Right First Time

In the world of serial television, sometimes a series takes a while to find its feet and sometimes it comes roaring out of the gate full pelt. Sometimes the ones that don’t hit it right first time can grow into something interesting or even great. Sometimes those that seemed so full of promise spectacularly fail to ultimately live up to that potential. Here are some series that had a great first episode - whether or not they continued to have great ones is up to you….

Quantum Leap
When viewed with the hindsight of knowledge of the rest of the series which is certainly enjoyable but for the most part relatively straightforward, it’s surprising how mysterious and eerie this first episode is. From an opening sequence where it’s clear that someone called sam is doing something that he shouldn’t*, we’re thrown into a situation where this “Sam” doesn’t look like himself, has everyone around him telling him he’s someone else and is being followed by an odd little man that only he can see and hear. It’s a great way to open the series and very few moments in the rest of the series (barring the last episode and one or two others) manage to capture that sense of you not knowing what’s going on as much as Sam.

Twin Peaks
What viewers probably don’t appreciate nowadays is just how different this looked to the rest of television at the time. We take for granted now that TV can be just as cinematic as something that you see on the big screen but this was really the first time that a recognised film director (David Lynch) had brought that cinematic sensibility to the small screen in a way that became a genuine pop culture phenomenon. Personally, I love the whole thing including the new series that aired the year before last but your enjoyment of the series probably depends on your willingness to be swept up in the weirdness.

Lost
It’s arguable that without the cinematic impact Twin Peaks (alongside the serial storytelling of Babylon 5), you wouldn’t have got something like Lost. At the time, this was one of the most expensive pilots ever made and it shows. Whatever your views on the series as a whole (and mine are decidedly mixed), there’s no denying that this was a pilot that made a big impact and, as pilots go, it’s a cracking piece of television.

The X Files
Another series that, to my mind, ultimately didn't fully deliver on that initial promise by largely going on for too long. The pilot however is very much a blueprint for what was to come with the overall, design, look and feel, interaction between Scully and Mulder, the iconic theme tune (which actually charted in the UK) and the alien/government conspiracy angle all in place from the beginning. Another series that became a bona fide pop culture phenomenon before fading back into something for the die-hard fans (as often happens with pop culture phenomena).

That’s just a few examples for you - feel free to come up with you own to add to this list! (Hey, it might just be a static page but that doesn’t mean that I can't encourage some interactivity…)

* And ignoring the vision of 1999 that involves everything from earrings and shoes to cars being covered in lost in flashing lights...