How do you make a great opening scene for TV? First, trust the viewer

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Set us as preferred When “Slow Horses,” the darkly comic Apple TV drama about the misfits of British secret intelligence, was shooting its first season, the creators faced a conundrum.Every new series must announce itself with the opening scenes of its pilot episode, and in the era of prestige TV and now streaming saturation, creating distinctive and even challenging openings became essential.“It’s extremely important to come up with a good opening,” says “The Sopranos” creator David Chase, who helped usher in the modern era.“If you get me in the first 10 minutes, I’ll chill and trust you,” adds Sterlin Harjo, whose FX series “The Lowdown” returns for its second season on Wednesday, explaining that showrunners understand they must captivate viewers while quickly establishing the show’s world and introducing its characters.There’s no one way to create an opening potent enough to keep viewers tuned in: Some show creators drew on personal experiences to ground their stories in specific details, while others brought storytelling techniques and cinematography styles from film.The crucial factor, it seems, on shows as far back as “Hill Street Blues” and “Twin Peaks” or as recent as “Succession” is to trust the viewers to dive into a new world without heavy-handed exposition.The thrilling opener in “Slow Horses,” involving a chase scene with several twists as MI-5 agent River Cartwright (Jack Lowden) races through a London airport, was pulled from the novel that the show is based on.

But executive producer Doug Urbanski says they were dissatisfied with the transition into the crucial second scene, which introduces Jackson Lamb (Gary Oldman), the dissipated genius spy and the cynical heart of the show.(The show, which earned nine Emmy nominations and won one for directing for its fifth seas...