Season 1, Episode 1 doesn't start with anything as obvious as an establishing shot of a shopping mall or a freeway sign saying "Welcome to Omaha." Nor does it give us a clue as to who the main character is, or where we are. Instead, the black-and-white opening shot is a hand slathering something creamy on a surface. We don't know if it's vertical or horizontal, what the substance is, or what it means that the picture is black and white.
It takes a full ten minutes of detail after detail to tell us that Saul Goodman, hero of the series, has renamed himself "Gene," and is now working at a Cinnabon in Omaha. He's hiding, in fear for his life, but desperately misses the man he used to be. We learn all this with static, detail-focused shots, and not a single word of dialogue. It's a thing of beauty.
