Mayor of Kingstown

Season 1 

These guys are incredible. If I were to make a comparison, I would place this series on the same level as the Ozarks. Both make great use of the landscape in which they are shot. As has been done often the landscape becomes a character within itself.  There is an explanation about the landscape and the lives under which the complex characters in this series find themselves and that is found in the last episode of the second season. It is narrated by Micheal McClusky himself. He talks about the resource rich Island that cannot afford to make full use of its resources and has to depend on the Prison Industrial Complex (not his words but derived from an idea that has found its way into modern thinking). All the lives that are involved in this compelling tale revolve around this conundrum. And at the heart of this is one family that has inherited the ungainly task of keeping peace in a world run from the bottom up made up of Mexicans, The Aryan Brotherhood, Crips, Bloods, Feds, Prison Guards, Wardens, States and Gangs. 

Season one is really just an intro into the family and its dynamics. The matriarch is the pillar of the family and struggles to keep them sane in the horror of a lifestyle that they have chosen. If she is judgmental in Season One, she will learn to be a little more understanding in Season 2. 

He dialogues though are a thing of beauty. She features in quite a number of scenes playing the role of lecturer in an all women’s hospital. In one scene she describes the relationship between Original Nation’s People and their Dogs (you have to watch it to appreciate it). In another she dissects the challenges that many of us are faced with-making room for others in times of conflict. 

The season is full of sorrow, camaraderie and brotherhood. It is a play on the lives of men and women and the decisions they have to make to survive. It is a study in the things we will often do to one another as we attempt to survive in a cruel world. It is about addiction and numbing pain. It is about how hard it is to be free from your past and how often many of us will walk right back into the arms of our oppresors. It is a study in leadership dynamics and the lengths that men will go through to maintain the bonds that bind them together and thin line that splits us between what we know to be the law and the realities that present themselves. It is refreshing to see some characters from Prison Break reprise roles with a little more maturity and growth. And yes the music is also really great. 

Mayor of Kingstown Season S1E7

Speech or Lecture by Teacher 

I think today, maybe we'll talk about human evolution. Or the lack of it. To think about the evolution of man, it's always a good idea to remember that we're all animals. And the rules which govern the lives of lions, of wolves, of our closest relatives, the primates, are no different than the rules which govern our lives. We are in constant competition with each other, competition to breed, to eat, to seek water and shelter. Only man cannot survive without a tribe. Empathy exists to ensure the survival of our offspring. Morality, whatever that may mean, exists to govern the behavior of the members within the tribe in hopes that the tribe does not destroy itself. But now, all these tribes live close together, and we must find a way to see all humankind as one species, not as a collection of tribes. Our survival depends upon this. The age of competition is ended. The age of cooperation is here. If we do not find a way to cooperate, to extend that empathy to all humankind, then we will be the axe that chops our own roots. We will be the arbiters of our own extinction. 

Read more at: https://tvshowtranscripts.ourboard.org/viewtopic.php?f=1116&t=49491

Season 2 

The second season is as captivating as the first. Very few presentations that I have seen keep me on the edge as this one. I keep trying to reason with Bunny as he plays the Role of King and Mike as he does the mediator thing. Bunny takes on so much as does Mike and the other leaders of the gangs. The racial undertones and the decision each one has to make to keep the peace. The delicate balance that each group strives to make. The ability of the prisoners to function and run their operations. The hierarchical nature of the leadership and navigation of geographies (no go areas for different groups). The choice of cast especially the detectives is also amazing. It is really scary to think how well these men play the role of cops. I would not want to run into them in real life. In an age of pranks, these guys could do a lot of damage! It is hard to decide who the villains are in this series. The show (writers and director) does a great job leaving the viewer to question the morals of each character. There are valid questions about the rehabilitative nature of the prison system. Questions about wages and exploitation. There is a look into the capital punishment. This appears in the first season. The site of three phones on the wall and the nervousness with which the audience has to wait for a call from the governor for a stay in execution! The choice of lights and tones in the prison. Everything about this scene is amazing.