From Twin Peaks to Breaking Bad, some of the greatest TV shows ever made had us hooked from their very first episode. Usually, TV shows take a few episodes — or, in some cases, even a few seasons — to find their feet. It can take the writers a while to figure out the right tone or work out how to best utilize the characters and their relationships. Better Call Saul took a while to strike the right tone. The Office started off skewing too closely to the UK original, and Parks and Recreation started off skewing too closely to The Office.
Seinfeld, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia all got off to a so-so start, but The Last of Us episode 1 set the stage perfectly for the series that followed. These shows had us hooked from the start.
10 The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead had a very hit-and-miss run, but its first episode, “Days Gone Bye,” kicked off the series in thrilling style. The 28 Days Later-style opening plunges us right into the midst of a zombie apocalypse with Rick Grimes awakening from his coma and quickly realizing the world isn’t how he re it. Writer-director Frank Darabont brings a real cinematic verve to the scope and spectacle of the pilot, and Andrew Lincoln instantly established Rick as a character you wanted to follow. Say what you will about The Walking Dead’s later seasons, but its pilot episode is incredible.
9 The Leftovers
Damon Lindelof’s follow-up to Lost, The Leftovers, set up a similarly intriguing mystery in its first episode. The pilot establishes that 2% of the world’s population has vanished at random in a rapture-like event dubbed the “Sudden Departure.” Scientists can’t explain it and religion can’t rationalize it, so the remaining 98% are left to grieve and ponder. The Leftovers’ pilot episode introduced its unique perspective of a post-apocalyptic world; it’s about the post-apocalyptic mindset. The world looks more or less the same and most of the human race is still around, but humanity is having a collective worldwide existential crisis.
8 The Boys
In the opening moments of The Boys, Hughie Campbell’s girlfriend Robin is turned into a bloody mush when superhuman speedster A-Train accidentally runs through her. These first few minutes immediately introduced the skewed, satirical comic book universe of the show: it imagines the grim realities of a world where superheroes are real, with shocking twists, gruesome violence, and superheroes who aren’t very heroic. By the end of the episode, Hughie would be recruited by Billy Butcher and their quest to kill all supes would be well underway. The Boys’ pilot is delightfully subversive, darkly hilarious, and relentlessly brutal.
7 Yellowjackets
Although each subsequent season has been weaker than the last, Yellowjackets’ first episode got the show off to an exhilarating start. It masterfully set up the dual timelines with a girls’ soccer team surviving a plane crash in the wilderness in the ‘90s and the survivors trying to keep their dark secrets covered up in the present day. And it ended with the disturbing twist that would keep viewers hooked for years: eventually, after being stranded in the wilderness for long enough, these girls would resort to cannibalism and start eating each other.
6 Severance
The series premiere of Severance, “Good News About Hell,” set up its dystopian premise brilliantly. The concept of a corporate experiment that separates employees’ work lives from their home lives is the perfect satire of the struggle for a healthy work-life balance. Severance’s commentary on corporate culture and the exploitation of workers has been razor-sharp since the very beginning. It dumps a lot of conceptual exposition on the audience without ever feeling too heady or overwhelming, because director Ben Stiller and writer Dan Erickson adhere to the rule of “show, don’t tell.”
5 Cowboy Bebop
Most TV shows try to get their full ensemble together by the end of the first episode, but Cowboy Bebop took its time. It wouldn’t bring Faye and Radical Ed on board the Bebop until a few episodes later. The first episode focuses on introducing Spike, Jet, and their work as bounty hunters with a standalone story about the hunt for a notorious gangster named Asimov. The episode introduces the show’s use of social commentary, its stunning visuals, its powerful dramatic storytelling, and its idiosyncratic genre cocktail of space opera, neo-western, and jazzy noir.
4 The Last Of Us
The first episode of The Last of Us is an emotional rollercoaster that adapts all the key emotional beats from the video game and also complements and enriches the source material with fascinating new additions. The cold open ominously sets the stage for the rise of Cordyceps, the heartbreaking death of Sarah Miller deftly sets up Joel’s tragic arc, and the first meeting of Joel and Ellie instantly proved that Pedro Pascal and Bella Ramsey would nail the show’s central dynamic. The Last of Us’ first episode immersed us in a unique post-apocalyptic setting in suitably grim fashion.
3 Lost
The feature-length pilot episode of Lost is both an action-packed cinematic event and an intriguing introduction to the mysteries of the island. The plane crash starts the series with a gripping set-piece that introduces the sprawling ensemble of characters in a moment of crisis. As they settle into their new lives as scrappy survivors, they begin to realize that this is no normal island; it has polar bears and a black smoke monster. Audiences come out of Lost’s pilot episode with a ton of questions they can’t wait to have answered.
2 Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks is essentially a small-town soap opera reimagined through the surreal lens of David Lynch, and the pilot episode establishes that unique tone beautifully. It succinctly sets up the mystery that would form the backbone of the series — the murder of Laura Palmer — and introduces the lovably quirky FBI agent brought in to investigate. Dale Cooper leads a cast of curious, compelling, colorful characters as a fish out of water in a weird little town in the middle of nowhere. Twin Peaks is a show like no other, and its pilot episode set that up spectacularly.
1 Breaking Bad
Any screenwriting class about how to craft a TV pilot should study the first episode of Breaking Bad very closely. Vince Gilligan’s pilot episode captivates its audience instantly with an in-media-res opening showing a flustered man in tighty-whities crashing his rolling meth lab in the desert, clambering over dead bodies to get out of it, and responding to the approaching sirens by having his gun at the ready. Then, as it goes back for some slower-paced scenes showing the same man working as a high school chemistry teacher in a miserable marriage, you can’t wait to see how it’ll connect.
This pilot episode speedruns through all the key plot points — Walt’s cancer diagnosis, his partnership with Jesse, their first meth cook, etc. — without ever feeling rushed. As he races through the plot, Gilligan never loses sight of the fact that this is a character study. The first episode of Breaking Bad immediately establishes Walter White as a fascinating, complex, three-dimensional character. If there was a hall of fame for pilot episodes, Breaking Bad would be in it.