Trailers: CBS's BACKSTROM & HBO's TRUE DETECTIVE

Don't get too excited after viewing this trailer for Backstrom (if that's possible), because CBS decided not to pick it up for a full series. It's an unaired pilot, probably doomed to forever float around the internet in this 'sizzle reel' format. However, maybe if enough people shout about it the streaming Gods will listen and bring it to Amazon or Netflix. Stranger things have happened. I'm probably helping by embedding it here, in a very small way.

Backstrom's pilot (based on the Swedish novels by Leif G.W Persson) starred The Office's Rainn Wilson as misanthropic Detective Everett Backstrom. He's joined by The Good Wife's Mamie Gummer as his lesbian detective partner, and 24's Dennis Haysbert as a religious sleuth. It looks like a cop version of House, which is apparently how the character's often described by literary reviewers. I'm not a huge fan of Wilson's performances, but playing an "overweight, offensive, irascible" sleuth is good use of his imitations.

I'd have liked to sample more of Backstrom, despite knowing most procedurals bore me to tears after awhile, unless there's a particularly unique aspect to the concept or the characters are impossible to resist.

Far more impressive is this stunning trailer for HBO's new prestige drama True Detective, where Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson play cops on a 17-year hunt for a serial killer in Louisiana. It blurs the line between top-tier TV and film even more than usual, and knowing the first season only consists of eight episodes almost guarantees a strong pace. Co-stars include Kevin Dunn and Michelle Monaghan? I'm there. January 2014. So there.