Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 Review: Taylor Sheridan’s Darkest, Most Riveting Triumph Yet

Sharpened to a shiv, Mayor of Kingstown Season 4 is the leanest, most gripping entry yet, as Taylor Sheridan’s brutal saga of corruption and incarceration locks into laser-focused form.

If you come to Mayor of Kingstown for comfort, you are in the wrong town. Season 4 doubles down on the grime and the pressure, and somehow that focus makes it the show at its sharpest so far.

Where Season 4 drops us

We pick up with the McClusky brothers bracing for impact. Kyle is headed to prison after he shot another cop to stop that officer from committing a murder. That choice lands him behind bars with people he helped put there. Mike, meanwhile, keeps running point on Kingstown’s endless crisis mode, and you can feel the weight grinding him down as he tries to keep the peace among cops, cons, and everyone in between.

The family tension is real: Kyle has never second-guessed his career or his bloodline more than he does once he is locked in with the very guys he used to cuff. The show digs into that dread hard, and it works.

Renner anchors it, Handley breaks you

Jeremy Renner owns most of the season, navigating the constant curveballs with that measured, world-weary edge that fits Mike perfectly. But the stealth MVP is Taylor Handley. Watching Kyle erode across these episodes is brutal in the right way. Survivor’s guilt eats him alive; by the end he feels like a hollowed-out version of the guy we met, a walking reminder of what Kingstown does to souls that stick around too long.

What the job does to Mike

Season 4 lets Mike say the quiet part out loud: the man is exhausted. The show actually gives him moments to admit he is at his limit, which humanizes him more than any speech about duty ever could.

'I can't right now. I need a minute.'

It is a small thing, but in a series that usually sprints from crisis to crisis, pausing to show the mental toll feels overdue and smart.

New blood, big impact

• Edie Falco joins as Warden Nina Hobbs, a calculating, quietly dangerous presence who can flip from polite to lethal in a breath. Her scenes with Renner crackle; they trade power, resentment, and reluctant understanding like two people who know they are stuck in the same leaking boat.
• Laura Benanti plays Officer Cindy Stephens, new to Kingstown and instantly in over her head. She brings a welcome pulse of warmth and decency — a mother of three trying to survive a job that does not care about anyone’s home life.

The tidy vs the toxic

A few threads tie up cleaner than you would expect in a place this lawless. At first it feels off. Then it reads like the point: when the cops and the gangs effectively co-manage a city, outcomes can look neat on paper while the corruption underneath rots everything. Call it a playground for crime, prejudice, and turf wars — and the show knows it.

The vibe and the verdict

It is 10 episodes of bleak, bloody, stress-inducing storytelling, and it is the most dialed-in the series has ever been. If there is a Season 5, I am in. For now: Season 4 is the best Mayor of Kingstown has delivered.

Score: 8/10