave his eyes throughout the season, essentially reducing him to a specter of Kingstown, a walking, talking reminder of how the town can steal your soul.
Speaking of soul-stealing. I do appreciate that this season pays extra attention to Mike’s capacity to deal with everything in Kingstown. In Season 4, Mike is exhausted, and on more than one occasion, asks if he can just shut his eyes and take a beat. I love this. Usually, it’s always go, go, go with these shows, paying little mind to characters’ mental health unless it’s expressly focused on. For me, the act of saying “I can’t right now. I need a minute,” humanizes Mike in ways that make him almost relatable.
New faces to the series include Edie Falco’s crookedly sharp Warden Nina Hobbs and Laura Benanti’s Officer Cindy Stephens, who’s new to Kingstown and in over her head, as anyone working the prison would be. Falco comes onto the scene like a quiet storm, riling within, ready to hurl lightning and thunder if and when she’s crossed. As good as she is on her own, Falco truly shines when Renner’s McClusky enters the equation. The duo feed off each other, bringing tension, frustration, and release as they reluctantly commiserate over their respective dilemmas. Meanwhile, Benanti’s Officer Stephens brings a welcome dose of humanity and warmth to the season as a mother of three trying to survive Kingstown and all its dangers.
While Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is the show’s best offering yet, a handful of plotlines do wrap with a nice red bow, which left me questioning the lawlessness of the town. Still, rather than look at this as a negative, it speaks to the corruption of Kingstown and how its law enforcement and gangs run rampant in a wonderland of crime, bigotry, and territorial pissings. Should the series continue, I look forward to more, just as much as you can look forward to being stressed out for 10 episodes of bleak storytelling and bloodshed.
