''Backstrom'' is an American

crime In ordinary language, a crime is an unlawful act punishable by a State (polity), state or other authority. The term ''crime'' does not, in modern criminal law, have any simple and universally accepted definition,Farmer, Lindsay: "Crime, definit ...

comedy-drama Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...

television series that aired from January 22 through April 30, 2015. It was developed by

Hart Hanson Hart Hanson (born July 26, 1957) is an American-born television writer and producer, as well as an author. His family moved to Canada when he was a child. He received a B.A. from the University of Toronto and a MFA from the University of Britis ...

based on the Swedish book series by

Leif G. W. Persson Leif Gustav Willy Persson (born 12 March 1945) is a Swedish criminologist and novelist. Persson has four children, one of whom, Malin Persson Giolito, is also a crime writer. Early life Leif Gustav Willy Persson was born on 12 March 1945 in Stoc ...

. The series is set in

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

and filmed in

Vancouver, British Columbia Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...

. On May 8, 2015, Fox cancelled the series after one season.

Premise

''Backstrom'' centers on Everett Backstrom (

Rainn Wilson Rainn Percival Dietrich Wilson (born January 20, 1966) is an American actor, comedian, podcaster, producer, and writer. He is best known for his role as Dwight Schrute on the NBC sitcom ''The Office'', for which he earned three consecutive Emm ...

), an "overweight, offensive, irascible" police officer who is engaged in a constant struggle with his "self-destructive" tendencies, and is part of a team of eccentric criminologists.

Cast and characters

Main cast

as Detective Lieutenant Everett Backstrom, head of the Special Crimes Unit. Prior to the beginning of the series Backstrom was demoted to Traffic following his racially insensitive outburst after he caught the murderer of six Native Americans. *

Genevieve Angelson Genevieve Rose Angelson is an American actress, best-known for playing Indigo on ''The Afterparty (TV series), The Afterparty'', Patti Robinson on ''Good Girls Revolt'', and Ruth on ''Flack (TV series), Flack''. Early life and education Angelson ...

as Detective Sergeant Nicole Gravely, Backstrom's second in command. Gravely is a young, idealistic detective who works with Backstrom even though she finds him to be lazy and cynical. Originally played by

Mamie Gummer Mary Willa "Mamie" Gummer (born August 3, 1983) is an American actress. She starred in the title role of The CW series ''Emily Owens, M.D.'' (2012–2013), and played the recurring role of Nancy Crozier on ''The Good Wife'' (2010–2015) and its ...

in the CBS pilot. *

Page Kennedy Page Kennedy (born November 23, 1976) is an American actor and rapper. In television, he is known for portraying Radon Randell in the Spike sports comedy series, '' Blue Mountain State'', and "U-Turn" in the Showtime series, '' Weeds''. He has al ...

as Officer Frank Moto, member of the Special Crimes Unit, and a former

MMA Mixed martial arts (MMA), sometimes referred to as cage fighting, no holds barred (NHB), and ultimate fighting, and originally referred to as Vale Tudo is a full-contact combat sport based on strike (attack), striking, grappling and ground f ...

fighter. *

Kristoffer Polaha Kristoffer Polaha is an American actor and author. He is known for his starring roles on television as Jason Matthews in '' North Shore'', Nathaniel "Baze" Bazile in ''Life Unexpected'', and Henry Butler in '' Ringer''. He has also appeared in ...

as Sergeant Peter Niedermayer, the unit's Forensics Liaison. Backstrom frequently mocks him for his

New Age New Age is a range of spiritual or religious practices and beliefs which rapidly grew in Western society during the early 1970s. Its highly eclectic and unsystematic structure makes a precise definition difficult. Although many scholars conside ...

beliefs. *

Dennis Haysbert Dennis Dexter Haysbert (born June 2, 1954) is an American actor. He is known for his roles as baseball player Pedro Cerrano in the '' Major League'' film trilogy, Secret Service agent Tim Collin in the political thriller film '' Absolute Power'' ...

as Detective Sergeant John Almond, a nondenominational minister who has been married for 30 years. In an offhand remark, Gravely mentions to Backstrom that Almond has the highest conviction rate out of any detective in the history of the Portland Police Bureau. *

Beatrice Rosen Beatrice Rosen (born Béatrice Rosenblatt) is a French-American actress. She is internationally known for her role in the film ''2012'' (2009). Early life and education Rosen was born in New York City and grew up in Paris where she started acti ...

as Nadia Paquet, a foreign-born civilian who supports the detectives in the Special Crimes Group as a cyberspace expert. * Thomas Dekker as Gregory Valentine, a former

male prostitute Male prostitution is the act or practice of men providing sexual services in return for payment. It is a form of sex work. Although clients can be of any gender, the vast majority are older males looking to fulfill their sexual needs. Male pro ...

who is Backstrom's tenant, decorator and "underworld connection" due to his being a

fence A fence is a structure that encloses an area, typically outdoors, and is usually constructed from posts that are connected by boards, wire, rails or netting. A fence differs from a wall in not having a solid foundation along its whole length. ...

for stolen merchandise. Backstrom had previously met Valentine's mother, a prostitute. It is later revealed that Valentine is Backstrom's half-brother.

