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Belle Gibson, like a great snake oil salesman, said that healthy eating could cure cancer. Clearly she was lying. But she may also have been deluded.
Don’t expect any happy moments, because there’s always problems in Kingstown. Big ones.
The McLusky family runs and protects the Michigan city. But it’s no easy job.
Kingstown isn’t known for its restaurants, coffee shops or tourism. No, this depressed, bleak city is in the business of incarceration. Seven prisons are located within a ten-mile radius, and within those walls 20,000 lost souls exist without much hope.But that’s where the McLusky family comes in. Their job is to act as a link between the people on the outside and those behind bars, keeping the peace by bending the law.
The matriarch, Miriam, is a keen, profane professor at one of the women’s prisons while her sons run the day-to-day operations in the town—or at least was before her gruesome passing in Season Two. Her eldest, Mitch, is the current mayor, having learned all his slick, people-pleasing ways from his now deceased father. Mike is his political, hard-around-the-edges sidekick and former inmate who helps to enforce whatever law makes the most sense that day and to his personal sense of morality. And Kyle, the youngest brother, is a cop who is a more than familiar participant in corruption.
Together, the McLuskys have a smooth, flawed system that keeps both the skilled and budding criminals in check: establish and maintain a criminal hierarchy in and around the prison Their goal is to make sure the crime in Kingstown doesn’t put the ruling family in harm’s way.
And it doesn’t. Until Mitch is violently killed.
Now, Mike and his family are forced to figure out how they’re going to keep things afloat. Mike wants nothing to do with Kingstown, but whether he likes it or not, he’s about to become the keeper of the rats, both outside and inside the cage. One of the biggest outside? The Russian mobster, Milo, who will do anything to take down the mayor.
In just two seasons, Mike has been witness and accomplice to mass murder, extreme violence, betrayal and sexual exploitation and abuse. The show would like us to consider him a vigilante hero, but he is far from it morally. And as the third season opens, it doesn’t look as though Kingstown’s getting any gentler, or Mike’s getting any more heroic.
Mayor of Kingstown, on Paramount+, is rated TV-MA and boasts an incredible cast. And although the acting may be compelling, the character’s actions are disturbingly wicked. The morals of this storyline are as twisted and hopeless as you might imagine.
Each member of the McLusky family justifies his or her violence, corruption and law-bending by assuring themselves that this is the only way to keep the peace in a town that is slowly disintegrating into utter chaos. The family subsidizes drugs and murder, utilizing the help of police officers, prison guards, family members and even inmates. And with this comes a ton of issues that you’ll want to know before you stream this for yourself, much less for your family.
Strip clubs are featured throughout the show, including women who walk around completely topless. Full nudity is present in multiple episodes (though the most private of body parts are typically obscured). Sexual activity is present at least once explicitly. And the serial sexual abuse of a character—and her later descent into sex work, drug use, murder, and fear is a main storyline throughout the first two seasons. The selling and consumption of drugs are discussed at length, alcohol is consumed, profanity is heavy, the death count is high and violence is crafted to shock.
(Editor’s Note: Plugged In is rarely able to watch every episode of a given series for review. As such, there’s always a chance that you might see a problem that we didn’t. If you notice content that you feel should be included in our review, send us an email at [email protected], or contact us via Facebook or Instagram, and be sure to let us know the episode number, title and season so that we can check it out.)
The first episode of the newest season starts somberly, with friends and family attending the funeral of Marian McLusky. A chaplain is present (though, given city’s violence and corruption, we assume that his presence is a rarity in Kingstown). Quickly the somber moment blows up in their faces (literally—there’s a bomb at the cemetery).
The rest of the episode follows Mike and his team as they try to figure out what to do about the bombing. The answer? Storm an Aryan party. But how will the Aryans retaliate?
In addition, Mike is receiving pressure to clean up the town. But that won’t be easy with the new Russian mob boss establishing his authority in the shadows.
The only good news? Mike’s an uncle!
Mike punches two men with brass knuckles. He threatens to shoot one of them in the privates, but ultimately shoots him in the foot, eliciting screams and blood. Dead people are shown bloody and burnt in the face and hands. An inmate stabs another inmate drawing blood. He dies. A woman is shot in the back several times and in the head, orphaning her baby. There is lots of gunfire throughout.
The episode is intensely profane. God’s name is abused 22 times, 10 times with “d–n.” We also hear “s—” 30 times, “a–” six times, “c–k” 3 times and the f-word over 160 times. We see one middle finger.
Mike still seems unwell after the death of his mother. Characters question whether he is all right, mentally, but they get no response.
We see women in tight or sexually revealing clothing. One scene is set in a strip club, and we see a woman dancing clothed in tight, more translucent clothing (nothing critical is seen).
Characters drink and smoke throughout. One character steals prescription medication.
Mike and his brother Mitch, the mayor of Kingstown, try to keep the peace as violence grows within the community and the prison systems.
A prisoner threatens to blackmail a corrupt prison guard. The two get into an intense fistfight, and blood pours from both men’s mouths. Eventually, more guards come to the rescue and begin beating the prisoner with batons; the prisoner is hospitalized and put on life support. A few men discuss the growing violence at nearby prisons. A man is shot in the back of the head and blood splatters onto a nearby wall. A criminal is shot and killed. Mike McLusky slams a man’s head into a table and threatens to kill him.
A criminal stalks a stripper, follows her home and breaks into her house. When she refuses to have sex with him, he rapes her and strangles her. (We only hear of these things and later see her dead body in the next room.)
A stripper gives a man an extremely sensual lap dance at a strip club. Women walk around in thongs and completely topless as men pay them for their dancing. We see a woman completely naked from behind as she changes her clothes.
A teen goes to prison for making methamphetamine. A few men smoke cigarettes, consume beer and hard liquor and gamble. Multiple people are sent to prison for drug dealing.
Jesus’ name is misused once. The f-word is heard more than 50 times and the s-word is used nearly 10 times. Other profanity includes multiple utterances each of “b–ch,” “a–,” “b–tards” and “d–n.”
Caleb Gottry is the Plugged In intern for Summer 2024. Caleb studies journalism with a minor in music at Texas Christian University, where he will be a junior in the fall. He loves playing with words, listening to and making music, and spending any spare time with friends or family.
Kristin Smith joined the Plugged In team in 2017. Formerly a Spanish and English teacher, Kristin loves reading literature and eating authentic Mexican tacos. She and her husband, Eddy, love raising their children Judah and Selah. Kristin also has a deep affection for coffee, music, her dog (Cali) and cat (Aslan).
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