Skip to content

Top Navigation

EW.com EW.com
    • All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
    • All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
    • All Music
    • Music Reviews
    • All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
    • All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
    • All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
    • All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
    • All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
    • All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Subscribe

Explore EW.com

EW.com EW.com
  • Explore

    Explore

    • A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      A guide to The Last of Us Easter eggs

      From the Uncharted lighter to the giraffe plushie. Read More
    • 2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      2023 Oscars predictions: See who will win at the 95th Academy Awards

      From Brendan Fraser and Angela Bassett to a potential upset in Best Actress, see who EW thinks will win at the 2023 Oscars. Read More
    • Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Meet the cast of Survivor 44

      Here are the 18 contestants who will be vying for $1 million. Read More
  • TV

    TV

    See All TV
    • TV Reviews
    • TV Reunions
    • Recaps
    • What to Watch
    • Winter TV
    • Comedy
    • Crime
    • Drama
    • Family
    • Horror
    • Reality
    • Sci-fi
    • Thriller
  • Movies

    Movies

    See All Movies
    • Movie Reviews
    • Trailers
    • Film Festivals
    • Movie Reunions
    • Movie Previews
  • Music

    Music

    See All Music
    • Music Reviews
  • What to Watch

    What to Watch

    See All What to Watch
    • What to Watch Podcast Episodes
    • TV Reviews
    • Movie Reviews
  • BINGE

    BINGE

    See All BINGE
    • EW's Binge Podcast Episodes
    • Recaps
    • Survivor
    • This is Us
    • RuPaul's Drag Race
    • Stranger Things
    • The Boys
    • The Blacklist
    • The Walking Dead
    • Better Call Saul
  • The Awardist

    The Awardist

    See All The Awardist
    • The Awardist Podcast Episodes
    • Oscars
    • Emmys
    • Golden Globes
    • SAG Awards
    • Grammys
    • Tony Awards
  • Books

    Books

    See All Books
    • Book Reviews
    • Author Interviews
  • Theater

    Theater

    See All Theater
    • Theater Reviews
  • Podcasts
  • Gaming
  • Events

    Events

    See All Events
    • Comic-Con
  • Celebrity
  • Streaming

Profile Menu

Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
Your Profile

Account

  • Join Now
  • Email Preferences
  • Newsletter
  • Manage Your Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Give a Gift Subscription this link opens in a new tab
  • Logout
Login
Sweepstakes

Follow Us

  1. Home
  2. Gallery
  3. 20 TV series that nailed it with their very first scenes

20 TV series that nailed it with their very first scenes

By EW Staff February 28, 2015 at 09:05 PM EST
Skip gallery slides
FB

1 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Lost

'Lost'

A man opens his eyes and finds himself under a canopy of trees. He looks completely disoriented, wearing a suit and covered in bloody scratches—and we have no idea why. This first mystery is already intriguing—and then the man, whom we come to know as Jack, races toward a beach, where he frantically tends to fellow survivors of the plane that just crashed. Those first few minutes are completely compelling, giving viewers no choice but to keep watching and find out (or, more realistically, hope to find out—this is Lost, after all) what went wrong. —Ariana Bacle

1 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement

2 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Walking Dead

'The Walking Dead'
Credit: AMC

The leisurely camerawork, the cicadas, the weird genre cocktail of John Ford and Mad Max: It’s all there in the prologue, a trip to a gas station that’s not as empty as it appears to be. The cinematic sequence is practically dialogue-free—climaxing with the horrifying little blonde zombie girl holding a teddy bear, her corroded brains exploding onto the ground with the first of many shots from Rick Grimes' revolver. America got the message: Jericho this ain't. —Darren Franich

2 of 20

3 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Game of Thrones

'Game of Thrones'
Credit: HBO

The brilliant thing about the brutal beginning of Game of Thrones is how perfectly it framed the grand, apocalyptic arc of the show. Yes, the majority of our time will be spent with petty nobles, fighting over a metal chair—and it will all seem very important. But what everyone should really be worried about are the ice zombies. —Kevin P. Sullivan