Recurring

* Ben Hollingsworth as Steve Kines, who previously allowed Gravely to be blamed for a failed undercover operation *

Sarah Chalke Sarah Louise Christine Chalke (; born August 27, 1976) is a Canadian actress and model. She is known for portraying Elliot Reid on the NBC/ABC comedy series '' Scrubs'', the second Becky Conner on the ABC sitcom ''Roseanne'', Stella Zinman on ...

as Amy Gazanian, Chair of the Civilian Oversight Committee and Backstrom's ex-fiancée *

Inga Cadranel Inga Cadranel (born April 30, 1978) is a Canadian film and television actress. She is best known for playing the roles of Brooke Fairburn on '' The Eleventh Hour'', Liz Santerra on ''Jeff Ltd.'', Francesca on '' Rent-a-Goalie'', Aife on ''Lost Gi ...

as Police Chief Anna Cervantes, Backstrom's former (police) partner *

Rizwan Manji Rizwan Manji (born October 17, 1974) is a Canadian actor. He is known best for his portrayals of Ray Butani on ''Schitt's Creek'', Tick Pickwick on '' The Magicians'', Rajiv Gidwani in the NBC Universal TV series '' Outsourced'', and Jamil in th ...

as Doctor Deb, a doctor working for the Portland Police Bureau who provisionally clears Backstrom for duty with the caveat that he change his self-destructive lifestyle *

Robert Forster Robert Wallace Forster Jr. (July 13, 1941 – October 11, 2019) was an American actor, known for his roles as John Cassellis in ''Medium Cool'' (1969), Captain Dan Holland in ''The Black Hole'' (1979), Abdul Rafai in ''The Delta Force'' (1986), ...

as Sheriff Blue Backstrom, Everett Backstrom's estranged father, who pistol-whipped Everett at a young age. He is Sheriff of Cooch County *

Adam Beach Adam Beach (born November 11, 1972) is a Canadian actor. He is best known for his roles as Victor Joseph in ''Smoke Signals'', Frank Fencepost in ''Dance Me Outside'', Tommy on ''Walker, Texas Ranger'', Kickin' Wing in ''Joe Dirt'', U.S. Marine C ...

as Tribal Police Captain Jesse Rocha, one of Backstrom's rivals who begins dating Amy Gazanian

Episodes

Production

In July 2012,

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainmen ...

greenlit a pilot episode to be produced for ''Backstrom''. The pilot for the series was filmed in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. When CBS passed on the pilot,

20th Century Fox Television 20th Television (formerly 20th Century Fox Television, 20th Century-Fox Television, and TCF Television Productions, Inc.) is an American television production company that is a division of Disney Television Studios, part of The Walt Disney Compa ...

shopped it around to other networks before landing a 13-episode series order with their own network,

Fox Foxes are small to medium-sized, omnivorous mammals belonging to several genera of the family Canidae. They have a flattened skull, upright, triangular ears, a pointed, slightly upturned snout, and a long bushy tail (or ''brush''). Twelve sp ...

. For the pilot episode, the producers contacted Minor League Baseball team

Portland Sea Dogs The Portland Sea Dogs are a Minor League Baseball team based in Portland, Maine, playing in the Eastern League (1938–present), Eastern League. Established in 1994, the Sea Dogs are the Double-A (baseball), Double-A affiliate of the Boston Red ...

to use their hat with their logo for the family fishing boat business.

Reception

''Backstrom'' has been met with mixed reviews from critics. On

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

, the show holds a rating of 37%, based on 41 reviews, with an average rating of 4.78/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "''Backstrom''s humor is a cop-out, availed little by the talented cast's attempt to make good of sloppy schtick." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the show has a score of 51 out of 100, based on 31 critics, indicating "Mixed or average reviews".

Other Adaptations

A Swedish language version was created in 2020 and currently has 2 seasons.https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10068932/

References

External links

* * {{Leif G. W. Persson 2010s American comedy-drama television series 2010s American crime drama television series 2010s American LGBT-related comedy television series 2010s American LGBT-related drama television series 2010s American police comedy television series 2015 American television series debuts 2015 American television series endings Fictional portrayals of the Portland Police Bureau Fox Broadcasting Company original programming Television shows based on Swedish novels Television series by 20th Century Fox Television Television shows set in Oregon Television shows set in Portland, Oregon Television shows filmed in Vancouver