If ever a landscape for experimentation, it is the world wide Web, and Crackle’s newest Web series, Backwash, is proof in the pudding. 
Written by Joshua Malina (you may know him as Will Bailey on The West Wing or more recently as Peter Alpert on In Plain Sight), Backwash is a slapstick comedy hearkening back to the days of Abbott and Costello, where men slapping men was not only funny, but fashionable. The story follows three absurd friends who accidentally rob a bank, and it all starts with a sausage.
In a word, Backwash is “salamidisasterbackwashslipperyeroticabsurdpancakesscrewball” -but you’ll have to watch the following video to get the point:
It’s exciting to see a Web series take risks, but even more so, it’s refreshing to watch some of the most familiar faces on TV join the party. Backwash‘s cameos include Jon Hamm, Sarah Silverman, Dule Hill, and John Cho (to name a few) and they all bring their comedic A-games. The involvement of so many high-profile actors proves that the entertainment industry is beginning to take the medium seriously, using it to have fun with their craft. 
That’s exactly what Backwash is: it’s a silly, experimental outlet that applauds Jon Hamm’s ability to down an entire piece of matzah bread in one take, Dulé Hill’s tap dancing skills, and dresses Hank Azaria in drag just for the hell of it.
This series is a cavalcade of comedic moments, and that’s exactly what it was intended to be: charmingly absurd. That’s the beauty of the Internet right now: it’s one of the only mediums out there where creators are granted total creative control over their projects. What goes up is exactly what’s intended to go up. It’s creative freedom at its finest. We applaud writer Joshua Malina, director Danny Leiner, and the entire cast and crew for taking advantage of that. We hope to see more series like this in the future.
