Take Us to the Pilot

Our time served in the prison genre ends early thanks to a favor from the Mayor of Kingstown.

Our tour of the prison genre brings us to the pilot of Orange Is the New Black, an early Netflix original that never ran short of memorable characters.

We're continuing our sentence in the prison genre with the 2000s action series Prison Break, whose pilot set up an outlandish premise with flashy direction. 

For the month of October, we're serving time discussing pilots from the prison genre. Kicking off our sentence is the landmark HBO drama Oz, which fully took advantage of its freedom from censorship.

Our final legal drama, Better Call Saul, follows up on its predecessor, Breaking Bad, with a character study of everyone’s favorite criminal lawyer. Let’s just hope he validates parking.

Twists and turns take over the courtroom in the pilot of How to Get Away with Murder, as well as a gripping performance from Viola Davis.

Things get political in the courtroom as we discuss the pilot of The Good Wife.

We've been summoned to the pilot of Damages, a legal drama that stood out for its grit, mystery, and powerhouse lead Glenn Close. 

We're dressing up for the pilot of Suits, the comedy-drama that takes a more upbeat approach to the TV law genre compared to our previous entries

Our next legal drama is The Practice, which presents a struggling law firm and an unglamorous look into the profession.

We've covered a lot of crime pilots this year, so just to be safe, we're gonna lawyer up with a category of legal dramas. The first show on the docket is LA Law, an 80s television staple whose ensemble cast and layered storylines set a precedent for the genre.

Our final mystery series, Poker Face, takes inspiration from 1970s television with its episodic format and Western influence.

We're tuning in to the pilot of Only Murders in the Building, which adds a multi-generational take to the mystery genre while also sending up the true crime podcast craze.

This week, we're investigating the pilot of Big Little Lies and how its network, HBO, committed the TV crime of renewing the miniseries for a second season.

There are more secrets to uncover with this week's pilot, Pretty Little Liars, which combines teen drama with murder mystery.

This week, our murder mystery series takes a vindictive turn with the pilot of Revenge, yet another soapy drama with a large cast of suspicious characters.

We're taking a stroll down Wisteria Lane in the pilot of Desperate Housewives, the mega hit series known for its memorable characters, dark comedy, and intricate mysteries. 

The premiere of Veronica Mars introduced a 2000's take on the noir genre and debuted Kristen Bell as a lead actor playing a teenage private eye.

This summer, we're looking to find clues and solve cases in female-led mystery shows, starting with the pilot of Murder, She Wrote, which leaned into the genre's classic framework.

The final mark in our series on TV killers is Barry, the darkly comedic crime drama, which earned widespread acclaim for co-creator and star Bill Hader.

Our next fictional TV killer narrates in the second person as he stalks his victim in the pilot of You.

The pilot of Mindhunter begins a journey into the psychology of serial killers, framed through the vision of director David Fincher.

This week we're up north for the pilot of Fargo, the (sort of) anthology series that captures the same blend of drama, absurdity, and dark humor as its film counterpart.

We're checking in to the pilot of Bates Motel, the A&E drama that expanded the world and fleshed out the backstory of Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho.

The series Hannibal expanded the limits of broadcast programming while serving a fresh new depiction of its namesake cannibal.