12 Greatest Opening Lines In TV Shows

But some of the best writers in the business, from Vince Gilligan to Matt Groening, have managed to kick off their series with a great line from the get-go. From Friends to Game of Thrones to the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, these classic TV shows kicked off with the perfect opening line.

12 Game Of Thrones

"What do you expect? They're savages."

David Benioff and D.B. Weiss kicked off the epic saga of Game of Thrones — and introduced HBO viewers to George R.R. Martin's cruel medieval fantasy world — by taking us beyond the Wall and having Ser Waymar Royce react to the sight of a wildling massacre with a brazen nonchalance.

The great thing about this line is that it could just as easily apply to any of the monstrous things that any of the characters will do over the next eight seasons. Jaime would push Bran out of a window, Ramsay would torture Theon to his breaking point, and Stannis would burn his own daughter at the stake, but what do you expect? They're savages.

11 Friends

"There's nothing to tell. It's just some guy I work with."

The pilot episode of Friends dropped in on the characters mid-conversation and planted us in our first of many hangs at Central Perk. That opening line established the hangout quality that would make Friends such a generational success.

Monica's follow-up to an unspoken question gives us just enough context to understand what this group is talking about — a guy Monica is dating — from a single line. It's a prime example of the brisk, economic ensemble writing that would allow Friends to give all six of its main characters plenty of chances to shine.

10 The Sopranos

"Lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end."

The opening scene of The Sopranos made it clear that this wouldn't be a conventional mafia drama. This gangster is in therapy; he's going through a midlife crisis, and confiding his anxieties in a professional psychiatrist. In his first session with Dr. Melfi, Tony confesses that he feels like he missed the golden age of This Thing of Ours: "It's good to be in something from the ground floor. And I came too late for that, I know. But lately, I'm getting the feeling that I came in at the end. The best is over."

This line instantly introduced us to the sensitivity of James Gandolfini's performance. Gandolfini brought an uncharacteristic vulnerability and openness to this stoic mob boss from the jump.

9 Fleabag

"You know that feeling when a guy you like sends you a text..."

Fleabag's opening monologue is an anxious spiral about what happens when your crush texts you in the middle of the night. At first, it seems great, but then you have to frantically prepare for their arrival.

"You've accidentally made it out like you've just got in yourself," she says, "so you have to get out of bed, drink half a bottle of wine, get in the shower, shave everything, dig out some Agent Provocateur business, suspender belt the whole bit, and wait by the door 'til the buzzer goes?" This monologue set up the show's exploration of the foibles of modern dating.

8 Battlestar Galactica

"Are you alive?" "Yes." "Prove it."

The opening dialogue exchange in Battlestar Galactica set up the entire thesis of the show. Humans don't consider Cylons to be alive, because they're machines, but they've evolved to the point that they're indistinguishable from human beings. So, if you consider human beings alive, you have to consider Cylons alive, or vice versa.

These first lines established the central philosophy of Ronald D. Moore's much deeper, more complex 2004 reimagining of the 1978 Star Wars knockoff. You can both prove and disprove whether a human or a Cylon should be considered truly alive.

7 Dexter

"Tonight's the night..."

The opening scene of Dexter did a brilliant job of misleading its audience. As Dexter Morgan prepares to dole out his latest meticulously crafted murder, it's unclear if we're watching the hero or the villain of the piece.

As it turns out, we're kind of watching both. Dexter is a sociopathic serial killer, but he only targets other serial killers, so it's arguably a net positive. This was a perfect introduction to such a complicated, contradictory character.

6 Futurama

"Space, it seems to go on and on forever... but then you get to the end and the gorilla starts throwing barrels at you."

Futurama opened its pilot episode with a great rug-pull. Initially, it seems like we're in the future already, going full sci-fi from the get-go, but it turns out Fry is playing an arcade game in the present day. To quote a different lovable idiot created by Matt Groening, this isn't the future; it's the lousy, stinking now.

This opening gag established the genre mashup that made Futurama so much fun. It sets up the intrigue of thoughtful hard sci-fi, then deflates it with the absurdity of cartoon comedy.

5 Severance

"Who are you?"

Severance throws us in at the deep end in its opening scene. The series begins with Helly R. waking up on a conference table in the soulless, windowless, Backrooms-esque offices of Lumon Industries. She has total amnesia; no idea how she got there, or even who she is. So, she's not sure how to answer when an off-camera voice asks her, "Who are you?"

It's a very apt question for the entire series. This whole dystopian saga is all about identity, and in the season 1 finale, we would find out just who Helly really is.

4 Breaking Bad

"Oh my God, Christ! S***. Oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, oh my God, think, think, think."

The cold open of Breaking Bad's pilot episode also threw us right in at the deep end. We met Walter White in media res, racing through the desert in an RV full of half-baked meth and dead drug dealers, scrambling to load a handgun in time to defend himself from the incoming police convoy.

This flash-forward was a great storytelling trick to foreshadow dark events to come (something Breaking Bad would continue to do right up to the end). When the pilot went back to show us Walt's boring everyday life as a chemistry teacher, we were hooked, because we couldn't wait to see how point A would connect to point B.

3 The Twilight Zone

"There is a fifth dimension beyond that which is known to man..."

Rod Serling's opening narrations never failed to hook the audience. At the beginning of each Twilight Zone episode, Serling transports us to the disturbing dimension named in the title, and sets the scene for the story we're about to see.

The Twilight Zone's first episode, "Where is Everybody?," remains one of its very best. It's an intriguing, unsettling tale of the unknown, building to a shocking twist that recontextualizes the whole thing.