10 Awful TV Shows With Incredible First Episodes
1. The Walking Dead
“Days Gone Bye”, the very first episode of AMC’s zombie saga, isn’t just a great pilot episode. It is arguably one of the best pilot episodes of all time.
Written and directed by Frank Darabont, the series opener expertly adapts the source comic into a tense, violent thriller that knows the narrative’s focus should always be with the characters in this crazy new world. In just over an hour, Sheriff Rick Grimes instantly becomes one of the most iconic television characters of the 2010s.
With such a high standard set right at the beginning, it was inevitable that there would be a decline in quality from the get-go. And while the rest of the first season is still excellent television, the departure of Darabont clearly did a number on the storytelling quality from season two onwards.
These days, the show is often accused of being a zombie itself. Just going through the motions of letting its characters feel like they’re safe for a while, realising they’re not, and then everything going crazy. There’s only so long that an audience can put up with that year after year before they realise that it’s just not the same.