5. Twin Peaks
Twin Peaks, like Life on Mars, opens with drama as Laura Palmer's body is found in the first few moments of the show. Where Life on Mars was all about the drama though, the horror of Sam Tyler's car crash and the "No!" moment from the audience when we realised that he wasn't going to save Maya, Twin Peaks operated in the opposite realm of build-ups. If the serene titles weren't calming enough with shots of waterfalls and factory machinery flowing over a pulsing, synth-pad-heavy theme tune, the show opens with Josie Packard humming, doing her make-up. The body is discovered on a fishing trip. There's no great suspense or tension created within the first five minutes; it's just disturbingly everyday and extremely unsettling, but it still establishes a huge arc of the show. It's admirable that Twin Peaks took such a simple opening scene when it might have made more sense for an explosive start to the story. The show would continue though at this sensible pace, for thirty episodes, evolving from these subtle sequences into David Lynch's trademark ethereal style.