10 Fantasy Shows I Knew Would Be Masterpieces After the First 10 Minutes

Image via HBO Published Jul 19, 2026, 7:09 AM EDT Diego Pineda has been a devout storyteller his whole life. He has self-published a fantasy novel and a book of short stories, and is actively working on publishing his second novel. A lifelong fan of watching movies and talking about them endlessly, he writes reviews and analyses on his Instagram page dedicated to cinema, and occasionally on his blog. His favorite filmmakers are Andrei Tarkovsky and Charlie Chaplin. He loves modern Mexican cinema and thinks it's tragically underappreciated. Other interests of Diego's include reading, gaming, roller coasters, writing reviews on his Letterboxd account (username: DPP_reviews), and going down rabbit holes of whatever topic he's interested in at any given point. Sign in to your Collider account First impressions matter; and when it comes to genre shows, even more so. Generally speaking, you can tell a lot about a show's quality from just the first few minutes of its pilot, even considering that it tends to take TV series a full season—or even longer—to truly find their creative footing. Throughout the history of fantasy shows, however, there have been plenty with absolutely masterful introductory minutes. Whether it's because they introduce the magical fantasy world of the series in an instantly captivating way, or because they immediately make their main characters engrossing, or simply because they have a great hook that makes it hard to turn the TV off, these shows grabbed us and never let go. The following sets of introductory ten minutes are fantasy television at its very best. 'Arcane' (2021–2024) Image via Netflix Generally speaking, video game adaptations on both the big and small screens don't have a great track record. Who, then, could have guessed that League of Legends would end up being the source material for what's not just the highest-rated video game adaptation on IMDb, but even one of the most acclaimed animated TV shows in history? Arcane was an unexpected masterpiece, but a masterpiece nonetheless. From the very first few minutes of the series, you can tell you're in for a hell of a ride. Vander (JB Blanc) finding Powder (Ella Purnell) and Vi (Hailee Steinfeld) after a brutal battle sets an instant emotional hook, and the striking animation complements it gorgeously. This is one of the best animated fantasy shows ever, and a lot of that comes from the masterful world-building and character-establishment of its first 10 minutes. 'Penny Dreadful' (2014–2016) Image via Showtime One of the most underrated fantasy shows of the 2010s, Penny Dreadful is one of the most masterful horror TV shows out there. Its compelling cast and distinct blend of elevated horror, Victorian aesthetics, and Gothic-coded writing make it one of the best shows the genre has put out in years, without ever being afraid of getting a bit silly and outrageous. You can tell just from the first couple of scenes of the show's pilot that you're watching something truly special. The beautiful Gothic and Victorian visuals capture your attention right off the bat, and the horrifying tone and character-driven intrigue make sure your eyes are never able to distance themselves from the screen. Not until the credits roll on the first episode, and you're inevitably tempted to go on to the next one, that is. 'Gravity Falls' (2012–2016) Image via Disney Channel There are few children's shows as iconic and with a cult following as loyal as that of Gravity Falls. Fans have been begging for a revival of this Disney Channel and Disney XD gem for years, and whether it ever comes or not is irrelevant: What's undeniable is that the adventures of twins Dipper (Jason Ritter) and Mabel (Kristen Schaal) in the titular town are a charming thrill, no matter the viewer's age. Gravity Falls' pilot is a genuine masterclass in hooking the viewer from the word "go." Starting in media res is always a great way of capturing the audience, and the way "Tourist Trapped" does it works wonderfully. Characters are established, a mysterious world is introduced, and fantastical concepts are laid out at a breakneck pace that somehow works flawlessly. 'The Good Place' (2016–2020) Image via NBC One of the best and most beloved sitcoms of the 21st century, The Good Place really took off after one of the best sitcom plot twists of the 2010s, but even everything before that plot twist—including the pilot—is a masterclass in fantasy comedy. Like any great sitcom pilot, The Good Place does a phenomenal job at both establishing the series' sense of humor and presenting viewers with the general plot as quickly as possible. The Good Place's "Everything Is Fine" is far from just a by-the-numbers sitcom pilot, however. From its first 10 minutes, you get a perfect sense of how creative and subversive the show you're watching is. The premise is unique, the themes are rapidly set up and immediately compelling, and the characters are the kind that you want to know more about from the moment you first meet them. Collider Exclusive · Game of Thrones Personality Quiz Which Game of Thrones House Do You Belong To? Stark · Lannister · Targaryen · Baratheon · Tyrell Five great houses. Five completely different answers to the same question: how do you hold power in a world that will take it from you the moment you stop paying attention? Eight questions will determine where your loyalties — and your nature — truly lie. 