21 of the Best First Episodes of All Time

They say you can’t judge a book by its cover, but nobody reads books anymore, so we’d like to propose an updated idiom: Don’t judge a series by its first episode. There’s just so many ways it can go wrong. The actors are still developing their characters and chemistry with each other, the writers are still feeling out the right tone and pace, the network is still figuring out which time slot will kill it, etc. These things take a while to come together sometimes.

That’s why it’s all the more satisfying when they knock it out of the park on the first try. There’s something to be said for a slow burn, but isn’t it nice not to have to tell your friends, “Stick with it, it gets good after episode four, I promise”? Maybe that’s something user snuskbusken has heard one too many times, because they asked r/AskReddit, “Which TV show has the strongest first episode?” and Reddit brought all kinds of greatness out of the gate.