Kremen

If it weren't for the fact that this miniseries pre-dates the first "Reacher" miniseries by several years, Flint could be considered a not-bad Russian parody of Reacher. The two characters are quite similar: big, fast, taciturn, and seemingly impervious to everything, except perhaps a thermo-nuclear explosion. The acting and production values are several steps below those of Reacher, and don't expect anything resembling three-dimensional characters: the victims are as helpless as Pearl Pureheart in the old "Mighty Mouse" cartoons; the bad guys are disgusting SOBs; and the good guys, while few and far between, might as well be wearing white cowboy hats. The English translation in the subtitles is pretty looosey-goosey, but it helps that I'm fluent in Russian. Don't try to make it what it's not; take it for what it is, and you might even enjoy it. If nothing else, it's a pretty accurate depiction of what life is like in a small town in the Russian boonies.

We are told in the IMDB résumé that André Shamanov is visiting this two-bit town to look up an old soldier colleague. I hadn't read the page before watching and we're not told until the end of episode four what he's doing there. This made for some disconcerting viewing. As far as I could work out, the town might have been in Karelia but why anyone should have gone there and stirred up a hornet's nest was a mystery and rather sloppy storytelling.

The whole premiss is perfectly unbelievable. Love at first sight between the rape victim Nastya and Shamanov, rescue by granddad, the maiming (but not killing) of dozens of cops.

Shamanov seems to have superhero powers of resistance to pain and bullets as well as a boundless capacity to get the better of his enemies. It's all completely absurd but it's fun and watchable.

I saw the lot within an evening and just forgot about all the holes and impossibilities I was watching. Just enjoy.

The English subtitling is atrocious. Use a native English speaker to correct the translations.

This resembles Walking Tall in that a soldier returns to a small town where the police are corrupt. This small town is far from Moscow. Flint, a Russian Army Major, want to visit his friend and not cause trouble, but it appears trouble finds him.

Sprinkled into the corrupt police is a seemingly ethical young man who could go either way. Accept the bribes or not?

The Deputy Chief might be a good ally who could go either way too. Proteting people from bandits, putting up with shootings, insuring people will settle in the town...po-po may need more money.

Everyone speaks Russian and the sub-titles are in English. Don't look away, you'll miss the best lines.