10 TV Shows With Great First Episodes

Breaking Bad 's pilot is an astounding piece of television. In just under an hour, it tells an exciting, resonant story that could stand alone as an amazing short film. Instead, it is the first piece in a show that would redefine what episodic drama can be, a starting point for something truly magical.

As would become a Breaking Bad staple, we start in medias res, with chemistry teacher Walter White barrelling through the desert in an RV, pantsless and desperate. He talks to the camera, introducing himself, before we go back to see how he ended up in this situation. We meet Walt's family, and come to understand his situation before the first, heartbreaking revelation; he has cancer. From there, he approaches former student Jesse Pinkman, deciding that the only way he can pay for his medical bills is to start cooking methamphetamine.

It's a bold, striking, entirely gripping hour of TV. Walt is incredibly sympathetic (in contrast to the monster he would later become), and as we watch him start on this dark, dangerous path, we are at once fascinated and horrified. Walt's journey would be the heart of Breaking Bad, with all of the surrounding drama only adding to the emotion of his decline.

Pilot is a blinding bit of television; an awesome starting point for an awesome series, a fantastic story in its own right, and quite simply the best first episode any television series has ever produced.

Agree with this list? Which other first episodes deserve to be here? Share your thoughts down in the comments.