10 Greatest HBO Pilots That Are Perfect From Start to Finish

Published Oct 10, 2026, 8:34 PM EDT

Michael Block is a 14 time GLAM Award nominated writer, producer, and host of the podcast Block Talk. Throughout his time in the entertainment industry, he has worked on and off Broadway as a stage manager, written several produced plays, critiqued hundreds of theatrical performances, drag and cabaret shows, and has produced events randing from drag competitoons to variety concerts! 
On Block Talk, he interviews nightlife personalities, covers the wide world of entertainment through features, ranking episodes, and recaps ALL of Drag Race, as well as Dragula and Survivor. He has interviewed hundreds of RuGirls that span the globe at DragCon NYC, DragCon LA, and DragCon UK. 
In his free time, he makes one-of-a-kind jewelry and gift baskets with his mom. He is a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community. 

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Before the dawn of the streamers, HBO held down the fort as the premier destination for exceptional television. Churning out hit after hit, HBO has seemingly changed the face of television and the stories that could be told. With fewer constraints when it comes to network censors and regulations, the shows on HBO were daring and boundary-pushing. But before these shows could build upon their legacy, they needed to have a successful pilot. And let's just say, these series had near-perfect pilots.

Perhaps we were introduced to our central narrator, typing away at her computer, or sat in a therapy session with a mob boss. Maybe we were transported back in time to a world-changing moment or a remix of the past. And then, there were those shows that gave us a shocking plot twist, leaving us to anticipate the next episode a week away. Though there are certainly other entries that could be on this list, these HBO pilots were truly groundbreaking.

'Six Feet Under' (2001–2005)

Image via HBO

We love a good family drama, but there was nothing quite like Six Feet Under. Following the death of the Fisher family patriarch, Nate (Peter Krause) and his brother David (Michael C. Hall) inherit ownership of Fisher & Sons Funeral Home. Alongside their widowed mother, Ruth (Frances Conroy), and sister, Claire (Lauren Ambrose), Six Feet Under went beyond a conventional family drama, centering on a death that opens up the themes of the episode. But that pilot kicked it all off with a bang.

When it comes to throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the premiere, Six Feet Under did just so. This pilot had everything: A Christmas Eve death, a mother having a longstanding affair with a churchgoer, a closeted gay son, a crystal meth-experimenting daughter, and a specter repeatedly appearing to each member of the family. With the eldest son eager to head back home, Nate's delayed return allowed Six Feet Under to officially open for business. Six Feet Under's pilot had all the makings of shows from the era, but with that extra HBO boost, it became something unique.

'Watchmen' (2019)

Image via HBO

Lifting well-known characters from a beloved source material can be a massive risk, especially when said source material has been dramatized in the past. With superhero blockbusters dominating the 21st century, a DC comic from the '80s was given the green light to be remade. Again. Following Zack Snyder's 2009 Watchmen film, there was a desire to approach the world again, this time with Damon Lindelof at the helm. Rather than a sequel series without the involvement of creator Alan Moore, Lindleof took the inherent themes of the comic and "remixed" them into an entirely new story. Bringing a story about superheroes and white supremacy together in a daring narrative, HBO's Watchmen was the best companion series possible.

In the pilot, "It's Summer and We're Running Out of Ice," viewers are immediately thrust into Tulsa's Black Wall Street massacre in 1921. It's a horrifying retelling, but necessary to set the stage for the events of the first episode and the series as a whole. In the present, viewers are introduced to a host of new characters, including Tulsa Police Chief Judd Crawford (Don Johnson), Angela Abar/Sister Night (Regina King), and Wade Tilman/Looking Glass (Tim Blake Nelson), as they seek to identify the individuals behind the white supremacist militia, the Seventh Kavalry, who wear masks inspired by original character Rorschach. A good pilot should lead with intrigue, mystery, and shock. So, when viewers witness one of the lead characters being killed off before the final credits, it fulfills the promise of an exceptional pilot.

'Westworld' (2016–2022)

Image via HBO

Once upon a time, Westworld was solely a hypnotic dystopian science fiction Western drama based upon the 1973 Michael Crichton film of the same name. Set in a fictional, technologically advanced, Wild West-themed amusement park populated by android hosts, high-paying guests are afforded the opportunity to live out their wildest fantasies without fear of retaliation. Created by Jonathan Nolan and Lisa Joy, the pilot developed the realistic playground in which our characters would play in.

