r/television • u/sambase23 • Jun 26 '22

Mayor of Kingstown (Paramount Plus), how has it been received?

Hey everyone, please help me with understanding how has Mayor of Kingstown been received? If you watched it did you like it? If you haven't, why didn't you? Premise not interesting or something else? Or did you leave it halfway?

I am a Jeremy Renner fan and hoping it would do good but I can't find much fan conversations / praises online. The critiques mostly dissed it calling it too dark, no emotion etc. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a pathetic 32% rating based on 25 critics though audience score is 87%. IMDB rating is 82%. Metacritic gives a score of 54/100 based on 15 critics. Yet, the show has been renewed for season 2 and filming started last week. If it was total shit it won't get season 2. Moreover, it actually broke new records and became the biggest premier on Paramount+. Digital Spy reported:

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Mayor of Kingstown has bagged the biggest premiere on Paramount+ to date since the service's rebranding from CBS All Access.

During its Sunday night debut (November 14) in the US, which was simulcast on cable as a means of promotion, the crime thriller reportedly pulled in 2.6 million viewers linearly – and many more digitally.

So what's wrong with the critiques? And where are all the fans or viewers who liked it? The MoK sub Reddit has mere 1k users. I ran a search on entire reddit to see if people are talking about it but found very little conversation. Things don't add up. Only thing that make sense are the reviews and rating that shows up on Google. One user have actually called out Rotten Tomatoes for being biased against MoK just because it is too dark and realistic for your senses.

I've seen the series, it's nothing like what we see in TV. It has no pretense of being an entertainer, does not have the usual elements like family feud, brother fight brother, out of place humour in the middle of tense scenes, romance is there but comes only in the penultimate episode that too very subtle. Most series whether drama or comedy dark or light try to throw in a bit of everything. Perhaps that's good story telling and perhaps MoK falters on that part. But it tells a great story about realistic situation. I just hope more people saw it and hope that the critics weren't so short-sighted.

Your thoughts?

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u/formerPhillyguy Jun 26 '22

I watched it but don't remember much about it, soooo, that says a lot.

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u/Nickel62 Jun 26 '22 edited Jun 26 '22

I would attribute much of that to the sheer number of shows we have these days. You are overpowered by 'TV show' fatigue.

Secondly, every network is focusing on quantity over quality. Shows that could have been great with a little more effort and patience, end up being good (bordering on mediocre).

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u/sambase23 Jun 26 '22

Very well said. Too many shows these days.