2. Lost "Pilot"
First of all know that I used to be a massive fan of Lost. In fact, up until Season 4 I considered it my second favorite show of all time, and up until the end I would have probably included it in my top 10 shows of all time. Now I despise it... I wouldn't recommend it to anyone and I am actually still angry with what the writers got away with. They promised us answers to their ridiculous mysteries from the beginning then when they actually couldn't think of any, they told us that is was all about the characters and that we shouldn't be watching a sci-fi series for plot, when in fact that is kind of the whole point of the science fiction genre. Anyway, despite all this, Lost's pilot was epic, and it was because of the strength of this pilot that I watched every episode after this, despite the dramatic lack of quality in seasons 4, 5 and 6. Had this show ended strongly, perhaps this pilot would have taken the top spot, but because the show failed to give any real answers to Lost's many many dangling plot-lines, this kind of makes everything that happen in the pilot seem somewhat irrelevant, and had I known then how the series was going to end, I would have turned off the television before getting hooked into the ridiculousness of the show. Still, J J Abrams is the master at hooking in an audience, and is the master at creating a great TV pilot episode- there is no one greater at it on TV, and he directed and co-wrote this thrilling example. Opening the show with a devastating plane crash that brutally kills many people within the first couple of minutes is pure genius, and then confusing the hell out of people from then on by showing an island full of mysteries including the weirdest thing of all, an angry polar bear, just added to this greatness. I know a lot of people were put off of this episode because of that polar bear, and from then in gave up on the show ( I wish I was one of you) but I had faith (stupid faith) that there would be a really, really good explanation for all of this (there wasn't). I remember watching the show and not really knowing what to expect. I had no idea before I started that the island was going to be "supernatural" and thought it was simply about a group of survivors stuck on an island similar to the movie Castaway. Though in retrospect I wish it had been more simple, the weird surprises the show had up it's sleeve in every episode felt like pure television gold at the time. J J Abrams also won the Emmy for directing this episode, and he certainly deserved to win.