Big Sky
The pre-premiere promos for David E. Kelley’s ABC crime thriller placed Ryan Phillippe (Shooter) squarely at the center of the action. So imagine our surprise when Phillippe’s Cody Hoyt wound up dead in the final moments of the series opener, courtesy of a point-blank bullet to the face from state cop-but-really-human trafficker Rick Legarski. The show that Big Sky actually turned out to be was a buddy-cop drama featuring Cody’s exes, two kickass private investigators (played by Kylie Bunbury and Katheryn Winnick) who kept Montana’s criminals on the run.
Monarch, LOL.
Over Mr. Robot LOL…
If you’re talking about Christian Slater’s character, that reveal came later in the Mr. Robot series – not in the pilot. If you’re talking about something else from the pilot, well, apologies, but I’m curious what…
I guess no one there is old enough to remember “The Associates.” The pilot revolved around which of two attorneys would be made partner in their law firm, and to everyone’s surprise (including ours), the far-less-qualified one was picked. Wilfred Hyde-White’s explanation of why he did so was a scene for the ages.
I’ll toss out Ascension from Syfy (or was it SciFi) as having a great plot twist in episode 1 … of the TV mini-series. (Well, it was a series on TV!) I know, I know… not the same. But a helluva twist!
I’m going to be that person…the one who still holds a grudge over the ending of “How I Met Your Mother.” The reveal in the pilot about “Aunt Robin” was such a good one. They had us invested in their meet cute and then they pulled the rug. As such, I was never invested in them as a couple because I knew she was the “Aunt.” Then they invested us in the mother and then, spoiler alert, they killed her. IMO…it ruined what was so great about the pilot. OK, technically, she is not the mother but she was still “the one” was weird.
So glad I’m not the only one still holding a grudge over HIMYM.
I’m still holding a grudge as well, the twist was a good idea but being so tied in to the idea of Ted and Robin as endgame was a huge mistake. The show evolved a lot over it’s years as the casts own traits and chemistry influenced the stories, and it was all then undone in 2 episodes to get to the endgame that had been decided years previously with no thought to what had to happen in between.
I feel the disgust building up again just reading this!
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Ditched my DVDs after the finale and have never watched an episode since. The ending made me that crazy.
The end of the pilot of THE SHIELD was absolutely shocking—easily the most jaw-dropping of any of them.
Wjy isn’t Orphan Black on the list? Or Nikita? Those two pilots were insane
I’m not sure if part two of a miniseries counts, but as it was all intended as a backdoor pilot, I’d throw in the shot of the Boomer Cylon at the end of the BSG mini. For a more traditional pilot, how about that it was Annalise’s husband’s dead body being burned in How To Get Away with Murder? Or Sarah seeing someone that looked like her jump on Orphan Black? Or Alias and Sydney learning about her father? Perhaps Harrison Wells walking into the secret room and looking at the newspaper clipping from the future on The Flash? And while the pilot twist of The Good Place doesn’t compare to the season finale twist, it still seemed like a bit of a twist for a character to admit she didn’t belong there. Or maybe Alex being Nikita’s inisde person on the CW take of the show? And not as big as some of the others, but the reveal Mabel has a connection to Tim on the pilot of Only Murders in the Building?
The thing about a lot of those examples is that they were part of the advertising of the show and weren’t remotely “surprises.” Orphan Black was advertised as a show about clones. The premise of The Good Place is that Eleanor was misplaced. Those are not “twists” that surprise the viewing audience.
So many people watch something these days based on a streaming recommendation, without having (recently) seen any advertising. Just look at the popularity of Suits. And someone a bit below mentions Found so even with recent stuff, people can miss the promos. It’s also not the fault of the writers/producers if the network advertises in a way they perhaps didn’t prefer.
I know Bunheads wasn’t a huge show but the twist at the end of the pilot really took me out.
More recently, realizing Gabi had Sir in her basement shocked me! FOUND did that well!
The pilot episode of Nurse Jackie ended in a similar way to Mad Men’s. After a long day of taking drugs and sleeping with the hospital’s pharmacist, she comes home to a loving husband and two daughters.
This article is hard to read… The advertisements constantly get in way! It took a lot of patience to read this article?
Ghostery is a wonderful ad blocker. For sites with loads of ads, I only read on my computer equipped with ad blockers. It helps.
Okay but the opening scene reveal of Julie Benz’s sweet, innocent young girl in a dark school being a malevolent vampire who kills her “boyfriend” in Buffy’s first episode was absolutely fantastic and set the tone for the entire show that the female characters were really strong and powerful. That was a killer twist.
Also, immediately killing off Jesse raised the stakes that anyone could die at any time. And paved the way for future series to take similar risks.
I was hoping someone would mention the Buffy pilot. Thank you!
It’s just a shame that Whedon couldn’t scrounge up the money to put Jesse’s actor in the opening credits of the first ep like he originally wanted. Now that would’ve *really* been a shocking twist.
battlestar galactica 2003 mini series but pilot
Bring back Big Sky! One of the biggest pilot twists in a series was on Fringe when Mark Valley got critically injured in that chemical explosion, as I was quite looking forward to seeing him in a new show after he was so good on Boston Legal.
Everwood! Everwood should be on this list. I still remember where I was when I watched it. Definitely one of the best pilots I’ve ever seen.