Since starring as Dwight K. Shrute on nine seasons of The Office, Rainn Wilson has been keeping himself busy with his incredibly popular website and intellectual project, Soul Pancake. This fall, however, the former Assistant to the Regional Manager will be headed back to television, in a crime procedural titled Backstrom.
This week, EW released the first official cast photo for the series, which quite frankly, looks like every other crime procedural cast photo in television history. The show’s description, however, is more intriguing.
Backstrom comes to us from Bones creator Hart Hanson, and is described as a “subversive and comic crime procedural,” which has a 13-episode order from Fox. It tells the story of Everett Backstrom (Wilson), a brilliant Portland detective with anger issues, who returns to the job five years after being exiled for his often offensive behavior. The overweight, irascible detective then tries and fails to change his self-destructive behavior.
The show is based on the books by Swedish criminologist and novelist Leif G.W. Persson, and sounds like it could be an enjoyable series. It’s always hard to tell these crime procedurals apart, but Wilson in the title role will likely give this one an advantage over the countless other crime shows that will be arriving in the fall.
As of right now, Backstrom doesn’t have a premiere date, but stay tuned for future updates.