Paying homage to the Western genre through a subtle yet explosive blend of science fiction, the immersive world of Westworld painted a dark picture of the desires of humans who experience no repercussions. The pilot beautifully crafted a balance of our attempt to discover who is human and who is host. As we learn that the hosts are suddenly becoming aware of their world and may actually begin to inflict pain and hurt a living being, it sets off the unraveling of a world of mystery that kept viewers longing for answers. Boasting a brilliant cast that included Evan Rachel Wood as Dolores, Jeffrey Wright as Bernard, James Marsden as Teddy, Anthony Hopkins as Dr. Robert Ford, and Ed Harris as The Man in Black, the highly anticipated pilot lived up to the hype.

'Deadwood' (2004–2006)

Image via HBO

It might be difficult to imagine a time when Westerns experienced a media lull. Today, thanks to hits like Yellowstone and the entire Taylor Sheridan catalog of projects, viewers love stepping back into a time when cowboys ruled supreme. Instead of riding into the sunset, the Western revolution of the 21st century truly began in 2004 thanks to Deadwood. The period piece became the launch pad for so many future historical dramas to come.

Created by David Milch, Deadwood dropped viewers into the lawless frontier of the titular town in the Dakota Territory. Seth Bullock (Timothy Olyphant) and Sol Star (John Hawkes) are seeking to achieve the American dream, but nothing comes easy with rent due to the dastardly proprietor of the Gem Saloon, Al Swearington (Ian McShane). The pilot not only sets the tone of the dusty world where law and order become a blurred line. Those longing to see gunslingers against a Wild Wild West backdrop were quite pleased to stick around for three seasons and a 2019 film.

Collider Exclusive · 8 Questions · 2 Minutes Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To? Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Tyrell

Your drink, your weapon, your seat at the table, what you do to somebody who wrongs you. Eight quick calls and we will tell you whose banner you should actually be standing under. Four houses are still in this: the cold one, the rich one, the one with the dragons, and the one that has never needed a sword to get its way.

🐺Stark(Game of Thrones)

🦁Lannister(Game of Thrones)

🐉Targaryen(House of the Dragon)

🌹Tyrell(Game of Thrones)

CLAIM YOUR HOUSE →

01

What is your go-to at the feast? Everybody has one, and everybody's says something.

ADark ale by the fire, nothing fancy. BWhatever costs the most in the cellar. CWhatever gets poured, drunk far too fast. DOne cup, slowly, while I watch the room.

NEXT QUESTION →

02

Pick a weapon off the wall. You get one. Choose quickly.

AA greatsword, heavy and honest. BA dagger, plus a second one nobody knows about. CFire, obviously. DNothing sharper than the things I can say.

NEXT QUESTION →

03

Where do you end up sitting? The seating plan is the politics.

AHigh table, quietly wishing I was outside. BNext to whoever actually matters. CWherever I like, because people move. DA corner seat with a view of everyone.

NEXT QUESTION →

04

What do people get wrong about you? Reputation arrives about a week before you do.

AThat I am cold, when I am only quiet. BThat I say what I mean the first time. CThat I might be bluffing. DThat I am harmless.

NEXT QUESTION →

05

One free evening in King's Landing. Where do you go? Nobody plots every single night.

AOut of the city entirely, heading home. BSomewhere expensive, with people who owe me. CWherever it is loud and slightly dangerous. DA long dinner where everybody talks too much.

NEXT QUESTION →

06

Somebody wrongs you. What happens next? This is the real personality test in Westeros.

AI say it to their face, once. BI wait, because they will need me eventually. CEverybody hears about it before morning. DThey never find out it was me.

NEXT QUESTION →

07

Your people are in trouble. What is your first move? No time to think about this one.

AI turn up, even when it is a terrible idea. BI pay for the problem to go away. CI go after whoever caused it. DI already called in that favour last week.

NEXT QUESTION →

08

Be honest. What do you actually want? Eight questions in, this is the one that decides your house.

ATo go home, and then to stay there. BTo own the room without sitting at the head of it. CThe crown, with everybody watching. DTo be the one everybody genuinely likes.

REVEAL MY HOUSE →

The Banner Is Raised Your House Is…

Four houses, four completely different theories about how you survive a world like this one. Here is where your banner belongs, what the name would cost you, and what it would buy.

House Stark

You belong in the North, where the weather does most of the arguing and nobody is impressed by a title. The Starks are the only great house on this list who genuinely believe that being right matters more than winning, which is exactly why the show spent eight years punishing them for it.

• Your loyalty runs to people rather than to crowns, and you would rather lose a war honestly than win one by doing something you would have to hide.
• The Stark tragedy is a simple one, since a family raised to keep its word ended up surrounded by people who treat a promise as an opening bid.
• You are the one who thinks about the winter while everybody else is still enjoying the summer, and the realm never thanks anybody for that.
• What saves the Starks in the end is not swords. It is the fact that the children grew up and became four completely different kinds of dangerous.

