10 Best TV Pilot Cliffhangers Ever
4. Breaking Bad - He’s In The Clear (For Now)
In one of the most memorable cold opens of the last 20 years, Breaking Bad sees our mysterious, budgie-smuggler hero frantically driving through the desert in an RV. Why does he have a gas mask on? Why are there bodies rolling around in the back? Who is he running from?
Breaking Bad expertly hooks you in from the get-go. Once the RV crashes and our hero records a heartfelt final message to his family, we hear sirens in the distance; surely destined for the inappropriately dressed Walter White.
Flashback and we receive context for this scene over the course of 40 minutes of brilliant television. It may be hard to recall now but Bryan Cranston was mainly known as the comically inept dad Hal from Malcolm in the Middle; to see Cranston expertly subvert these comedic expectations over a single episode was nothing short of miraculous.
When we finally catch up to the opening scene, we find out the sirens were just fire engines off to tackle an inconsequential desert blaze. The hero we’ve grown so attached to is in the clear, but for how long? For that, all of us kept on watching… and kept on watching… and kept on... you get the idea. Breaking Bad was very popular.