Top 10 SHOCKING TV Series Openings

Amazon’s take on the “Fallout” franchise finds the ideal first scene in the fourth game. “Fallout 4” finally dramatizes the outbreak of nuclear war in a suburban setting. The episode “The End” recreates that from the perspective of Cooper Howard, a washed-up movie cowboy working a birthday party with his daughter. Just after he explains how his signature thumbs-up is used to measure the distance of a nuclear blast, atomic bombs rain down on L.A. The Howards ride off on horseback as pandemonium ensues. This natural kick-off establishes the post-apocalypse drama’s unique balance of spectacle and characterization. When Cooper is next seen as a mutant gunslinger two centuries later, even fans of the game are emotionally invested in the original character.

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” would become a triumph of medieval-style drama and high-fantasy. How best could you set up an epic this sophisticated? …With zombies, of course! “Winter Is Coming” fades in on three rangers of the Night’s Watch scouting a frozen forest. After discovering a formation of corpses, they are gruesomely attacked by undead horrors known as White Walkers. As the show proceeds to be mostly political, it was wise to demonstrate its fantasy element straight away. Doing so like this, however, asserts that even that genre will be steeped in grit and gore. With no place for whimsy in Westeros, “Game of Thrones”’s terrifying hook promises a new, gripping breed of fantasy epic.

The drama in HBO’s “The Leftovers” is built around a crisis of absence. The pilot episode immediately conveys the horror of “The Departure” with minor characters. A woman is running stressful errands with her baby, when his crying suddenly stops. The mother breaks into a panic as she realizes that her child and several people around her have vanished. The screen then cuts to black in a cacophony of 911 reports of people going missing. This sequence nails how quickly everyday burdens become meaningless amidst a tragedy, especially a large-scale one. As the story picks up three years later, audiences are eager to learn how society has been affected by 2% of the world’s population inexplicably disappearing.

Aaron Sorkin’s tight writing deftly introduced a whole Presidential cabinet to launch “The West Wing”. HBO’s “The Newsroom” is established with just one lead, but “We Just Decided To” makes an impression. Moderate conservative news anchor Will McAvoy is visibly unsettled by nationalist sentiments during a journalism school panel. When asked what makes the United States the greatest country in the world, he rants about figures suggesting the decline of American culture. A sweeping speech about the country's former and potential greatness rounds out this explosive showcase of Sorkin's masterful scripting and political aptitude. The monologue that would restructure McAvoy’s network may not be what people want to hear, but it asserts “The Newsroom” as the patriotic journalism they need.

Paramount Network’s “Yellowstone” is so gritty that even animal lovers are hit from the very first scene. “Daybreak” opens on the lush Montana sky and a bloodied John Dutton comforting a horse. It's then revealed that the poor creature was mutilated in a carrier collision with a semi-truck transporting construction equipment. John shoots the horse, then surveys the scene to find the truck driver dead. This disturbing hook sets the tone for a Western that's frank about the grace and the horror of the cowboy lifestyle. It may even symbolize “Yellowstone”’s central drama of the Duttons clashing with modern industrialists. If the Old West is doomed by progress, there’s sure to be carnage on both sides.

Netflix’s “Mindhunter” is a mostly cerebral psychological thriller. As talky as it tends to be, FBI agent Holden Ford is introduced witnessing the tragedy of improper procedure. The hostage negotiator struggles to reach a deranged bank robber who has taken a hostage at shotgun point. When bringing in the man’s wife fails, he turns the gun on himself. The extremely graphic visual tells audiences that there will be no punches pulled in “Mindhunter”’s dramatization of real-life killers. More importantly, it affirms the delicate process of managing a dangerous person in a psychologically sensitive state. The incident motivates Ford to refine the FBI’s criminal profiling methods, and the audience to recognize the urgency of his mission.

It's Christmastime at Fisher & Sons Funeral Home, and Nathaniel Fisher is taking the new hearse out for a spin. “Six Feet Under”’s pilot episode wastes no time in establishing the morbid family dynamic that will drive its humor. Then comes a hint at its uncompromising drama. While Nathaniel reaches down for a cigarette, a bus smashes into the hearse. Hey, his wife did say smoking would be the death of him. HBO’s “Six Feet Under” suggests a protagonist and then kills him off within a few minutes, affirming the randomness of life and death that will become a key theme across five seasons. Granted, family tragedy is a natural device to have the visiting Nate Jr. take over the family business.

Before HBO’s “Watchmen” picks up where the original comic left off, the miniseries opens in Tulsa in 1921. A Black child is enjoying a silent film about U.S. Marshal Bass Reeves, when his father storms in to retrieve him. The family is on the run from the Black Wall Street massacre, one of the most violent race riots in American history. By 2019, both this incident and Reeves were relatively obscure pieces of that history. “It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice” didn’t just immediately showcase “Watchmen”’s awesome production values, while motivating the racial tension at the drama’s core. It boldly provided a mainstream platform for a national tragedy. Who says superhero properties aren’t culturally valuable?

There's much to explain regarding how a high school chemistry teacher became a master meth manufacturer. Instead, the pilot episode of AMC’s “Breaking Bad” begins in total disaster after Walter White’s first drug deal. He’s introduced wearing his underwear and a gas mask, plowing an RV through the New Mexico desert. After crashing, he puts on a shirt, records a video testimonial for his family, and awaits police with an unconscious man’s gun. It's surely a more interesting way to open the show than Walt having a midlife crisis three weeks earlier. Ambiguous, intense flashforwards would be a hallmark of “Breaking Bad”’s cold episode openings. But as particularly disorienting as the first one is, it grippingly foreshadows Walt’s self-destructive criminal arc.

Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions.

“House of Cards” (2013-18)
Ambitious Politician Frank Underwood’s Brutal Pragmatism Is Established

“Fringe” (2008-13)
A Stormy Plane Flight Gets More Turbulent When a Toxin Deforms a Passenger’s Flesh

“The Resident” (2018-23)
Dr. Bell Pulls His Surgical Team into a Cover-Up after Hand Tremors Cost a Patient His Life

“Under the Dome” (2013-15)
It's a Quiet Day in Chester’s Mill, Between a Burial in the Woods & an Invisible Dome Crashing

“Orphan Black” (2013-17)
Sarah Manning’s Metaphysical Crisis Begins with Her Doppelgänger & a Train

All of the psychological drama and supernatural twists of ABC’s “Lost” go back to one very real horror. A scuffed-up Jack Shephard wakes up in a beautiful field, confused by his whereabouts and distant sounds. The quietness is suddenly broken by him running to a beach, where a medium shot follows him and other traumatized passengers stumbling around the wreckage of Oceanic Flight 815. Audiences go into “Lost” at least knowing the characters’ initial situation. But its prompt presentation shows a mastery of suspense rarely seen on broadcast TV. Flashbacks will later explain the first and most obvious mystery of the series. Still, the aftermath of Flight 815’s crash remains one of the most immediately gripping hooks in TV history.

Which TV shows hooked you from the very first scene? Make an impression in the comments.