9 p.m. Thursday on Fox

With the slovenly appearance of a postmodern Colombo and the worldview and lifestyle habits of Hunter S. Thompson, Rainn Wilson has a wonderfully misanthropic time as the title character in this new show about a Portland, Oregon, homicide detective. The thing is, the premiere, in which Backstrom and his support crew investigate the heroin-related apparent suicide of a wealthy college student, was pretty odd. The writers seemed to go out of the way to make Backstrom as offensive as possible across the board, and the plot itself - which, yes, involved strippers - was pedestrian. But watching Wilson sink into the greasy depths of this character is nonetheless a lot of fun. Admittedly, part of my fascination is just to see Wilson doing something different than his iconic Dwight Schrute/"Office" character. I'll definitely watch a few more episodes because I did laugh out loud a few times - and because I can't imagine the show actually getting renewed.

- RICK KOSTER