🐺Stark 🦁Lannister 🐉Targaryen 🦌Baratheon 🌹Tyrell FIND YOUR HOUSE → 01 Someone powerful is acting dishonourably and everyone knows it. What do you do? In Westeros, the answer to this question has ended more than one great house. ACall it out, openly and on the record. If honour means anything, it has to mean something when it's costly. BUse it. Information about someone else's dishonour is leverage — and leverage is power. CAct decisively to correct it — with or without the approval of those around me. DChallenge them directly. Strength settles disputes more honestly than courtroom manoeuvring. ENavigate carefully — build alliances, apply quiet pressure, and create a situation where the right outcome becomes inevitable. NEXT QUESTION → 02 What is the source of your power? Every house endures because of something. What is it for yours? AThe loyalty of people who trust me — earned over generations, not bought with gold. BWealth, intelligence, and the willingness to use both without sentiment. CA legacy so fearsome and a vision so total that opposition becomes unthinkable. DPhysical strength, military force, and the respect that comes from being the kind of person nobody wants to fight. ECharm, connection, and the ability to make powerful people feel that my success is also theirs. NEXT QUESTION → 03 Who do you truly fight for? Strip away the banners and the words. The honest answer tells you everything. AMy family and my people — those who depend on me and have kept faith with me through everything. BMy family — the ones who share my blood, even when they exhaust me, even when they disappoint me. CMy cause — a vision larger than any single person, including me. DMyself, and those few who've proven themselves worth fighting beside. EMy house — its name, its future, the position I intend to leave it in when I'm gone. NEXT QUESTION → 04 How do you deal with your enemies? A house's method reveals its character as clearly as its words ever could. AHonestly — I face them directly, and I give quarter when it's warranted. BThoroughly — I don't leave loose ends, and I don't make the same enemy twice. CDecisively — fire answers questions that diplomacy only delays. DHead-on — I'd rather meet a threat on the battlefield than behind closed doors. EElegantly — I prefer to make former enemies into allies, or at least into people who owe me something. NEXT QUESTION → 05 What kind of ruler do you believe in? Westeros is full of answers to this question. Most of them end badly. AA just one — someone who serves the realm rather than using it, who leads by example rather than fear. BA capable one — someone smart enough to navigate the game, ruthless enough to win it, and realistic about what winning costs. CA transformative one — someone who doesn't just rule what exists but reshapes what's possible. DA strong one — someone whose authority is beyond question because the alternative is obviously worse. EA wise one — someone who understands that the realm is fed by more than armies, and that a full stomach keeps more peace than a sharp sword. NEXT QUESTION → 06 You suffer a devastating loss. How does your house respond? How a house handles defeat tells you more about it than how it handles victory. AWe grieve, properly and together — and then we endure, because endurance is what we do. BWe adapt. We reassess. And we ensure that whoever caused this loss comes to regret it completely. CWe burn hotter. Setbacks don't soften us — they clarify what needs to happen next. DWe hit back. Grief and revenge are the same motion in our house. EWe regroup quietly, rebuild our position, and return when we're ready — on our terms, not theirs. NEXT QUESTION → 07 Which of these truths about Westeros do you most believe? Every house has a philosophy. This is yours. AThe lone wolf dies, but the pack survives. Nothing matters more than the people you protect. BA Lannister always pays their debts — in gold or in kind. Reputation is built on consistency. CI am the blood of the dragon. Some destinies are written before the person who carries them is born. DOurs is the fury. When we move, we move completely — and we don't stop until it's done. EGrowing strong means knowing when to bloom and when to wait. Patience is its own kind of power. NEXT QUESTION → 08 The Iron Throne is within reach. What do you do? The answer reveals not just your ambition — but your character. AClaim it only if the realm needs me to — and rule in a way that makes it worth having. BEnsure someone who owes us sits in it. The power behind the throne is safer than the throne itself. CTake it. It was always meant to be mine — I feel that in my bones and in my blood. DSeize it — with both hands, without hesitation. Opportunity in Westeros does not wait to be asked. EPosition my house to be indispensable to whoever sits there — influence outlasts any single reign. REVEAL MY HOUSE → The Maester Has Spoken Your House Is…Your answers point to the great house whose words, values, and way of surviving in Westeros match your own. Bend the knee — or don't. That's very much up to you. 