When approaching TV retrospectively, one grows accustomed to being told that we have to stick with a series for a while in order to really let it find its footing. You can’t mention the likes of Parks & Recreation, The Office, or Star Trek: The Next Generation without fans assuring you that their first seasons will be the worst part of your re-watch, and that things start to immediately improve in Season 2 if you’ll just be patient. The common nature of this process—the fact that TV series often need to struggle before reaching their full potential—makes it all the more impressive when one truly arrives fully formed and producing some of its best episodes right out of the gate. The best TV debut seasons thus often reflect the presence of a creator or architect who knew exactly what they wanted a show to be from its earliest moments, finding immediate popular success and critical acclaim.
The 10 shows in this list exemplify that kind of immediate quality—in many cases, these shows never quite recaptured the magic they displayed in the debut season, although some (such as Bob’s Burgers) have remained beloved throughout. Together, though, this group includes some of the best TV debut seasons of all time.
Killing Eve
Killing Eve, AMC and BBC America’s cat-and-mouse spy series starring Sandra Oh and Jodie Comer, had an admittedly fraught life in its short, four-season run. Having just as many showrunners as seasons, Killing Eve’s subsequent outings struggled to live up to the masterful execution of the first season, which was helmed by Phoebe Waller-Bridge. The series follows Oh’s Eve, an MI5 agent bored with her run-of-the-mill life who gets caught up in a larger conspiracy surrounding an obsessive Russian assassin. Going by the codename Villanelle, Comer’s assassin is smart, witty, and completely unhinged, taunting Eve at every turn. The first outing is phenomenal, defined by a dark humor befitting Waller-Bridge’s works and fantastic performances by a chilling Comer and a powerful Oh. It’s a true shame that every season since featured more and more diminishing returns until the series ended with a whimper in its 2022 series finale. —Anna Govert
Bob’s Burgers
It’s relatively rare for animated series—especially ones that go on to become long-loved classics—to arrive “fully formed” as it were, in their debut seasons. This is true to some extent of Bob’s Burgers, but at the same time, it’s the idiosyncrasies of its first season that have gone on to make it arguably the show’s most beloved collection of episodes for longtime fans more than a decade later. The show was simply much more weird in this early era, with greater willingness to both push the boundaries of good taste and indulge in the more exaggerated silliness of the Belcher family. Some of these attributes, like Louise’s rampant sociopathy, probably couldn’t have held up unchecked over the course of another 13 seasons to come—you can understand why she ultimately needed to be toned down, or why Tina needed to be portrayed more as a functioning member of schoolyard society. But the joyful exuberance of these episodes and the barely-functional Belcher family make for many of the funniest misadventures that the characters would ever experience. Compared with most recent episodes, this era of Bob’s Burgers feels much more vibrant and lively. —Jim Vorel
Stranger Things
By the time Stranger Things comes to an end in 2025 (at the earliest), the series will have been on the air for 10 years with five seasons and less than 50 episodes to show for it. Each season of the hit Netflix original has attempted to outdo itself, upping the ante time and time again, to the point that, now, these kids (all of whom have grown up offscreen) are fighting inter-dimensional demons, sick serial killers, and twisted Russian communists all at the same time. But before all the flesh monsters and Russian prison escapes, Stranger Things’ first season remains an excellent ‘80s sci-fi series, grounded by a chilling horror and a beating heart underneath it all. The relationship between the kids in that first season is stellar, harkening to ‘80s classics and elevating its sci-fi mysteries through their shared connection alone as they hunt for their lost friend. Stranger Things may have strayed far off its original path in their efforts to become the biggest series on Netflix, but that first season will always be special. —Anna Govert
The Walking Dead
The Walking Dead is a show that experienced thrilling peaks and doldrum valleys repeatedly over the course of its interminable time on AMC, ultimately running for so long that even the TV geeks among us are likely to have forgotten just how fresh and vital it felt in its 2010 debut. Truly, the TV landscape hadn’t seen anything quite like the sober and harrowing depiction of the zombie apocalypse that director Frank Darabont brought to those early episodes—particularly the cinematic pilot, in which we (and the long-suffering Rick Grimes) are thrust into a nightmare of shambling corpses without the physical and mental tools needed to persevere in a rapidly depleted world. Things bogged down in the show’s second season during the momentum-draining encampment on Hershel’s farm, only to perk up again later, but here in Season 1, the sense of danger posed by the zombies is much more present and vital, as is the tension between Rick and former partner Shane, who seemingly has designs on stepping into Rick’s role of paterfamilias following his presumed death. There’s even a sense in these early episodes that we may be granted a window into the mystery behind the zombie outbreak itself, but this ultimately proves to be a heartbreaking misconception once the group reaches the Centers for Disease Control. Season 1 of The Walking Dead cements the inescapable doom of the setting, but also the conviction of the survivors to thrive as best they can in the face of a plague for which they know there will be no cure. —Jim Vorel
Supergirl
Before Supergirl would fly off to join its Arrowverse peers on The CW, its first season aired on CBS, with showrunner Ali Adler at the helm. After the move, the series would reach great heights in Season 4 especially, but nothing really compares to the magic of that first season. While Season 1 borrowed most of its stories from classic Superman comics rather than Supergirl’s own on-page history, the examination of Kara’s (Melissa Benoist) emotions and feelings as the last surviving member of her planet (who actually remembers what it was like to live on Krypton) was stellar, exposing the anger and rage buried underneath that charming smile and familiar emblem on her chest. When Kara is battling Red Tornado or yelling at the holographic projection of her deceased mother, it’s easy to become entranced by Benoist’s magnetic performance, the series’ heartfelt storytelling, and the human emotions that ground Supergirl’s outsized comic book fights and stakes. And that final speech Kara gives to all of National City to attempt to break their brainwashed state is truly Supergirl’s proudest moment. The series was never the same after the move to The CW, especially as a revolving door of showrunners would enter after Adler’s exit, but that first season is delightful comic book TV, and remains Supergirl’s best outing. —Anna Govert
