Back when there were only three channels, TV shows had the luxury of taking a few episodes (or even a couple of seasons) to find their footing and build an audience. But in today’s oversaturated streaming market, TV shows have to grab viewers’ attention in just a couple of minutes.Shows likeSeveranceandYellowjacketshad unforgettable opening scenes.
10Daredevil: Born Again
Matt Throws Bullseye Off A Roof
Ultimately,Daredevil: Born Againsuffered from its creative overhauland extensive reshoots. It feels like two different shows stitched together: a lighthearted case-of-the-week legal procedural with a brand-new cast of characters, and a dark, gritty continuation of the Netflix series bringing back the old cast. The former was fun, but it worked a lot better as the latter.
In the opening scene of the first episode,Born Againplanted itself firmly in Netflix continuation territory. It boldly killed off a beloved major character, Foggy, in the first few minutes, andit had a brutal fight between Daredevil and Bullseyethat culminated in Daredevil callously throwing Bullseye off a roof. This would not be your average Disney+ show.
9Wednesday
Wednesday Unleashes Piranhas On Pugsley’s Bullies
Netflix’s smash-hitWednesdayseries reimagines theAddams Familyfranchise as a Y.A. coming-of-age high school drama. But the opening scene of the pilot episodereassured audiences that it wouldn’t be toning down the darkness of Charles Addams’ source material.Wednesdaywould be just as twisted as the cartoons, movies, and TV shows that came before it.
The series begins with Wednesday finding her brother Pugsley stuffed into a locker by some bullies. She exacts revenge on the bullies by unleashing a swarm of piranhas on them in the pool. This was the darkest way thatWednesdaycould send its title character to a new school, and it set the perfect tone from the outset.
8Reservation Dogs
The Delivery Truck Heist
Reservation Dogswas about a bunch of kids who would do whatever it takes — including petty crimes — to fund their dream of moving to California. It established that nice and early in the pilot episode, since the show opened with a poorly planned heist. The kids haphazardly robbed a delivery truck and took it to a scrapyard to sell it on.
The series would be more than just a wacky crime caper, but this opening scene put a wacky crime caper front and center to grab the audience’s attention. The chaos of the heistgave the writers and the actors plenty of opportunities to establish the interpersonal dynamics of this lovable ensemble. It’s a masterclass in setting up a TV show.
7Andor
Cassian Accidentally Kills Two Pre-Mor Officers
Tony Gilroy established right off the bat thatAndorwould be a different kind ofStar Warsshow. It opens with Cassian Andor going to a house of ill repute in the search for his missing sister. After getting into an altercation with a pair of Pre-Mor Corporate Security officers, he accidentally kills one and ends up executing the other.
This opening sceneinstantly set upAndoras a darker, more matureStar Warsshow, primarily aimed at an older demographic. No otherStar Warsshow has begun with the titular hero gunning down two people in cold blood at an intergalactic brothel. It hooked audiences from the offset, and started Cassian’s hero’s journey at its absolute rock bottom.
6Beef
The genius of Lee Sung Jin’sBeefis that it takes a mundane everyday situation we’ve all been in — a heated moment of road rage — to the absolute extreme. These two people feel so downtrodden and frustrated in their lives that they’re willing to fully commit to destroying each other over a petty disagreement.
Lee wasted no time getting into the meat ofBeef.Within the first couple of minutes, Steven Yeun and Ali Wong are screaming at each otherfrom their cars. The quicker you can get to the inciting incident, the better, andBeefgets to its inciting incident in the very first scene.
5Severance
Helly Arrives On The Severed Floor
Severancehad a lot of worldbuilding to get through in its first episode. A corporate initiative that allows employees to split their consciousness between their work lives and their home lives is the perfect dystopian satire of the difficulty of maintaining a work-life balance. But it’s a very complicated bit of sci-fi mythology to convey to audiences.
Dan Erickson’s pilot scriptsets up the premise nice and succinctly in the opening scene. When Helly arrives on the severed floor, she’s interviewed by Mark, who explains the show’s lore to her in no uncertain terms.It’s a masterclass in expository writing, because it doesn’t feel like dry exposition; it feels like a natural conversation between an employee and his new co-worker.
4Fallout
The Apocalypse Begins
Falloutopens with the beginning of the nuclear apocalypse that will form the backdrop of the series. While famous actor Cooper Howard entertains a children’s birthday party in L.A. with his cowboy tricks, the adults are distracted by news reports of a looming nuclear holocaust. And then, the bombs are dropped.
This visually striking opening sequenceinstantly sets the retrofuturistic aesthetic of the show— it’s set in 2077, but it looks and feels like the 1950s — and it shows how quickly and completely the Earth was devastated. This prologue would make an iconic little sci-fi short of its own, but it’s just the beginning of this riveting post-apocalyptic saga.
3Yellowjackets
The Pit Girl Meets Her Grim Fate
The pilot episode ofYellowjacketsmasterfully set up the show’s dual timelines. In 1996, a girls’ soccer team’s plane crashes in the wilderness and the survivors have to fight to stay alive. In 2021, the girls who made it out of the wilderness are all grown up and trying to keep the dark secrets from their time in the woods.
The opening scenehooked viewers immediately by revealing what the darkest secret of all was: that, while they were stranded in the wilderness, they resorted to cannibalism. Some poor soul dubbed the “Pit Girl” was trapped and devoured.The mystery of the Pit Girl’s identitykeptYellowjacketsfans guessing for years. She was finally identified in the season 3 finale.
2Adolescence
Jamie Gets Arrested
In today’s saturated TV market, a new show has to grab viewers’ attention immediately or they’ll move on to something else. Very few shows have grabbed people’s attention quite as effectively as the opening scene ofAdolescence. Within a couple of minutes, police officers have broken down the door of a typical family home and arrested their teenage son on suspicion of murder.
This opening sequenceleaves you with countless questions. Did Jamie really kill someone? How could such an innocent-seeming kid commit murder? What happens next? You’re onboard with the rest of the series from the jump. It also immerses you in the real-time long-take shooting style thatmakesAdolescencefeel so hauntingly realistic.
1The Last Of Us
“What If, For Instance, The World Were To Get Slightly Warmer?”
For the most part, the first season ofThe Last of Uswas a faithful translation of the video game. But since the TV show wasn’t limited to one character’s perspective or burdened with the need to get into gameplay, Craig Mazin and Neil Druckmann took a few opportunities to expand the world and explore the early days of the Cordyceps outbreak.
They made full use of that freedom from the very first scene in the very first episode. The pilot opens with a Dick Cavett-style TV host interviewing epidemiologists in 1968. John Hannah’s chilling monologue about how the world getting warmer could allow an incurable fungal infection to enslave humanitycreated the perfect ominous atmosphere for the series to build on.
