Mayor of Kingstown: Yellowstone creator’s crime drama a terrific showcase for Jeremy Renner

REVIEW: Bad Optics. Not only the name of the boat that troubled Kingstown, Michigan’s mayor Mike McLusky (Jeremy Renner) has temporarily “borrowed”, but also a reflection of how low his and his community’s reputation has currently sunk.

Yes, as season two of the Taylor Sheridan (Yellowstone) co-created Mayor of Kingston (now streaming on Prime Video) opens, Kingstown’s citizens are still reeling from the brutal quelling of a deadly riot at the area’s main employer – the local prison.

Almost 200 dead, 724 criminal investigations. It’s, as one of McLusky’s police colleagues puts it, a “jurisdictional clusterf…”. Worse still, while all is now quiet within its walls – the inmates deprived of drugs, phones, money and even their yard, while they temporarily live in tents – on the streets “it’s Fallujah”.

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In the absence of prison leaders and the usual hierarchy, chaos reigns, as the town’s various gangs engage in turf wars which increasingly look like escalating into violence against law enforcement – and even the general public. “Pretty soon we’re going to have drive-bys of schools and every cop car that passes by,” Detective Ian Ferguson (Yellowstone’s Hugh Dillon, who also serves as Sheridan’s writing partner) warns.

However, for McLusky, that’s all just shrapnel. He has only one real concern, the fate of Michigan’s most notorious criminal – Milo Sunter (Game of Thrones’ Aiden Gillen).

With the rioters having burned medical files, destroyed dental records and sabotaged the computer servers, identifying bodies is taking a long time. With his name not having appeared on the register so far, McLusky is convinced Sunter may have managed to escape. That would spell trouble, not only for McLusky, but also Iris (Emma Laird), an escort and Sunter’s former employee, who the Mayor has taken a shine to.

Despite anchoring her in the relative safety of the aforementioned Bad Optics, that’s definitely only a temporary situation. Part of a drugs seizure, it’s a loaner that’s going up for auction next week.

Desperate for something more permanent, McLusky manages to get her an offer of witness protection. However, faced with the prospect of never seeing him again, that’s something that Iris is extremely reluctant to accept.

Much grittier and darker than his wildly popular Yellowstone, Mayor feels more like Sheridan’s big-screen stories like Wind River – and in particular – Sicario. There’s also a sense of trying to evoke something akin to David Simon’s The Wire with its focus on the interactions between those on either side of the law, but it’s more melodramatic moments means it sometimes feels closer to Prison Break – or any one of Dick Wolf’s long-running police procedurals.

What there’s no debate about, is that Mayor offers a terrific showcase for the often under-rated Renner. Nearly lost to us after a recent mishap involving his snowplough, the 52-year-old is simply superb as the under-fire McLusky. It’s a role that offers him a chance to show his softer side as well as the hard-nosed broodiness that has been his trademark in movies like The Hurt Locker and American Hustle, not to mention his recurring role as Clint “Hawkeye” Barton in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

Likely to be a little too gloomy for the Yellowstone crowd and not quite weighty enough for avid crime drama aficionados, Mayor of Kingstown is nonetheless well worth seeking out this summer.

Season 2 of Mayor of Kingstown is now available to stream on Prime Video. New episodes debut on Mondays.