Ep. 10: Backstrom
Join Presley and Andrew as they watch the misanthropic detective Backstrom as he offends his way through Portland and solves some criminal crimes.
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Backstrom was a Fox crime procedural drama starring (Rainn Wilson) as Everett Backstrom, a lieutenant in the Portal Police Department in charge of the Special Crimes unit. Backstrom is racist, homophobic, ornery, unhealthy, and narcissistic. He constantly drinks and smokes cigars on the job and is under medical review from the police bureau due to his alcoholism and destructive lifestyle. Despite all of his negative attributes, he is still interested in finding and capturing criminals using his skills of deduction and psychology. The rest of his unit varies wildly in rank and skill set. They all appreciate Backstrom to varying degrees for his insights and his commitment to solving crimes, even if they find his methods unorthodox and often illegal. As the show progresses, we see Backstrom clash with his roommate/half-brother, who is a criminal himself working as a fence for stolen goods and a CI for Backstrom in the underworld. Throughout the show, we learn of Backstrom’s troubled relationship with his father (Robert Forster), a local sheriff outside of Portland's rural county. Despite him appearing kind and welcoming to Backstrom at every encounter where they cross paths, we also see him undercut and undermine Backstrom showing a darker nature to his kindly rustic demeanor. After catching his father intimidating a witness to a significant crime, Backstrom reports him to Internal Affairs and attends his first AA meeting to confront his addiction finally.