🐺 House StarkWinter is Coming — and you have always known it. You prepare not out of fear but out of duty, because the people who depend on you deserve someone who takes the long view. You lead with honour even when it costs you, because you understand that a reputation built on integrity is the only one worth having. Your loyalty to family and people runs deep — not as sentiment but as a code that doesn't bend when things get difficult. The North endures because Starks endure — not by being the cleverest players in the game, but by being the kind of people others are willing to follow into the cold. You are that kind of person. The pack survives. The lone wolf dies. You already know which one you are. 🦁 House LannisterYou understand the game — its rules, its exceptions, and exactly when the rules become the exception. You play it without illusions and without apology. You are sharper than most people realise, and you have learned to use that gap to your advantage. A Lannister always pays their debts — and you always keep your word, because your word is an instrument of power, and instruments must be kept in working order. You love your family with a ferocity that sometimes blinds you, and you know it, and you do it anyway. The lion doesn't concern itself with the opinion of sheep. Neither, in the end, do you. 🐉 House TargaryenYou carry a sense of destiny that is difficult to explain and impossible to ignore — the feeling that you are not simply participating in the world but meant to reshape it. You are capable of extraordinary things, and you know it, and that knowledge is both your greatest strength and your most dangerous quality. Fire and blood are not just words to you — they are a philosophy about what change requires and what it costs. The Targaryens at their best were transformative rulers who broke chains and defied the limits of what anyone thought possible. At your best, so are you. The dragon has three heads. You are one of them. 🦌 House BaratheonYou are a force — direct, powerful, and difficult to ignore when you enter a room or a conflict. You do not negotiate with challenges. You meet them. Ours is the fury — and yours is a kind of intensity that commands attention, respect, and occasionally fear from those who underestimate what's behind it. You value strength and straight dealing. You'd rather know where you stand in a fight than navigate a web of courtly whispers. The Baratheons built their house on the back of one of the greatest military victories in Westerosi history — and then struggled with what came after. The lesson of your house is that winning is not the end of the story. Governing is. You are learning that too. 🌹 House TyrellYou understand that power does not always announce itself — that sometimes it arrives with flowers, good wine, and a smile that doesn't quite reach the eyes. Growing strong is your house's motto, and you live it: patiently, strategically, always investing in the relationships and resources that will matter most when it counts. You are charming by choice and calculating by nature — a combination that makes you one of the most effective players in any room you enter. The Tyrells fed King's Landing and shaped its politics without ever sitting on the Iron Throne — and they were arguably more powerful for it. You know that the person who controls the food controls the kingdom. And you always know where the food is. ↻ RETAKE THE QUIZ 'Preacher' (2016–2019) Image via AMC Before there was The Boys, Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg helped co-develop another adaptation of Garth Ennis' work: Preacher, a supernatural fantasy show just about as thrilling, gory, and darkly comedic as one might expect from this particular creative team. The series definitely got bolder, more creative, and all-around better as it went along, but its exceptional pilot is not to be underestimated. The show greets newcomers with a cold open that's as intentionally cheesy and irreverent as it is bloody and bizarre. The tone is laid out right from the start, and it's impossible to look away from it. Then, we're introduced to the main characters through exceptional uses of the "show, don't tell" rule. It's impossible not to find the series' chaotic absurdity charming enough to get through a few episodes before turning the TV off. 'Attack on Titan' (2013–2023) Image via Wit Studio One of the most acclaimed anime shows of all time, Attack on Titan is a must-see for fans of the medium and of the fantasy genre alike. Everything that anyone could possibly want from an animated show is present here: jaw-dropping animation, exceptional production qualities, memorable voice performances, a good balance between seriousness and occasional humor, and some of the most adrenaline-pumping action scenes anime has to offer. The episode wastes zero time introducing viewers to its premise and the existential dread that it generates... Attack on Titan is packed with some of the greatest anime episodes ever, which arguably includes its instantly compelling pilot. The episode wastes zero time introducing viewers to its premise and the existential dread that it generates, as well as setting up the main characters' personalities perfectly. If you watch the first 10 minutes of Attack on Titan, and you're not immediately addicted, you probably put on the wrong show. 