--- title: Review: Playing House; or, The Repeat Offenses of Backstrom description: Fox's latest Brilliant Jerk procedural gives us a cop acting like a doctor who acted like a cop. canonical: https://time.com/3678910/review-backstrom-rainn-wilson-fox/ author: James Poniewozik article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-01-22T19:10:44.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-02-22T03:48:23.560Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Review: Playing House; or, The Repeat Offenses of Backstrom og:description: Fox's latest Brilliant Jerk procedural gives us a cop acting like a doctor who acted like a cop. og:url: https://time.com/3678910/review-backstrom-rainn-wilson-fox/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc95c20140f116474/69877b5835ba6fb8d3c06a73/backstrom-ep101_sc16_075_hires1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: BACKSTROM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Review: Playing House; or, The Repeat Offenses of Backstrom twitter:description: Fox's latest Brilliant Jerk procedural gives us a cop acting like a doctor who acted like a cop. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc95c20140f116474/69877b5835ba6fb8d3c06a73/backstrom-ep101_sc16_075_hires1.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Review: Playing _House_; or, The Repeat Offenses of _Backstrom_ > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with Ally. Ally is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: July 2026. ## Ally: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition Ally is a digital financial services company offering online-only banking, including checking and savings accounts, through Ally.com and its mobile apps. Launched in 2009 as an original disruptor in financial services, Ally was built to challenge outdated banking norms with a simpler, more convenient way to bank. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. by [James Poniewozik](https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Jan 22, 2015 7:10 PM UTC  BACKSTROM: Rainn Wilson as Detective Lieutenant Everett Backstrom in the "Dragon Slayer" series premiere episode of BACKSTROM airing Thursday, Jan. 22 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2014 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Sergei Bachlakov/FOX BACKSTROM: Rainn Wilson as Detective Lieutenant Everett Backstrom in the "Dragon Slayer" series premiere episode of BACKSTROM airing Thursday, Jan. 22 (9:00-10:00 PM ET/PT) on FOX. ©2014 Fox Broadcasting Co. Cr: Sergei Bachlakov/FOXSergei Bachlakov/FOX by [James Poniewozik](https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/) ## James Poniewozik Jan 22, 2015 7:10 PM UTC If someone says it’s not about the money, it’s about the money. If someone says it’s not about sex, it’s about sex. And if a network says a new show is not a clone of something, it’s–well, starting Thursdays at 9 p.m. on Fox, it’s _Backstrom_, with Rainn Wilson as a cranky, insult-spewing cop imitating the _House_ formula with diminishing results. _Backstrom_ is directly based on the work of Swedish novelist Leif G.W. Persson, but he’s also in the tradition of TV’s Brilliant Jerks–the caustic, abrasive antiheroes we grow to love, or at least love to watch, because their antisocial tics directly relate to their success on the job. In the case of _House M.D._, what made that work was not just Hugh Laurie’s brilliant performance but the show’s theme and idea: that its doctor approached diagnosis using not just medical but forensic principles, beginning with the dictum that “all patients lie.” _House_ took a cop formula and applied it to medicine, and for a long time it made that formula feel fresh again. As rendered by Fox, Wilson and showrunner Hart Hanson (_Bones_), Backstrom simply takes that formula and applies it right back to a cop show, where it’s therefore not nearly as interesting. In order to distinguish itself, the series amps up its protagonist’s obnoxiousness to distracting levels. In particular, Portland investigator Everett Backstrom is “politically incorrect,” which is to say pretty much straight-up racist: to a doctor of South Asian ancestry (Rizwan Manji), he describes some Native American murder victims as “Not tandoori Indians like you, but you know, the–woo-woo-woo-woo!” A “black African American” suspect in a crowd of white people, he says, “stands out like a raisin in a bowl of buttered popcorn.” Now, the show doesn’t endorse Backstrom’s attitudes, despite its “Oh, no, he went there” presentation. He has plenty of colleagues to roll their eyes at him, including Dennis Haysbert as a level-headed veteran. And the series rationalizes this character choice by gradually making it clear that Backstrom, as they say, “hates everyone,” not least himself–he’s happily eating and drinking himself into an early grave–and has a troubled history. Still, given the police-news events of recent months, you have to wonder if it’s the most opportune time to premiere a show about a hilariously bigoted cop. But if it’s not fair to blame _Backstrom_ for its timing, Wilson’s performance would seem showy and affected any year. Wilson’s a strong dramatic actor; he was quirkily poignant as uptight Arthur on _Six Feet Under_, and he could give Dwight Schrute real pathos on _The Office_ when called on. But his Backstrom is more a prod than a person, built to provoke reactions from his co-stars and the audience. He seems most like a character when he’s inhabiting the mind of other characters–something he does repeatedly in the show’s gimmick, which has him role-play suspects in the first person: “I’m a senator burying my son the dope dealer…” Whether this show means to remind you of _House_ or not, here’s where it fails: it was interesting, and revelatory of character, to build a show around a doctor who is able to help people by assuming the worst of them. To do the same in Backstrom, no matter how hard everyone works to pour quirk into its title character, is nothing more than returning to the scene of the crime drama. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3678910/review-backstrom-rainn-wilson-fox/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3678910/review-backstrom-rainn-wilson-fox/"},"headline":"Review: Playing House; or, The Repeat Offenses of Backstrom","datePublished":"2015-01-22T19:10:44.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-22T03:48:23.560Z","description":"Fox's latest Brilliant Jerk procedural gives us a cop acting like a doctor who acted like a cop.","url":"https://time.com/3678910/review-backstrom-rainn-wilson-fox/","keywords":["Television","review"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc95c20140f116474/69877b5835ba6fb8d3c06a73/backstrom-ep101_sc16_075_hires1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"James Poniewozik","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/james-poniewozik/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc95c20140f116474/69877b5835ba6fb8d3c06a73/backstrom-ep101_sc16_075_hires1.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"BACKSTROM","caption":"","creditText":"Sergei Bachlakov/FOX","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3678910/review-backstrom-rainn-wilson-fox/","name":"Review: Playing House; or, The Repeat Offenses of Backstrom"}}]}] ```