The Good Place
The pilot of The Good Place really is a masterpiece, when it comes to thrusting the audience and our viewpoint character into a fantastical new reality, and hammering home all the ways it differs from our own. Eleanor Shellstrop is a perfect proxy for initially experiencing the sanitized cheer of “The Good Place,” precisely because she’s the kind of self-centered and somewhat mean-spirited person for whom the idea of a perfect bastion of good naturedness would hold little appeal as an afterlife, especially after the first few days. The first season teeters beautifully between her disdain for the wishy-washy pleasantness of the place, and her simultaneous fear of being discovered as an imposter there, and subjected to a much more traditional version of hell. Along the way, the mystery of The Good Place’s seemingly unstable foundations leads us to a better understanding of characters such as Michael and Janet, but the whole thing is upended with one of the best finales of all time, with a reveal that recharacterizes the entire season: This is actually The Bad Place after all. It’s such a spectacular evolution of the core premise that it prompts the viewer to immediately rewind and begin watching the season over again. —Jim Vorel
Westworld
Perhaps one of the most infamous cases of a series absolutely taking a nose-dive off a cliff after its stellar first season, Westworld’s first outing still remains a brilliantly plotted sci-fi triumph—no matter what the series morphed into by the end. Of all the shows on this list, Westworld might be the only one to have been canceled unexpectedly and without a proper final season, a testament to the misguided life this series led in the aftermath. Taking place within Westworld, a Wild West theme park populated by android “hosts,” the series follows Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), a host who becomes reprogrammed to seek out the “center of the maze.” What follows is a sci-fi Western tale that questions the nature of humanity, the burden and brilliance of technology, and what it means to truly belong to yourself. The final episode of the season is one of TV’s greatest outings, featuring plot twists and devastation as we all come to realize what was truly waiting for Dolores at the center of that maze. Too bad Westworld just kept spinning its wheels until it eventually spun out. —Anna Govert
Game of Thrones
Much has been made of the collapse of Game of Thrones in the end, and the dissatisfying conclusion that the last great Water Cooler Show gave to us, but for a long time, its decline was so slow and so gradual that many fans likely didn’t register it much. It’s only after going back to watch its first season that one is reminded of just how gripping, how sly, how captivating Game of Thrones was in the first place, back when it promised a world of untold mysteries and dire conspiracies that we were all ravenous to see play out. Its first season is remarkably grounded, earthy and rooted in human deviousness compared to the more bombastic and magical material we received later on, featuring deliciously layered character building and the clash of fundamentally opposed personalities. The dialogue and conversations are frequently exquisite, headlined by exchanges such as Robert Baratheon and Cersei dropping their veneers and having the first frank discussion of their marriage in 17 years. And oh, poor Ned Stark—the tragic, noble hero who was just too valorously naive to get wrapped up in the grand game for the kingship of Westeros. It is telling that his death managed to take so many by surprise, even though they were told it was coming: Audiences expected deus ex machina to spare a goodhearted protagonist, but GoT canonized the moment instead with its assertion that this would be a very different sort of show. —Jim Vorel
True Detective
Widely considered one of the greatest seasons of television of all time, True Detective’s first outing is spectacular. The series stars Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson as detectives Rust and Marty, whose paths cross in the hunt for a Louisiana serial killer that has remained at large for decades. Taking place between 1995 and 2012, the series chronicles the various unsolved murders that bring these two detectives together and the lengths they will each go to get this case closed. Defined by Cary Joji Fukunaga’s haunting visuals and impeccable direction alongside stellar performances from McConaughey and Harrelson with unshakable dialogue and storytelling courtesy of series creator Nic Pizzolatto, Season 1 of True Detective remains unfortunately unmatched by the subsequent seasons that have aired. Thankfully, the anthology format has largely allowed the first season to remain untouched by the missteps of Seasons 2 and 3, leaving its legacy intact despite a steep decline in quality. Season 4 will hit our screens in January, so there may still be time for True Detective to re-enter its glory days, but if not, at least we’ll always have Season 1. —Anna Govert
Dexter
Oftentimes, a mystery premise is at its most compelling when beginning fresh, before writers have had to come up with too many contrivances to keep things under wraps to keep a popular show going through multiple seasons. That was certainly the case on Showtime’s Dexter—although the first four seasons are well regarded, none of them hit quite like the groundbreaking profile of sociopathy and serial killers seen in Season 1. Dexter Morgan is just such a darkly alluring character to see at “work,” using his personal code of conduct to channel a classically evil compulsion into a quest that serves a utilitarian goal of “good.” That detachment from the brutality of his murders invites the audience to freely be titillated by the violence he employs, arguably nurturing our own destructive tendencies under the guise of rooting for the protagonist. The first season of Dexter is simply wrapped up in a neat little package, with a perfect villain who embodies the duality of the character’s nature, while illustrating how personal choice enters into the morbid moral equation. —Jim Vorel
Jim Vorel is Paste’s resident genre movie guru. You can follow him on Twitter for much more film and TV content.
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