Backstrom ratings slide, Rainn Wilson FOX TV show seeks religion

By Mike Valdez | February 22, 2015

Backstrom ratings are plummeting badly enough that the FOX TV show might need divine intervention to avoid getting cancelled, and now the Rainn Wilson show is turning to religion – literally – to turn things around. The latest episode titled Bogeyman took the ongoing minor plotline of Detective John Almond (Dennis Haysbert) also being a preacher and put the issue front and center, and one has to wonder if that’s about to become a trend.

While Backstrom put itself behind the eight ball out of the gate by making its main character the kind of brilliant-but-inappropriate antihero that’s been overused of late, the show gets points for coming up with something as unique as a police detective who also preaches on Sundays. It was always a question of just how much of a focus the latter would become. Bogeyman had the church being nearly foreclosed on, and then ultimately saved by TV audiences who saw Almond in action saving a kidnapped girl. Could this be an intentional metaphor by the writers, who are hoping that their real world viewers will find a way to bail the show out of its ratings slide?

Then again, the biggest vulnerability for this show has always been that its main character, who was initially painted as wholly devoid of any redeeming qualities, was going to struggle keeping a wide audience of viewers who want at least one shard of likability to grasp onto. This latest episode ended with Backstrom falling to the ground in tears after learning that the kidnap victims were still alive. It was the first time we’ve seen him care about anything other than the drive of simply solving a case – and more flashes of that might be what the show needs in order to survive.