House Lannister

You belong to the house that worked out early on that gold moves faster than armies. Casterly Rock runs on leverage, reputation and the certainty that everybody at the table owes you something, and you are perfectly comfortable with all three.

• You play a longer game than the people around you, and you would rather own the outcome quietly than be seen winning in public.
• Family is the thing you would burn the realm for, which is both the best and the very worst quality this house has.
• Tyrion, Jaime and Cersei are three of the most compelling characters on television precisely because they were raised with everything except the ability to be simple about it.
• You are not the villain of your own story. You are simply the one who read the rules properly and decided to use them.

House Targaryen

You belong to the house that conquered a continent and never quite got over it. Targaryens do not ask for a seat at the table, because in their version of events the table was theirs to begin with, and that certainty is either magnificent or catastrophic depending on the week.

• You feel things at full volume, and nobody who has ever met a Targaryen has described one as measured.
• House of the Dragon made the family far more interesting than the original show could, because here the enemy is not some other house. It is the rest of the bloodline.
• Season 3 landed on HBO in June 2026 and pushed the civil war into the part everybody who read the book has been dreading for years.
• Your great strength and your great problem are the same thing, which is that you genuinely believe the story was always going to end with you.

House Tyrell

You belong to Highgarden, where nobody raises their voice and everybody gets exactly what they came for. The Tyrells feed the realm, charm the realm and quietly steer the realm, and they have never once needed to win a battle to get their way.

• You understand that being liked is a weapon, and you are genuinely better at it than the people who spend their lives trying to be feared.
• Olenna is the most quietly ruthless character in the entire series, and she does all of it from a chair with a bowl of fruit in front of her.
• Your house wins by being useful, since a kingdom that cannot eat without you will forgive you almost anything.
• The risk of being a Tyrell is simple enough. Charm works beautifully on everybody except the one person who has stopped caring what anyone thinks.

↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ

'Sex and the City' (1998–2004)

Image via HBO

Not since The Golden Girls has there been such an iconic quartet of girlfriends. Based on the column by Candace Bushnell, Sex and the City followed the lives of four friends in New York City. Addressing topics ranging from sex, relationships, friendship, and femininity, Sex and the City will always be considered an influential pop culture titan.

In the pilot, viewers are introduced to streetwise writer Carrie Bradshaw (Sarah Jessica Parker), the sexually free and liberated Samantha Jones (Kim Cattrall), the conservative and meek Charlotte York (Kristin Davis), and cynical lawyer Miranda Hobbes (Cynthia Nixon). At Miranda's birthday, the friends vow to change their ways when it comes to sex, only for Carrie to begin the infamous on-again, off-again relationship with Mr. Big (Chris Noth). The pilot is remembered for the impact Sex and the City had. Yes, the tone of the series did shift as the show progressed; it established the narration device through Carrie while offering a glimpse into the quintessential New York life of a woman that many viewers wished they could experience.

'Chernobyl' (2019)

Image via HBO

"What is the cost of lies?" the pilot episode poses. Historical dramas are a beloved genre, as they provide viewers with a dramatization of a time they may not have experienced or fully understood. But it can be quite hard to watch it unfold, especially when it's crafted to be so historically accurate. One may think that one of the world's greatest disasters may not be ripe for dramatization, but HBO crafted something exceptional. Chernobyl depicts the terrifying 1986 Chernobyl disaster and its immediate fallout through gripping storytelling and exceptional performances. Thanks to Johan Renck's skillful direction and Craig Mazin's captivating writing, the horrors of Chernobyl were brought to life in a respectful yet entertaining manner.

The first episode, titled "1:23:45," is named after the time of Soviet chemist Valery Legasov's (Jared Harris) suicide in 1988. It jumps back in time to the fateful night in Pripyat, Ukraine, when the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded. Although the majority of the limited series unfolds like a political drama, the pilot was something different. It was a horrific thriller that captured the devastation from ground zero and through the havoc it spawned miles away. The tension the premiere brought may have been difficult to stomach, but to truly go on the journey during the rest of the series, it was necessary to get the hard part out of the way off the bat.

'The Leftovers' (2014–2017)

Image via HBO

The thought of being left behind can be a daunting feeling. Now, imagine that as the prime story for a hit television series. Before the blip in Avengers: Infinity War became the most universal story about a population mysteriously disappearing, there was The Leftovers. Inspired by Tom Perrotta's novel of the same name, the series dials into the years after the "Sudden Departure," a global event that resulted in 2% of the world's population disappearing. With Damon Lindelof at the show's head, The Leftovers became a Lost-like mystery thriller that viewers kept anxiously awaiting answers.

