8 Bad Pilots Of Good TV Shows

8. The Righteous Gemstones

The Righteous Gemstones follows a famous televangelist family as they lie, cheat, and backstab each other in a very un-Christian way. The HBO show, created by and starring Danny McBride of Eastbound & Down fame, has some great laughs and touching moments, just not in its first episode.

The self-titled pilot runs for one hour and two minutes, roughly double the length of every other episode, and it shows. The first half drags, and we don't see any major plot developments until the last few minutes.

Even then, the hour long episode still doesn't introduce everything and everyone we need it to, with some eventual major characters still not appearing until as late as the third episode. It might take less time to read the Bible cover to cover than to watch this episode.