Mayor Of Kingstown: Season One [Blu-Ray]

Cast: Jeremy Renner, Dianne Wiest, Hugh Dillon

Release Date: September 27, 2022

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 9/10

Synopsis:

Hailing from “Yellowstone” co-creator and Academy Award® nominee Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon, “MAYOR OF KINGSTOWN” follows the McLusky family, power brokers in Kingstown, Mich., where the business of incarceration is the only thriving industry. Tackling themes of systemic racism, corruption and inequality, the series provides a stark look at their attempt to bring order and justice to a town that has neither.

Please Note: Paramount Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the Blu-ray I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

The debut season of ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ follows the McLusky family in the prison town of Kingstown, Michigan where they’ve made a name for themselves as power brokers and intermediaries who work with individuals on both sides of the law and help to assist those incarcerated as well as their loved ones, for the right price. But when the local authorities broker a deal with the inmates they make a bargain with the devil that they’re sure to end up regretting. Now, the difficulties will largely fall on Mike McLusky who will be forced to try and find a way to appease both ends before the entire city erupts into chaos.

Season one of ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ offers an intriguing look at the world of a prison town and its systemic corruption on both ends of the law and the repercussions as well as a lack thereof that result for the individuals populating the town, depending on their recognized place within. ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ was created by Taylor Sheridan and Hugh Dillon, with Sheridan writing every episode and it’s a moving and often disturbing series that’s hard to stop watching once it pulls you in. The behind the scenes talent on the series is only further complemented by a marvelous cast that’s led by Jeremy Renner who is truly magnificent in the lead and a talented supporting cast that includes Dianne Wiest, Kyle Chandler, Hugh Dillon, Taylor Handley, Emma Laird, Tobi Bamtefa, Derek Webster, Hamish Allan-Headley, Pha’rez Lass and Aidan Gillen.

It’s a fascinating, yet brutal, bleak and often painful series that never hesitates to explore the grimier aspects of the world and the brutality that runs rampart throughout it, while still offering glimpses of beauty and heart along the way. The series takes viewers into the mindset of the corrupt city and explores the lives of everyone from cops, prison guards and criminals, as well as the relationships between them with all of its troubling issues. It may be rough to take at times and it never caters to a happy experience, instead showcasing things as the painful and unsettling reality would likely be. The show doesn’t take long to pull you in and if you don’t mind some unsettling moments and brutality, or if you prefer your drama dark and realistic no matter how gritty it might be, then this show is well worth taking the time to check out. It’s one of my personal favorite shows of last season and Sheridan does a marvelous job as per usual crafting it and delivering a powerful and realistic look at a world that is littered with danger and a very thin, often invisible line between good and bad.

Overall, the first season of ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ serves up a fascinating, bleak and tense look at the systemic corruption on both sides of the law and the twisted manner of everyday life for a prison town in Michigan. With an unapologetic approach that never hesitates to delve into the darkest areas of the world and its population and backed up by a solid tale and a powerhouse performance by Jeremy Renner, ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ is definitely worth giving a chance if you appreciate a substantially dark dramatic tale filled with questionable characters. Paramount’s 3-disc Blu-ray release for ‘Mayor of Kingstown: Season One’ in particular brings home all ten episodes from the debut season with great high definition video and audio presentations, plus hours of notable extras and the release should easily please fans of the series who would love to physically own it.

VIDEO:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Mayor of Kingstown: Season One’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the show’s original 2.00:1 Aspect Ratio on all of the debut season’s episodes. The video presentations look pretty great as a whole and provide clean, sharp and well detailed presentations from start to finish on every episode. They hold up nicely even amid the many fast moving and darkly lit moments and never result in anything occurring onscreen becoming problematic or noticeably affected in a negative way; all ten episodes split between three discs for optimum quality. Overall, these are very nice high definition video presentations that should easily satisfy fans and first time viewers alike.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel Dolby TrueHD soundtrack on all 10 Season One episodes. These multichannel soundtracks deliver clean, crisp and consistently aggressive audio presentations on each episode. They regularly take advantage of all five available channels in order to send music, gunshots, vehicle activity and nature content, along with crowd chatter and plenty more throughout the various speakers at every feasible opportunity, while always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might be occurring simultaneously remain clean and fully audible every step of the way. Overall, these are solid 5.1 Dolby TrueHD soundtracks that deliver nicely across the board and should not disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Blu-ray release of ‘Mayor of Kingstown: Season One’ features hours of solid bonus content that fans of the series should enjoy. Included on the release are various Behind the Scenes Featurettes that feature interviews/comments with the cast and crew, plus behind the scenes footage and more. They include the episodic Featurettes ‘Mayor of Kingstown: Behind the Story’ for all ten episodes (running approximately 75 minutes in length altogether), along with ‘Perdition: Making Mayor of Kingstown’ (running approximately 35 minutes), and ‘Zero Sum Game: The Finale’ (approximately 13 minutes). Also included are various brief Featurettes including ‘Inside Mayor of Kingstown’ (approximately 1 minute), plus ‘People of Kingstown’ (3 minutes altogether) and ‘Cast Favorite Scenes’ (5 minutes combined).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 9/10

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‘Mayor Of Kingstown: Season One’ is Now Available to Own on Blu-ray & DVD from Paramount Home Entertainment

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