Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Mayor Of Kingstown’ Season 3 on Paramount+, Where Jeremy Renner Returns As The Guy Who Makes War To Find Peace

Mayor of Kingstown returns to Paramount+ for its third season with the distinction of being the first project back for star Jeremy Renner since his serious snowplow accident in January 2023. But while Renner’s healthy and back to work, the work never ends for Mike McLusky, the fixer who wields true power in Kingstown, because in this place, maintaining any kind of peaceful balance between the police, the gangs, and other violent interests is a total fantasy. Executive produced by Taylor Sheridan, and created by Sheridan and series co-star Hugh Dillon, Mayor Kingstown also features Tobi Bamtefa, Taylor Handley, Emma Laird, and Aidan Gillen. Gillen’s Milo is the wild card Russian gangster who in Kingstown season 2 escaped custody during a crazy prison riot, only to be blown up on his boat. But was he?    

MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN – SEASON 3: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: “My brother came to see me pretty regularly when I was inside. Mitch, not Kyle.” Mike Mclusky (Renner) is reflecting on the character and wisdom of his oldest brother, played by Kyle Chandler, who was killed off in the season 1 premiere of Mayor of Kingstown but in spirit has always watched over the city and his family. And it’s the right time for reflection, because Mike is attending the funeral of his mother Mariam (Dianne Wiest). 

The Gist: Mariam didn’t survive the attack on the McLusky home that closed out season 2. It’s a tragedy, not only because Dianne Wiest was terrific in the role, but because the McLusky family matriarch represented one of the last good things in the lives of her surviving sons. Her passing at least inspired Tracy (Nishi Munshi) to stick it out with Kyle (Handley), Mike’s younger brother, after she had threatened to leave him. And their baby son, named for Mitch, is due any day. In the meantime, Kyle is back on the Kingstown police force, and Mike is looking for a fix, something that will solve the most recent uptick in violence. Which is right when an IED detonates at Mariam’s funeral. 

The Aryan Brotherhood, the Mexican gangs, the Bloods, and the Crips – these are the boxes the various criminal players in Kingstown fall into, whether they’re out on the streets or inside the city’s prison system. Mike’s big season 2 plan to mediate their differences by inserting the gangs’ shot callers into Anchor Bay sort of worked, but in another way it only destabilized things further, and that’s where Mike’s ally Deverin “Bunny” Washington (Bamtefa) comes in. The Crip leader, who is once again operating from outside the prison walls, refers to the city as a “warzone,” with himself as the “formidable fucking monster” who none of his enemies are brave enough to try and topple. And while Mike uses his police force contacts to lessen the heat on Bunny, they also plan a hasty raid on an AB compound in retaliation for the funeral bombing. In typical Mayor of Kingstown fashion, this decision leads to few new answers and a lot more bloodshed.

With all of the unsettled fallout from last season’s problems, there are also new ones surfacing. The Russian mafia in Kingstown might have once been Milo’s fief, but in his absence – it’s pretty clear Gillen’s character is not dead, but we also haven’t seen him yet – the sinister Konstantin (Yorick van Wageningen) has appeared. Inside the prison system, Merle Callahan (Richard Brake) has been alerted to the violence in Kingstown, and he doesn’t look a guy who will follow McLusky’s directives. And Eveyln Foley (Necar Zadegan), the acting district attorney, promises Mike that she’s ready to prosecute anyone who deserves it, including him. That they used to sleep together doesn’t figure into it. Or, maybe it will. In Mayor of Kingstown, there’s always some kind of target on Mike McLusky’s back.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? Mayor of Kingstown is just one of a suite of Paramount+ series with links to Taylor Sheridan. Tulsa King is set to return in the fall for its second season, despite recent dramas on the set, and Special Ops: Lioness is coming back for more, too, with Genesis Rodriguez (The Umbrella Academy) joining the cast.  

Our Take: “Fuckin’ oblivious fucks,” Hugh Dillon gripes as jaded Kingstown PD detective Ian Ferguson, gesturing to the citizens of Kingstown who walk their dogs and landscape their lawns while the cops play World War II in the streets with the city’s criminal factions. It’s one of the few times in the three-season run of Mayor of Kingstown when anyone who isn’t a McLusky, a trigger-happy police detective or SWAT team leader, or a criminal has actually been referenced. This is a series that has always rendered its setting as a playing field only for the competitions between the town’s most aggressive inhabitants, and that’s where we’re at as the third season begins. There used to be a line about how Mike McLusky longed to leave Kingstown. By now, it’s pretty clear that nobody’s leaving. At least not while they’re standing up and breathing. 

If it feels like Kingstown is still trading in the same old violence, that’s true. But it’s also adding the potential for new kinds of violence, and that makes us curious, especially since Richard Brake is awesome anywhere he appears. What will his Merle Callahan have in store for the already beleaguered and cornered Mike McLusky? We’re also intrigued with what role Aidan Gillen’s Milo will play this season – he was always more than just a gangster to Mike – and whether Evelyn Foley will make good on her intention to quell the longstanding unrest in the city by using the power of her office. That will be a challenge. In Mayor of Kingstown, nothing is ever solved “by the book.” It’s solved by the sword. The only question – the forever question with this show – is who’s wielding it. 

Sex and Skin: Nothing in the first episode, anyway. With Mariam’s death, Iris (Laird) is still living at the McLusky family home. A troubled former sex worker for the Russian mafia, Iris had become a kind of recovery project for Mariam and Mike. But now she hovers near the latter. Is she offering him her continued support, or something more? 

Parting Shot: The birth of Baby Mitch isn’t the only new arrival in Kingstown. Stepping off the prisoner transfer bus from Millhaven Correctional Facility is Merle Callahan, who seems to be an Aryan Brotherhood shot caller, which can only mean more mayhem for Mike McLusky to manage. 

Sleeper Star: Tobi Bamtefa continues to be the heart and soul of Mayor of Kingstown. As Bunny, he is a facilitator of the criminal world that exists within the city. But he also acts as a sounding board for Mike’s frustrations, or even his conscience, and the two men have also established a kind of friendship, despite the ongoing violence of their day-to-day lives. 

Most Pilot-y Line: Another kernel of wisdom Mike attributes to Mitch feels like a diagram of what Mayor of Kingstown is about. “In this world, five percent of people are truly good. Five percent are evil. The rest of us, we wrestle between the two. Who we are, what we are, and what we’re willing to do.”

Our Call: STREAM IT. Mayor of Kingstown remains pretty grim as it enters its third season, and the show seems to have only upped the ante on the number of times its characters say “fuck.” How Mike McLusky will solve any of the problems in his life without more danger is not clear. But Jeremy Renner does give the character a soulful bruising that makes him compelling, and the criminals in town are always gonna keep things interesting.   

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.