I can easily say that the Pilot for Lost is the single greatest opening to any series that's come before or will ever come after. There isn't a better opening salvo in which the main characters as well as the secondary characters are presented in a perfect way....or so we thought. What makes this episode so kick ass is that we are left to take each character at face value in how they are presented to us while on the Island. But then this isn't a typical show. What would become the hallmark of the series were the flashbacks and they were perfectly executed here to tell us what each character is really like, after we have more or less already made up our minds about them.

This was best exemplified with Kate, who we see as the all-American-Girl that we are suppose to root for, only to get a very eye opening flashback that tells us otherwise with her being in cuffs and in the company of the Plane's Air Marshall. Also, we are introduced to a couple of "what the  f u c k " moments that tell us this isn't just any Island. With the Smoke Monster (which hasn't revealed itself physically...yet) and the Polar Bear, we are off and running with Lost.