As a fan of the show since its debut in 2021, I was looking forward to the fourth season of Mayor of Kingstown yet also dreading it at the same time. In addition to being horrifically violent and dark, this show can manifest a feeling of systemic despair like no other I’ve seen, and last season dragged on a bit despite starting strong.

 

That said, season four may be the show’s best yet. Starting out with an ice-cold open on a uniquely grisly group execution by locomotive, this season has ratcheted up the action as one might expect with none other than Antoine Fuqua as an executive producer.

 

As bleak and cynical as ever, season 4 of Mayor of Kingstown nonetheless crackles with raw talent, thanks in part to the addition of elite performances from Edie Falco as the new prison warden and Lennie James as the new crime boss in town. 

 

Jeremy Renner is, as always, also superb in his title role and shows more depth of emotion and character diversity in this season - especially with his new love interest, corrections officer Cindy, played by Laura Benanti, another new addition to the cast.

 

The cinematography and sound are standouts here, as is the storytelling which also has leveled up from last season. The same gangs are still at war both inside and out of the prison walls: the Aryan brotherhood, Bunny and his street hoods, the Colombians, the mostly crooked Kingstown Police Department and the mostly corrupt prison staff.

 

A key plot point this season is that Mike McCloskey’s little brother Kyle, one of Kingstown’s only good cops, is going to prison for six months for shooting a fellow officer to save an innocent life. Kyle could have avoided his sentence if he explained why he shot Robert, but he stays true to that thin blue line and takes a six-month sentence rather than rat out a fellow officer, even if the guy is basically a serial killer.

 

With his baby bro headed for hard time, you can imagine that Mike has his “head on a swivel” trying to make sure things go as well as they possibly can inside the prison walls for Kyle. Which they don’t. At all. As one of Kyle’s new cell neighbors tells him, “There are no friendships in here - this ain’t Shawshank.”

 

Mike’s mission this season comes straight from a Taylor Swift song: I protect the family. And although I am only 8 of 10 episodes in, I can tell that he will do his best to keep Kyle and his few remaining loved ones safe - or die trying.

 

Making this an altogether impossible feat are the two new main antagonists to Mike’s anti-hero. I know ruthless new bad guy, Lennie James, best as Morgan from The Walking Dead. He is skillfully malevolent in this new role. 

 

Likewise, Edie Falco will always be Carmela Soprano or Nurse Jackie to me, but here on Mayor of Kingstown she is a calculated, badass gangster in her own right. She certainly isn’t doing Mike any favors - even when she claims to be.

 

As I said in my last review about this show, every episode gives one the ominous feeling that something very bad is about to happen… and it usually does. 

 

Season 4 of Mayor of Kingstown is equal parts dark, violent, cruel and heartbreaking - but so far every episode has me on the edge of my seat dying to know what happens next. And that, friends, is good TV.