Hannibal Season 1, Episode 1
"Apéritif"
Original airdate: April 4, 2013
Writer: Bryan Fuller (Characters by Thomas Harris)
Director: David Slade
Cast: Hugh Dancy, Mads Mikkelsen, Laurence Fishburne, Caroline Dhavernas, Hettienne Park
It takes 22 minutes, fully half the runtime of your average network drama, for the title character in Hannibal to appear. It's the first of many, many smart decisions made to craft one of the best horror shows of all time, and one of the best dramas of the 2010s.