10 TV Shows With Great First Episodes
4. Winter Is Coming - Game Of Thrones
As its incredible seventh season has proved, Game of Thrones is a phenomenon of a show that just can't be stopped. While it has had a few lulls (notably in season five), it has remained one of the most gripping, exciting and entertaining shows in decades. To grow into the entertainment juggernaut that it is today, Game of Thrones had to start strong, and with Winter is Coming, it truly did.
Game of Thrones has one of the largest casts and most dense mythologies of any show in history. To introduce the world of Westeros, the feuding families and the history of the Seven Kingdoms without alienating an unknowing audience should have been an impossible task, but somehow, show runners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss do that and more, giving viewers characters to instantly connect to, as well as a truly shocking cliffhanger ending.
From the eerie opening scene beyond the Wall to the introduction of the Stark family, the wedding of Daenerys Targaryen and Khal Drogo, and the final horror of Jaime Lannister pushing Bran Stark from a window, Winter is Coming packs a hell of a lot into a single hour. Most episodes will start out slow and build momentum, but Game of Thrones threw its audience in at the deep end, and has barely let up since.