AceShowbiz - Taylor Sheridan's crime thriller, Mayor of Kingstown, has recently started its fourth season, and the show has not been slow to shock its audience with a brutal, unexpected character death in only its third episode. The show maintains the same gritty atmosphere as earlier outings of the series, a tone shared by many of the shows in the Taylor Sheridan universe, although Tulsa King is arguably more lighthearted despite featuring just as much bloody violence.

While Mayor of Kingstown has a lot in common with other Sheridan projects, a few things make the crime thriller stand out. Unlike Yellowstone and its many spinoffs, the show isn’t a traditional Western. While Tulsa King is something of a Neo-Western, Mayor of Kingstown is more of a straightforward crime drama. The series follows Jeremy Renner’s Mike McLusky, a mediator between the titular city’s many criminal gangs.

Unfortunately for the show runner, Mayor of Kingstown is also the worst-received of Sheridan’s shows on Rotten Tomatoes, with only 53% from critics. The show ran into a problem that critics found all too familiar in its genre, being too gritty, gloomy, downbeat, and dour to win over reviewers. Critics complained that it was tough to get invested in a cast of characters who scarcely seemed to care about their own lives, and that the show’s constant violence had a numbing effect as opposed to an enlivening one.

The critical rating of the series dropped further in its second season, reaching as low as 50%, although this improved in its third outing. While Mayor of Kingstown season 4 got even darker than its predecessors, this didn’t stop fans from flocking to the show. As far back as his screenplay for 2018’s disappointing sequel Sicario: Day of the Soldado, Sheridan has been known for his dark and intense storytelling style, which may not always resonate with critics but has a dedicated fan base.

Despite the low Rotten Tomatoes score, Mayor of Kingstown remains a popular show among audiences, and its fourth season is expected to continue the trend. With its gritty atmosphere and intense action sequences, the show is sure to keep fans on the edge of their seats. However, for Sheridan and the cast, including Jeremy Renner, the goal will be to balance the show’s darkness with more character development and nuanced storytelling to win over critics and improve the show’s overall reception.