3 of 20

Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

4 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Arrested Development

'Arrested Development'

Here’s how to hit the ground running and screaming. In a little over two minutes, Arrested introduces Michael Bluth, his vain siblings, and his narcissist parents, each their own beautiful egotistical snowflake. From the beginning, the show's signature chaingun gag-per-millisecond pace was already there—double entendres, cutaway flashbacks, "a trick is something a whore does for money." —Darren Franich

4 of 20

Advertisement

5 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Breaking Bad

'Breaking Bad'
Credit: AMC

A billowing pair of pants. A man in a gas mask and his underwear careening down a desert road in an RV. A video-taped message to his family. And a gun. This series' iconic opening shows Walter White at one of his most desperate moments, and one when he still resembles Mr. Chips more than Scarface. Mysterious, gorgeously shot and heightened with suspense, this first scene sets the tone for the entire series to come—and delivers the first defining moments in Walter White’s transformation into Heisenberg. —Jonathon Dornbush

5 of 20

6 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Better Call Saul

'Better Call Saul'
Credit: AMC

Somewhere in Omaha, sticky dough is glopped onto an industrial countertop and slathered with cinnamon-sugar paste; unhurriedly, someone rolls up the dough and slices the roll into soon-to-be pastries. Tinny jukebox music plays. The viewer may be wondering what's even happening here—but then there it is: that familiar head of thinning hair, peeking out over an employee visor. The opening sequence of Breaking Bad spinoff Better Call Saul doesn't explain why (or when) Saul Goodman is working in a Cinnabon, or why he's so unsettled by his interactions with the customers there. But it does instantly reassure viewers that they've returned to the startlingly unglamorous, gloriously tactile universe of Breaking Bad. —Ashley Fetters

6 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

7 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

30 Rock

'30 Rock'
Credit: NBC

The opening sequence of this Emmy-winning comedy introduces our neurotic heroine, Liz Lemon, in the most Liz Lemon-y way possible—by having her fight with a stranger on the street about line etiquette. Within the first minute of the show, we understand two things about Liz: She loves hot dogs, and she’s all about following the rules. When a man rudely cuts in front of her at a hot dog stand, she stands up for herself and her fellow considerate customers, buying all of the hot dogs for herself—and the good people of New York. It's the perfect segue into Jenna's song-and-dance number, featuring her character Pam, the over-confident morbidly obese woman. —Megan Daley

7 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement

8 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Mad Men

'Mad Men'
Credit: AMC

Seven seasons in, Mad Men is famous for its lack of narrative exposition. But its first scene, in which a mysterious man sits in a smoky bar scribbling down ideas for cigarette slogans, reveals that Matthew Weiner's 1960s drama wore its in medias res style confidently even at the very beginning. By way of introduction, Weiner offers only a definition of the term Mad Men and the telling detail that the ad execs themselves coined it—and to understand the world of Mad Men, that’s about all you need to know. —Ashley Fetters

8 of 20

Advertisement

9 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Scandal

'Scandal'
Credit: ABC

Olivia Pope’s D.C. is full of lies, schemes, politics, murder, love, and lust—and it never stops. Olivia moves a mile a minute, which is why the opening scene of Scandal was the perfect introduction to her world. When Quinn makes her way to the bar to meet Harrison, she is immediately thrown into OPA's fast-paced world of decision-making. After all, there's no time to spare when you're, as Harrison puts it, "a gladiator in a suit." —Samantha Highfill

9 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

10 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Deadwood

'Deadwood'

"No law at all in Deadwood," says the condemned man. Sheriff Bullock's having a nice chat with the prisoner. The man shot Bullock, but no hard feelings: "Flesh wound. Don't look like it wants to infect." We learn a little bit about the town of Deadwood—a place in Indian territory, in the midst of a gold boom. But then a few drunks from town come around, looking to execute the condemned man before his time. Instead, Bullock hangs the man on the jailhouse steps—an action which, in the show's weird embryo-of-civilization logic, counts as a kindness. (Also, somebody says "c---sucker.") —Darren Franich