By starting the series years removed from the aftermath, The Leftovers truly grapples with what it means to move on. It shows a community where a cult, known as the Guilty Remnant, rises and clashes with those who still hold onto faith and those who are just trying to keep their head afloat. With a miraculous ensemble cast including Justin Theroux as police chief Kevin Garvey, Ann Dowd as Guilt Remnant leader Patti, and Carrie Coon as Nora Dunn, a mother who lost her entire family, The Leftovers' ability to intertwine a uniting story through various perspectives while weaving in some science fiction elements makes the pilot a riveting watch. The scene of the chainsmoking, white-clad wearing Guilty Remant holding signs that read "Stop Wasting Your Breath" is a moment that will be ingrained in our minds as something deeply haunting, yet eerily close to home.

'The Newsroom' (2012–2014)

Image via HBO

If ever there was a series that we wish could get a revival today, it absolutely is The Newsroom. We can only imagine the exceptional storytelling and commentary Aaron Sorkin could whip up about the current state of the world and news media as a whole. That dream all started with the exceptional pilot episode of the groundbreaking series starring Jeff Daniels. Known for his infamous walk-and-talk scenes, the writer, best known for The West Wing, brought his whip-smart dialogue and well-crafted characters into the world of news media.

News anchor Will McAvoy (Daniels) participates in a panel, delivering a controversial speech about the nation's decline that creates a viral moment. Taking a brief step away from the mess, he returns to News Night to learn that his team is leaving for different opportunities as his boss, Charlie Skinner (Sam Waterston), has hired a new executive producer who just so happens to be his ex-girlfriend, Mackenzie MacHale (Emily Mortimer). As the newsroom learns about an explosion off the Gulf of Mexico, the pilot brings the action into real time as the team works to bring the report to air. Between the exceptional pacing and depth of engaging characters, Sorkin established a world we couldn't wait to return to each week.

'Game of Thrones' (2011–2019)

Sometimes we have a desire to sense that feeling of experiencing something again for the very first time. Many Game of Thrones fans would love to go back in time and relive the moment they watched the launch of a global phenomenon unfold before their eyes. The pilot episode, "Winter Is Coming," brought viewers to George R. R. Martin's Westeros in impeccable fashion. Lifted from A Song of Ice and Fire, the pilot episode truly rocked television. Little did we know that this ensemble cast would become international superstars.

Introducing viewers to the political world of Westeros and the various houses that make up King's Landing, Winterfell, and beyond, the pilot follows the Stark family and Ned Stark (Sean Bean) as he is chosen to become the next Hand of the King. With the threat of White Walkers lurking beyond the wall and Viserys Targaryen (Harry Lloyd) brokering a marriage between his sister Daenerys (Emilia Clarke) and Dothraki warlord Khal Drago (Jason Momoa), the subplots are slowly set up. But it's the primary story centering around the Starks and Lannisters that will forever be remembered.

With Catelyn Stark (Michelle Fairley) learning that there may be suspicion behind the death of King Robert Baratheon's (Mark Addy) hand, viewers are immediately aware that this family will be the central villains. And it all comes to fruition when Bran Stark (Isaac Hempstead Wright) climbs up the tower to discover twin siblings Queen Cersei Lannister (Lena Headey) and Jaime Lannister (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) having an incestuous and extramarital affair. So, in order to keep it a secret, Jaime shoves Bran out of the window, and Game of Thrones becomes one of the greatest shows of all time.

'The Sopranos' (1999–2007)

Image via HBO

There have been countless mafia and gangster movies that have had a cultural impact; The Godfather trilogy and Goodfellas to name a few. Breaking the mold and presenting a new perspective on the genre may seem challenging, but then HBO aired The Sopranos, and everything changed. The series followed New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini) and his ability to balance his family life with his criminal life. But how does he do so? A framing device that truly made the pilot episode break the mold.

Viewers expected The Sopranos to be a typical gangster show with the typical stereotypes. But when the lead character reveals he suffers from panic attacks and thus begins seeing a psychiatrist, portrayed by Lorraine Bracco, the pilot exploded into something worthwhile. Tony tried to lie and minimize his role as a mob boss, opting to be a waste management consultant instead. He was uncomfortable, something many feel in therapy. He was an accessible character despite being such an intricately distant individual. As the series went on, it solidified its place as one of the greatest series of all time, but it was the original premise that made it one of the most fascinating pilots of all time.

The Sopranos

New Jersey mob boss Tony Soprano deals with personal and professional issues in his home and business life that affect his mental state, leading him to seek professional psychiatric counseling.