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After Aziz Ansari‘s Dev “treats” his one-night squeeze to the morning after pill, Master of None cuts to its 1970’s-style opening credits. While the theme music changes from episode to episode of Ansari’s new Netflix Original comedy, the Woody Allen-inspired credits remain the same. They aren’t particularly flashy and don’t necessarily beg for your attention, but they are stylish and certainly different from other openers on the tube (or, for that matter, the streaming ether).
Opening credits may be an afterthought when creating a series. They’re often be imperative, however, to a series’ overall tone (remember Six Feet Under‘s intro?). They can also introduce us to a key theme guiding the show’s narrative (like Dexter), or even tell us what the series is all about without having to see a single episode (ahem, The Fresh Prince of Bel Air). But those classics have had their day and today there are some brand new awesome, chilling, unnerving, and stunning opening credit sequences — in addition to Master of None — that deserve your undivided attention. Here are the ten coolest opening credit sequences right now (and a few runners up) ranked by how intriguing they are.
RUNNERS UP:
Silicon Valley on HBO
Mike Judge’s tech boom comedy is equal parts satire and kick ass music; beginning with it’s theme.
From Dusk Till Dawn on El Rey Network
It’s tough not to binge this delightfully campy romp, especially with a stark, sexy opener like that.
The Leftovers (Season Two) on HBO
After ditching the biblical weirdness of Season One, Damon Lindelof changed things up for the better.
Manhattan on WGN
Stop-motion animation can be so darn unsettling sometimes.
Bloodline on Netflix
A Florida storm set to Book of Fears’ “The Water Lets You In,” sets a sinister tone from start to finish.
'Last Week Tonight With John Oliver' (2014 —)
Look no further than Last Week Tonight for the wittiest, most detail-oriented opening titles available to watch. Oliver’s team uses simple, still images with a satirical faux-Latin caption to get their critical message across before the show even begins. So a card featuring a hamburger, for example, is cleverly named “Breakfastus” and the Statue of Liberty is “Frenchium Garbagum.” For a super fun deep dive, take a look at our gallery that features the selected topical slide from each episode.
[Stream Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on HBO Now, HBO Go, and Sling TV]
'Flesh and Bone' (2015 —)
New on Starz is Moira Walley-Beckett’s (Breaking Bad) ballet drama, Flesh and Bone. Despite the fact that it’s in its infancy, the series has already let us know we’re in for a treat with a mysterious and intense opener you wouldn’t expect from a show featuring tutus and tiaras.
'Game of Thrones' (2011 —)
OK, so it’s been settled long ago that Game of Thrones‘ intricate opening credits are nothing short of fantastic. Their subtlety, however, often goes unnoticed. Though the credits to each episode may look, feel, and sound the same; the series adjusts its opener from episode to episode to follow where the story is in that particular chapter. For example, if an episode is set primarily in Dorne, King’s Landing, or Winterfell, those areas of Westeros will be the main focus of the titles.
[Stream Game of Thrones on HBO Now, HBO Go, Amazon Video, and Sling TV]
'American Horror Story' (2011 —)
When Ryan Murphy’s American Horror Story stormed into primetime and scared the bejeezus out of us all, it introduced audiences to two things: the anthology ensemble and the anthology theme. Though the opening credits vary from season to season, they all share the same spine-tingling theme and similar twisted visuals that are unlike anything you’ve seen (or want to see) on TV.
'Halt and Catch Fire' (2013 —)
AMC’s period drama chronicling the birth of the personal computer features early digital technology in a lifelike manner in its opening sequence. Thanks to the show’s expert title design and creative direction from Patrick Clair (the same mind behind True Detective‘s sequence), microchips and binaries never looked so intimidating.
'The Affair' (2014 —)
It’s worth arguing that no current TV opener captures its show’s theme quite like The Affair‘s. There’s plenty to love (and rage over) about Showtime’s Golden Globe-winning romantic mystery, but the credits are certainly nothing to glance over. Oceans, butts (yes, butts!), and Fiona Apple fill your screen and reel you in for the next hour.
[Stream The Affair on Showtime Anytime and Hulu]
'The Americans' (2013 —)
Composer Nathan Barr is responsible for the jarring, yet captivating opening theme of FX’s criminally underrated The Americans. Barr, who has also composed for HBO’s True Blood and — believe it or not — Amazon’s children’s hit Tumble Leaf; masterfully matched a paranoid score with intense, haphazard graphics to induce a tone of paranoia to pair with that of the Cold War.
'Transparent' (2014 —)
Jill Soloway‘s deeply moving melodramedy kicks off each half-hour episode with a piano medley accompanying a home video — making for a super emotional intro. In an July 2015 interview with Entertainment Weekly, Emmy-winning composer Dustin O’Halloran revealed that he worked with Soloway to create a theme “that makes everybody feel safe.”
[Stream Transparent on Prime Video]
'True Detective' (2014 —)
Despite your opinion of the polarizing crime series, HBO showrunners managed to snag some incredible title designers for Nic Pizzolatto‘s smash hit anthology drama. Patrick Clair was creative director of the Emmy-winning title team and not only designed the aforementioned opener for AMC’s Halt and Catch Fire, but also is behind the chilling credits for Amazon’s upcoming alt-history drama, The Man in the High Castle. Clair paired brooding vocals by T Bone Burnett with starkly contrasted visual to give True Detective‘s credits their melodramatic wonder. Here’s the Season One opener if you feel like reminiscing when the series was actually enjoyable.
'Narcos' (2015 —)
We dove deep into Narcos‘ provocative opener (and even translated the lyrics!) and decided, even after bingeing all ten episodes, that we could watch them over and over again. The use of mixed media is key here: newspaper clippings plus archived photos and video footage with a dusty cocaine overlay make it difficult not to feel utterly enthralled by the world of Pablo Escobar.