10 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

11 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Sex and the City

'Sex and the City'
Credit: HBO

Answer: Sarah Wynter. Question: Who is the first person to have sex in Sex and the City? Wynter’s a London gal newly arrived in NYC, and as narrated by Carrie Bradshaw, she lives a short story of romantic intrigue that completely destroys the Princess Myth and the New York Myth in just a few short minutes. "Nobody had told her about the end of love in Manhattan," Carrie concludes. It’s a great beginning for a series that would destroy all the old romantic fables (while creating a few of its own.) —Darren Franich

11 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement

12 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Battlestar Galactica

'Battlestar Galactica'

How do you reboot a High Nerd saga about wacky robots and the sassy pilots who fought them? The 2003 miniseries starts things off somber—static shots of a remote space station, chyrons about a long-ago war and an "armistice." Then, the punchline: The arrival of a beautiful woman, dressed in head-to-toe red. "Are you alive?" she asks. As she kisses the unsuspecting representative for the human race, an impossibly massive Cylon ship appears in the dark of space. Explosions ensue. —Darren Franich

12 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

13 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Hannibal

'Hannibal'

The key to a good Hannibal Lecter project is making sure the audience cares about the non-cannibal characters. After all, Anthony Hopkins is onscreen for barely 16 minutes of The Silence of the Lambs; that’s Jodie Foster’s movie to carry. And similarly, if Bryan Fuller’s "Hannibal" was going to work, viewers needed to be invested in Hugh Dancy’s Will Graham. Luckily, the opening scene does a great job of establishing what’s interesting about him. Standing alone at a murder scene, Graham closes his eyes and uses the evidence to mentally re-create the murder, using himself as a stand-in for the killer. It's so interesting and strange that we don’t care that Mads Mikkelsen's eponymous villain doesn't make his first appearance until 20 minutes in. —Christian Holub

13 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

14 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Kingdom

'Kingdom'

In its first minute, Kingdom tells viewers everything they need to know about Alvey Kulina and the world he lives in, and it does so with very little dialogue. A show about a former mixed martial artist/father who now runs an MMA gym in Venice, Calif., Kingdom begins with Alvey on a run, pushing himself physically the way any professional athlete would. But when he comes across two gangsters who pull their guns on him, things appear to take a turn for the worse. That is until Alvey, completely unaffected by the dangerous situation, takes them both down with nothing but his fists, his head … and his knee. From there, he shakes it off and gets back to his run like nothing happened. Welcome to Kingdom. —Samantha Highfill

14 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement

15 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

Six Feet Under

'Six Feet Under'
Credit: HBO

Six Feet Under is a show about death, so it's fitting that a main character—the Fisher family's patriarch, Nathaniel—dies in its first few minutes (while driving a brand-new hearse and singing along to "I'll Be Home for Christmas"). Right away, the show establishes it's not afraid to get dark—and that viewers are about to be immersed in the painful but fascinating world of the Fishers as they navigate grief and taking on Nathaniel’s funeral home responsibilities. —Ariana Bacle

15 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

16 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Americans

'The Americans'
Credit: FX

It's perhaps appropriate that the very first minutes of The Americans is something of a fake-out. Elizabeth, in a blond wig, is in seduction mode. As she effectively shuts up a man talking about the American way of life by going down on him, the drumbeat from Fleetwood Mac's "Tusk" begins to play. Cut to three days later: "Tusk" is still in the background, and Elizabeth, completely transformed, and Philip are attempting a capture. The scene is not only an intricate action sequence, perfectly scored—it also establishes who the Jennings are, what they do, how they do it, as well as their personal dynamic. Elizabeth is focused on completing the mission; Philip is slightly more humane. —Esther Zuckerman

16 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

17 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Returned

'The Returned'

