Backstrom (Season 1)

Backstrom (2015) is an American crime drama you can watch online on iFILM. Everett Backstrom is a brilliant detective and an absolute jerk — exactly what the tagline promises. After five years exiled to traffic duty, he's back running Portland's new Special Crimes Unit.

His method is simple and ugly: crawl inside the head of whoever did it and think like the worst version of a person. He insults witnesses, infuriates his bosses, and treats his own failing health as a punchline. Rainn Wilson, a long way from Dwight on The Office, plays him as a self-destructive wreck with a razor mind, backed by Dennis Haysbert and a squad that somehow keeps showing up for him.

Adapted from Swedish criminologist Leif G.W. Persson's novels, the show ran a single thirteen-episode season — short, sour and more humane than it first lets on. One for viewers who like their detectives unlikable and their cases grim. Stream Backstrom (2015) online on iFILM.