The Perfect Karen surprised me in a good way

 I don't actually care much for true crime documentaries on Netflix, but The Perfect Neighbor (set in Florida) kept being at the top of watched and recommended stuff, so I gave in on Saturday and watched it.

I'm glad I did.  For readers who don't know, it is unusual in that there is no narration and compromises police bodycam (and office cam) video stitched together to tell a story that took perhaps 2 to 3 years to unfold.  (There is a very small amount of other context setting stuff.)  

The basic story is that an older white woman living in a street of (what looks like) relatively low cost housing develops continual hatred of the neighbouring (most black) families, mainly because they (especially the kids) play a lot on a spare open bit of land next to her duplex residence.  She at some point gets a gun, and hey, it's America and you can probably guess where it goes.  (She is, inevitably, referred to as a "Karen" by some of the neighbours, hence my post title.)

There were two things that surprised me though, and in a rather pleasant way, given the setting:

*  the police from the local sheriff's office who get called out to the street on many occasions to try to deal with the woman's complaints come across so well, and this is not an image we typically get from a lot of reports of American policing, especially when black people are part of the story.  They are reasonable, empathetic, patient and pretty much impossible to fault.   There doesn't appear to be a speck of racism in their dealing with the black families, either.   And more than once you hear them say something like "I'm glad the kids are playing outside - better than sitting around stuck on a screen."   It was very heartening to see.

*  similarly, the image it gives of the black families was much more positive than we are used to from a lot of media and (at least crime) TV shows.   I don't know whether its because they were from church going families, but the kids and parents were respectful of the police when they talked to them, the kids were amusingly careful of not swearing openly, and you get a sense that the whole street knew each other and looked out for each other.  As I said, the design of the housing did look on the cheaper side - the street was tidy enough, but was devoid of trees or decoration.  I guess what I am trying to say is that, by the look of the street, you might think that it maybe had its share of dysfunctional family life - but the impression you get from this documentary is that it was actually a pretty good street for kids to be raised in.  Apart from the crazy woman across the road, of course.

So yeah, it feels a bit surprising to watch true crime and come out of it feeling a bit more optimistic for American society.   Part of the problem is that reports of the worst suburban crimes - the mass shootings, the police interactions where black people come out injured or dead - do tend to hide that fact that for a lot of Americans, suburban life is pretty much like suburban life anywhere, and isn't always touched by gun or other crime.  We used to get a sense of that from suburban sitcoms, but they are out of fashion now and there is little selling a positive image of ordinary life there.  As I say, it's funny that a true crime documentary that did involve a shooting nonetheless partially remedies the continually bad impression one gets of American life.