"Les Revenants," a French-made show about the dead inexplicably reappearing on earth, starts off mundane: The camera focuses on a teenage girl gloomily gazing out the window of a bus filled with other teenage kids. She looks out at the surrounding landscapes, gorgeous and serene. And then the bus veers off the road and crashes, effectively interrupting the calm. It's incredibly jarring, yes, but also beautiful in a strange, morose way—just like the rest of the show. —Ariana Bacle

17 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement

18 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The Wire

'The Wire'

The first scene of The Wire isn't particularly exciting; it's just a conversation between Detective James McNulty and the man who saw Omar Isaiah Betts ("Snot Boogie") get shot after ripping off a craps game—a habit of his. What makes it iconic, though, is the way it deftly serves as a thesis statement for the entire show by answering a single question: Why let Snot Boogie play a game everyone knew he would try to rob? "Got to," says the witness, surprised McNulty even asked. "This America, man." —Joshua Rivera

18 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Continued on next slide.
Advertisement

19 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

The West Wing

'The West Wing'
Credit: NBC

This opening is so successful because of what it doesn’t show. A series of characters—whom audiences will grow to love—are spotted at various, pedestrian moments in their days: at the gym, at a bar, on a plane, asleep in the office. But one message unites them all, when a man named Potus hits a tree. Except Potus turns out to be the POTUS, the President of the United States. And suddenly, the viewer realizes that the show's stakes are anything but pedestrian. It’s a brilliantly executed opening that establishes signature characters and dialogue rhythms of The West Wing before even stepping foot into the White House. —Jonathon Dornbush

19 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement

20 of 20

FB
Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message

House of Cards

'House of Cards'
Credit: Netflix

Night. The sound of a car crash. A dog yelping in agony. The squeal of burned rubber as the hit-and-run driver speeds away. Have no fear: good neighbor Frank Underwood is here. He bursts out of his brownstone, kneels by the dying dog, and, once alone, confides to the camera, "Moments like this require someone who will act, who will do the unpleasant thing—the necessary thing." The message could not be more clear: Sometimes you have to strangle a poor puppy—or the Constitution—to do what's necessary. —Jeff Labrecque

20 of 20

Advertisement
Advertisement
Replay gallery

Share the Gallery

Pinterest Facebook

Up Next

By EW Staff

    Share the Gallery

    Pinterest Facebook
    Trending Videos
    Advertisement
    Skip slide summaries

    Everything in This Slideshow

    Advertisement

    View All

    1 of 20 Lost
    2 of 20 The Walking Dead
    3 of 20 Game of Thrones
    4 of 20 Arrested Development
    5 of 20 Breaking Bad
    6 of 20 Better Call Saul
    7 of 20 30 Rock
    8 of 20 Mad Men
    9 of 20 Scandal
    10 of 20 Deadwood
    11 of 20 Sex and the City
    12 of 20 Battlestar Galactica
    13 of 20 Hannibal
    14 of 20 Kingdom
    15 of 20 Six Feet Under
    16 of 20 The Americans
    17 of 20 The Returned
    18 of 20 The Wire
    19 of 20 The West Wing
    20 of 20 House of Cards

    Share & More

    Tweet Pinterest Email Send Text Message
    EW.com

    Magazines & More

    Learn More

    • Subscribe this link opens in a new tab
    • Advertise this link opens in a new tab
    • Content Licensing this link opens in a new tab
    • Accolades this link opens in a new tab

    Connect

    Subscribe to Our Newsletter
    Meredith© Copyright 2023 Meredith Corporation. Entertainment Weekly is a registered trademark of Meredith Corporation All Rights Reserved. Entertainment Weekly may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice. Privacy Policythis link opens in a new tab Terms of Servicethis link opens in a new tab Ad Choicesthis link opens in a new tab California Do Not Sellthis link opens a modal window Web Accessibilitythis link opens in a new tab
    © Copyright EW.com. All rights reserved. Printed from https://ew.com

    View image

    20 TV series that nailed it with their very first scenes
    this link is to an external site that may or may not meet accessibility guidelines.