'Supernatural' (2005–2020) Image via The WB Inspired by monster-of-the-week classics like The X-Files and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural remained the longest-running American fantasy TV show until its conclusion in its fifteenth season. Equal parts scary, thrilling, and emotionally engaging, it definitely wasn't without its fair share of duds, but remained one of the most consistently fun fantasy teen shows on television throughout its whole run. It's now one of the biggest cult classics that the genre has put out at any point during the 21st century. It may not be one of the show's best episodes, but it's hard to deny that the pilot is a phenomenal introduction to this world and these characters. Its first 10 minutes in particular do a flawless job of introducing the terrifying tone of the series, the deeply intimate stakes, and the family quest that kicks off the first season of this modern fantasy-horror classic. It's tight, beautifully economical televisual storytelling, and it has aged like fine wine in retrospect. 'Stranger Things' (2016–2025) Image via Netflix With its fifth and final season officially wrapped, it's worth taking a look back at what started it all: The first season of Stranger Things may just be the show's best, both a nostalgic and profoundly endearing throwback to '80s pop culture and a distinctly original season in its own right. The show, a solid blend of sci-fi and fantasy elements, has several 10-minute sequences that could be counted among the genre's best, and its introductory minutes are definitely among them. Ten minutes, three scenes, and you already know everything you need to know to get going. First, a scientist gets abducted by an unseen threat. Then, the audience is introduced to the main gang of friends, before one of them vanishes mysteriously into the night. Horror, mystery, nostalgia, and exceptionally cinematic production qualities; it's all there to count this among the best pilots of any show of the 2010s. 'Lost' (2004–2010) Lost's pilot is far and away one of the most acclaimed pilots in television history, and for good reason. Whether one loves or hates its controversial final season and even more controversial series finale, the show's first season tends to be universally beloved even all these years later, and it's absolutely undeniable that this was the show everyone and their grandmother was watching and talking about during the 2000s. But Lost would perhaps not have become the pop-cultural phenomenon that it did—at least not as quickly—if its introductory 10 minutes weren't such an instant hook. The mystery of the island, the instantly compelling personality of the characters, the fear and the plane crash; it's all perfectly established fairly quickly, and all with some of the most exceptional production qualities ever seen on network television. After all, this pilot was the most expensive ever produced at the time of its airing. 'Game of Thrones' (2011–2019) Image via HBO Game of Thrones needs no introduction. It's pretty much universally agreed that its final season, and especially its final episode, are insultingly awful; but its first season has aged like fine wine, and its pilot is one of the best fantasy pilots ever produced. Everyone who loves fantasy television has either already watched Game of Thrones or really ought to get around to it, and it's impossible not to fall in love with the series immediately. During its first 10 minutes, to be more precise. During this first section of the pilot, we're introduced to the threat of the White Walkers with some of the most effective atmosphere-building of any fantasy show's introduction, and then introduced to the Starks. The production qualities are top-notch, the characters are immediately compelling, and Westeros is a world that's impossible not to instantly fall in love with. Even in spite of its shortcomings, Game of Thrones arguably remains the best fantasy TV show ever made, and its first 10 minutes make it instantly easy to see why. Game Of Thrones Release Date 2011 - 2019-00-00 Showrunner David Benioff, D.B. Weiss Nine noble families fight for control over the lands of Westeros while an ancient enemy returns after being dormant for millennia. Directors David Nutter, Alan Taylor, D.B. Weiss, David Benioff Writers D.B. Weiss, George R.R. Martin, David Benioff Franchise(s) Game of Thrones Main Genre Drama Seasons 8 Creator(s) David Benioff, D.B. Weiss Story By George R.R. Martin Streaming Service(s) MAX Producers Frank Doelger, Christopher Newman, Duncan Muggoch, Bernadette Caulfield, Greg Spence, Lisa McAtackney, Mark Huffam, Ralph Vicinanza Executive Producer(s) Carolyn Strauss, David Nutter, Frank Doelger, Miguel Sapochnik