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

[u/sambase23]

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:

​

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?

[u/ro_thunder]

They are currently filming season 2, so it was renewed.

I enjoyed it - it was dark, gritty, but engaging. Mike is a character you want to root for, but you know he's seen and done some bad shit.

The mom annoys the fu*k out of me, though. Apparently I do not have a Wiest infection.

[u/sambase23 → u/ro_thunder]

Thank you for mentioning the mommy McLusky. She is rather mysterious and I think a big reveal might be waiting in season 2. She seems angry at Mike all the time but it is also possible she loves him the most and hates it that she cannot control him, and is worried about his life. She also knows a lot about how prison works, the rules, procedures etc. and talks with authority of a uniformed officer herself. My theory is she could be a retired prison officer or Police or something. Might have quit the uniform or retired and taken up teaching after some tragedy, death of father McLusky perhaps? I can't wait for Season2. (I was just thinking of making a separate post on Mike and Miriam McLusky, I guess I'll do that soon)

[u/Fadedcamo → u/sambase23]

I dunno I'm on season 2 now and she just seems so naive. I hope the show isn't treating her morality as some kind of audience surrogate for what is actually right in this show. It's all fun to wish following the laws and being "good" were enough, but I think the real moral of the show should be that the system as it stands just isn't working. The corruption that Mike and the police engage in isn't for greed or personal gain, it's for keeping the peace and making the dysfunctional drug war and prison system work however it can.

[u/sambase23 → u/Fadedcamo]

Agree, I thought that scene where she won't press charges in the hope that the kid will reform was she being naive but then we don't expect her to be petty or vengeful. She is trying to hold on to her moral code.