Hi, I’m Mike TV

BACKSTROM- **1/2

Asshole savant. That’s almost exactly what the Backstrom advertisements say. Look above. They want you to know the character Back Backstrom is exactly the stereotype you’re looking for. And boy howdy do they deliver on that promise. In the pilot episode we get to see Backstrom be rude and even cruel to his doctor, his partner, his forensics guy, his underlings, his higherlings, along with witnesses, victims, and criminals. Backstrom is a total dick, but damn it you have to respect him. Why? Because he makes Sherlock-type discoveries left and fucking right. But instead of using logic and a honed-mined to solve cases, Backstrom uses disregard for evidence, protocol, and human decency to solve cases. And it works even when it doesn’t. Because that’s Backstrom, baby.

That’s Backstrom with a baby.

If it seemed like I used the titular character’s name a lot in the previous paragraph, that’s only because I used it a tenth amount as the show. They love throwing Backstrom’s name around, almost willing him into the kind of mythological asshole detective as Sherlock. And yes, that’s the second Sherlock ref in as many paragraphs, because I told myself I didn’t want to repeatedly say how this is Law and Order meets House. But guess the fuck what?! It’s Law and Order meets House. I’ve long wondered what our collective fascination with the asshole savant character is, and while watching this show I think I finally cracked it. The audience doesn’t want to watch a normal doctor, a normal cop, a normal nurse, a normal detective, a normal barista go through their normal day. That’s too step-by-step, and doesn’t always birth great drama. Well, it can create compelling drama if you write well-rounded characters who, when handled correctly, can talk about pasta sauce and make it riveting (see: the Wire). But creating drama from nothing is hard, so it’s easy to make the lead a total asshole. But then you have the problem that all audience members will ask themselves: if this guy is such a prick, why isn’t he fired? Because you can’t fire Superman.

Try it.

And that’s what the asshole savant is, Superman up and down. The asshole savant flies high above the peons figuring out the greater mysteries they never could. House solves medical problems because he’s a cripple and that gave him encyclopedic knowledge. Monk solves crimes because OCD gives him the power to notice when anything is out of sorts. Sherlock puzzles out the truth to mysteries the people around him didn’t even know they didn’t know because he reads a lot and is somewhere on the Autism scale. Backstrom sees things no one else cannot because of years of training, but because of some otherworldly way of seeing the world no one can wrap their heads around (read: he thinks everyone is the worst). If any of that came off convoluted, it’s because it fucking is convoluted. The asshole savant can’t exist in real life, because no matter how good you are, people won’t help you if you’re a big enough dick. Which brings me back to how I finally figured out why we love the stereotype (other than loving superheroes). We want to watch geniuses at work, but cannot stand, cannot believe for a second, that anyone could be that talented without having some horrible personality or physical flaw. Or in the case of Dr. House, both. Normal, terrible TV viewers don’t want to think about great people doing great things, that would make us acknowledge how dumb and lazy we are! But when I’m watching Backstrom douche his way through a case, I can be in awe of his skills, and be happy I’m not such a drunk piece of garbage. Well… I can be happy that I’m not such a piece of garbage.

Rainn Wilson excels as the asshole savant. He’s the kind of actor who can disappear into a character and make you think the actor himself is that big of an asshole. Wilson is not an asshole at all, if you checkout any interviews or read SoulPancake, you’ll find he’s an intelligent, compassionate, soulful human being. Which makes it a lot of fun that he almost exclusively plays weirdos and dickbags. A lot of people are writing Backstrom off as Dwight Schrute, Detective. That’s doing Wilson a huge disservice. Both Schrute and Backstrom are unlikable pricks that are inexplicably great at their respective jobs, but they are polar opposites in how and why they’re pricks. It’s an important distinction. Dwight Schrute and Backy Backstrom would absolutely hate each other if there were ever an Office/Backstrom crossover episode (which I’m writing right now). Dwight is a stickler, anal-retentive, and a lover of rules, so much so that he pushes people away. Backstrom falsifies evidence, drinks on the job, and doesn’t care if he catches the right crook as long as it means the case is finished. They’d make each other’s lives hell. But they make everyone’s life around them hell…just in vastly different ways. It might seem like I’m nitpicking, but I think Wilson is a great actor who give his roles more depth than they have on the page, and hopefully he becomes more widely acknowledged for that someday.

At the end of the episode, I’d have to say this show is a procedural plus. The cast is rounded out by characters who have quirks instead of personalities, the case of the week is convoluted enough to keep you guessing but not worried about making too much sense, and even though it’s the pilot, the characters get some forward momentum. Backstrom grows his relationship with his partner, with his doctor, with his roommate (and possible son) and with the civilian who does something for the cops for some reason. For a total dick, he gets people to like him. Don’t they all. In a few episodes I imagine the chemistry will grow, and the rough edges will become comfortably smooth, and then Backstrom might be the best straight-up procedural on TV. Not appointment TV, but not heinously awful. Imagine if Law and Order or CSI were watchable.- MG