Backstrom

Backstrom, TV’s new nihilistic slob and detective Lieutenant, always suspects the worst in people.

Not without its comic side, this outlook plays a crucial role in his (we are told) exceptional success as a case solver.

And that is an essential feature of noir; you cannot go wrong thinking the worst of people.

Backstrom’s particular way of expressing this is sometimes an anti-PC provocation, sometimes as part of petty squabbling, sometimes to get a rise out of a witness, colleague, or suspect, and sometimes for comic effect.

And that’s a notable point.

Backstrom isn’t House, neither the show nor the character.

The former show is almost a police procedural sitcom, while nobody would ever have thought of House as any kind of sitcom.

And Backstrom the character is a bit of a buffoon, a bit of a clown, often the butt of jokes and even physical comedy.

This takes out the string and makes him, on the whole, harmless.

House was not a figure of fun, and certainly was not harmless.

All the same, reviewers cannot put two words together about Backstrom without droning on about whether and how far any network can be allowed to put on anyone who is so transparently hostile to PC, as such, and apparently pays no price.