Mayor of Kingstown season 4, episode 3 review

SPOILER ALERT: The following contains spoilers for Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 3.

Of course Mayor of Kingstown Season 4, Episode 3 was going to be different after Carney’s shocking death. But what happens in “People Who Died” actually just makes everything surprisingly worse. This hour of the Paramount+ show is a series of bad decisions that ends in a literal fireball.

First things first: “People Who Died” doesn’t spend much time mourning Doug Carney after his murder. Actor Lane Garrison gets credit for showing up briefly as Carney’s body is recovered, and Mike McLusky refers to Carney as “one of us,” but the only scene of anyone seriously mourning is a glimpse of Carney’s father. It would have been nice if this episode devoted more to the emotion of Carney’s loss, to let both the characters and audience process it further and just have that moment of vulnerability. Instead, the bulk of the discussion is about how Carney’s murder does or doesn’t relate to Kyle McLusky’s situation. It’s strategic, not emotional.

Having said that, Jeremy Renner’s performance in this episode may be one of his most charged in Mayor of Kingstown. Mike is in a continuous state of being pissed off, snapping at everyone and going so far as to take shots at a drug…