Flint Town

Flint is a timebomb, and Flint Town is an impressively crafted tick-tock of things going wrong with a place, one after another.

Flint Town doesn’t offer easy solutions, but it does provide something valuable: a calm, reasoned presentation of the hope for another idea expressed in that speech given in the aftermath of Dallas, “that we are not as divided as we seem.”

As intelligent and considerate as it is, the series has a somewhat repetitious feel until the third episode, which jumps ahead to July 2016, six months into the Chief Johnson’s tenure. From here through the end of the story, Flint Town shows how the mentality of American police is shaped by their personal politics, which in turn are shaped by their consistently unpleasant and sometimes fearful experiences on the job, as well as reactionary and sometimes racist attitudes handed down throughout the inception of modern policing.

What the filmmakers show is all worth a look, and maybe a second one. (Residents get a say too; note the inevitable, but never unwelcome, black barber shop scene.) It opens you up to different, conflicting points of view--or at least reminds you that they exist--which is just what you want from such a series.

Though it may be sloppy and inconsistent at times, Flint Town also looks beautiful.