Taylor Sheridan’s Crime Masterpieces ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ Get 100% Rotten Tomatoes
The arc of Taylor Sheridan’s career, from struggling actor on Sons of Anarchy to creator of a sprawling, multi-billion-dollar media empire is among the most emblematic of 21st-century American storytelling. While his commercial success is often tied to the neo-Western sprawling Yellowstone, a more nuanced critical consensus has emerged on his work in the crime thriller. In particular, Taylor Sheridan’s Crime Masterpieces ‘Mayor of Kingstown’.
In the five years since its 2021 release, it has transformed from a critical disaster into what is now considered a 10/10 classic of the genre.
The Resurrection of Kingstown
The Mayor of Kingstown’s rise is emblematic of how streaming retains resilience. The series debuted on November 14, 2021 to criticism, earning a rotten 33% on Rotten Tomatoes. At first, reviewers found the ceaseless negativity of Kingstown, Michigan — a “corrupt prison town” where the McLusky family acts as the de facto power brokers — hard to swallow.
Nonetheless, five years on, the series has bucked the trend of waning returns. The creative direction culminated in the 2025 show’s fourth season garnering an unprecedented 100% Rotten Tomatoes score.
The Evolution of Critical Reception
| Season | Release Year | Critical Score | Key Narrative Focus |
| Season 1 | 2021 | 33% | Establishing the Kingstown carceral economy. |
| Season 2 | 2023 | Increased | Aftermath of the prison riot and breakdown of control. |
| Season 3 | 2024 | Acclaimed | A spreading rot of corruption in system. |
| Season 4 | 2025 | 100% | Masterful execution and a “mind-blowing” finale. |
This “apparent rebirth” is usually credited to the situation of its creative team becoming stable. Though Sheridan laid the groundwork, subsequent seasons were shaped by showrunner Dave Erickson’s emphasis on “hard-boiled suspense” rather than the more melodramatic turns typical of the rest of the “Sheridan-verse.”
The Jeremy Renner Factor
The celebration of the series is tied to the resilience of its lead Jeremy Renner. According to Screenrant, Renner had to bow out of a series of projects due to injuries he sustained in a fall last year. After a life-threatening accident, Renner’s comeback as Mike McLusky was far more than a business decision, it was a validation of his “magnetic” and “believable” presence on screen.
Renner has come to represent a certain brand: the taciturn, emotionally bruised operative working within a milieu of institutional dysfunction. Take Cory Lambert in Wind River (2017) or Mike McLusky in Kingstown, Renner plays as a “bridge” between opposing worlds — the law and the lawless.
Wind River: The Eternal Masterpiece
It’s true that Mayor of Kingstown is Sheridan’s best work yet, but Wind River remains the best thriller of his theatrical works. As the final installment of his “American Frontier” trilogy (with Sicario and Hell or High Water), it’s a masterclass in atmospheric tension.
The Pathology of the West
- Sicario (2015): A “bewildered and enraged” treatise on the War on Drugs.
- Hell or High Water (2016): a meditation on “late capitalism” and the irony of manifest destiny.
- Wind River (2017): A “very sad” reflection on death and the violence rarely exposed on native soil.
Wind River went beyond technical excellence to inspire tangible, positive, real-world change. Sheridan’s finding that there were no government statistics on Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) inspired the film’s haunting final title card and provided testimony in support of Savanna’s Act.
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Taylor Sheridan’s Crime Masterpieces ‘Mayor of Kingstown’
Mayor of Kingstown is a go now and Sheridan’s studio is set to make a new home at NBC Universal in 2029. This change of course is the close of a game-changing decade. But the return to the big screen, with films such as F.A.S.T., indicates that Sheridan is going back to the crisp, high-pressure plot lines that made him famous.
The “10/10 masterpiece” status of Sheridan’s work is ultimately because of how “deeply human” it treats trauma. You’re reminded that in the “unforgiving West,” you either survive or you surrender. It’s this pursuit of “grim” truth that guarantees they will continue to age well, if bitterly, in wine.
Conclusion
The ascent of Taylor Sheridan’s Crime Masterpieces ‘Mayor of Kingstown’ from critically derided debut to a rare 100% Rotten Tomatoes rating isn’t just a redemption tale—it’s confirmation of Taylor Sheridan’s staying power as a storyteller who is never going to waver from discomfort. The series gradually developed into a crime drama that pays dividends for its viewers’ patience and maturity by leaning into moral ambiguity, institutional rot, and profoundly human trauma.
Guided by Jeremy Renner’s quietly shattering performance and honed by a more confident creative vision, Mayor of Kingstown has evolved into one of the quintessential crime series of the streaming era.
As Sheridan enters a new industrial phase post Paramount, this hard fought victory is a reminder that his finest work isn’t the work that chases after optimism, it’s the work confronts the reality of hope, and that’s precisely why it lasts.
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