Mayor of Kingstown

It’s hard to know what the long game is after watching just two episodes. If said episodes are any indication, there will be no shortage of bloodshed, adrenaline or metaphor (Mike is rather obsessed with the grizzly bears who frequent the area outside his cabin). But there’s also some low-key, unexpected humor, much of it courtesy of Renner.

Renner’s lived-in performance is a solid axis around which Sheridan builds his show’s scenario. Unfortunately, its initial two installments are largely setup, only hinting at the messiness to follow. ... Whether Sheridan and Dillon can make it as compelling a venue to visit as Montana remains to be seen. But between their star and their setting, they certainly have the pieces in place for a potential binge-worthy affair.

I think there’s potential in Mayor of Kingstown once it stops doing the averted-riot-of-the-week structure, and if the show finds a way to tone down its blue-collar white savior trappings and foreground the crime-and-punishment introspection.

It is a bleak drama series that offers an interesting look at the prison industrial complex, but simultaneously doesn’t seem to bring anything new to the table — and ultimately, it will probably require more than just two episodes to find its footing.

“Kingstown,” written by Sheridan, is another muscular soap that’s long on characters talking in indecipherable lingo and short on clarity.

Sheridan and his writers deal so much in shades of gray and blurred lines that it becomes impossible to make out any of the larger themes.

All these promising performances are set against a story that so far seems uninterested in complicating the alleged heroism of its protagonists, and that would rather dive deeper into doom and gloom than consider the circumstances that lead to such fraught divides between the powerful and the powerless.

For now, it seems too content to wallow in a world of awful people doing awful things. And these first two episodes erect walls of toxicity from which the rest of the season could have a tough time escaping.

Much of Mayor of Kingstown, though, may as well have rolled off an assembly line from the kind of factory the city used to host in more prosperous days. Its stars and its co-creator will get it some attention — as, perhaps, will a title that could just as easily be Mare of Rennertown or 2 Mare 2 Renner — but like Mariam McLusky, you’ll probably wish the people involved were devoting their talents to something better.

If you’re a fan of Renner, he’s in it a lot. If you enjoy the grittiest of crime dramas, then you’re sure to be drawn in. But as a whole, the show just doesn’t doesn’t work, at least not yet. And given the depth of many of its missteps, I’m doubtful it will find a way to recover.

Through two dour, merciless episodes, that’s exactly how “Mayor of Kingstown” comes across: as a paint-by-numbers prestige play, where every piece of the story follows a checklist dating back to the early aughts.

Mayor of Kingstown looks like a premium drama on paper, but the wafer-thin series that emerges feels destined to become a footnote as the other streaming show that Jeremy Renner starred in the same month Disney+ introduced "Hawkeye." Despite reuniting Renner with "Wind River" director Taylor Sheridan, this Paramount+ launch simply misses the target.

While Mayor Of Kingstown boasts fine performances, it’s confusing at times and incredibly depressing at others. If we wanted to watch a show that’s relentlessly grim, there are much better choices out there.