The Americans:
Season:     1     / Episode:     1    
Pilot

Steve finds himself unable to score with Lisa Silver, a sexy cheerleader, so Stan helps him by rigging the school election to name him student body president. Meanwhile, Francine cuts off Roger's junk food supply, and Roger uses Hayley to get his fix by writing her term papers.

Bobby "Axe" Axelrod is a charming, charismatic 9/11 survivor who heads up Axe Capital, a hedge fund based in Connecticut. His generosity makes him a beloved member of the community - he pays the first year of tuition and board for all of the college-going children of all of his former colleagues who perished in 9/11 (the fund was formerly located in the World Trade Center) - but the Securities & Exchange Commission thinks that Axelrod is dirty. The SEC goes to Chuck Rhoades, a ruthless masochist U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, but Rhoades refuses to pursue Axelrod until he makes an error, not willing to sacrifice his perfect 81-0 record for prosecution of financial crimes. However, when Rhoades hears that Axelrod wants to buy a heritage waterside property for $63 million, he considers moving forward against Axelrod, as the purchase would widely sour him to the public. Rhoades returns home to his two children and wife, Wendy, who works as a motivational coach/psychiatrist at Axe Capital. He offers Wendy a job as human resources head at GE, as he does not want her working at Axe if he decides to pursue her boss, and despite feeling as though she is being manipulated, Wendy entertains the possibility of leaving Axe (after a loud, profane argument in front of their two small children). Angered by Rhoades' refusal to take on Axelrod, a SEC agent, Spyros, plants a reporter at a presser for Rhoades. The reporter challenges Rhoades' 'small win, no loss' mantra, and Rhoades decides to bait Axelrod into buying the house to turn public favour against him. Axelrod is visited by an old friend, Dan Margolis, whose nervous nature makes Axelrod realise that Margolis is cooperating with the FBI. Axelrod dismisses Margolis from his office without incriminating himself, and goes to his fixer, Hall, who plans for Axelrod to frame a fellow trader, Steven Birch, should the need arise. Next, Axelrod invites the SEC's planted reporter to lunch, and in a befriending move, alerts him to a shady deal that Birch completed recently. Axelrod and Rhoades finally come face-to-face at an investment conference, and their discourse is immediately adversarial, with Rhoades criticising Axelrod for milking his 9/11 survival for public worth. Axelrod decides to buy the house, but is later told by Hall that the FBI have now opened a case file on him.

A female jogger is found floating in the Schuylkill River. Former neurosurgeon and newly-appointed medical examiner Dr. Megan Hunt teams up with her partner, medical investigator and former cop Peter Dunlop, under the watchful eye of their boss, Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Kate Murphy, who is very aware of Megan's gifted but polarizing work style. Megan's colleagues, Deputy Chief Medical Examiner Dr. Curtis Brumfield and Pathology Fellow Dr. Ethan Gross, find they have to tip-toe around the new medical examiner to get work done. Megan's investigation takes her into the field where she meets old-school Detective Bud Morris, who is exasperated by Megan's tenacity and bull-headedness. His partner, Detective Samantha Baker, has a quiet respect for Megan's input, even if Morris doesn't. Meanwhile, as she's is trying to solve the jogger's death, Megan has to solve a personal puzzle of her own -- what is the perfect present for her estranged daughter's 12th birthday?

Walter White, a 50-year old chemistry teacher, secretly begins making crystal methamphetamine to support his family when he finds out that he has terminal lung cancer. He teams up with a former student, Jesse Pinkman, who is a meth dealer. Jesse is trying to sell the meth but the dealers snatch him and make him show them the lab. Walter knows they intend to kill him so he poisons them while showing them his recipe.

Tightly-wound captain Ray Holt takes over Brooklyn's 99th precinct, which includes Jake Peralta, a talented but carefree detective who's used to doing whatever he wants.

At the 74th Precinct in South Brooklyn, a typical day begins with a sudden bloodbath when a deranged gunman, named Dawshawn Hopkins, opens fire on policeman and random civilians outside the station, killing and wounding several before being wounded in the gunfight and taken into custody where he dies from his wounds. Because of the nature and race-related killings (the shooter is black and all the victims were white) prompts the killer's civil activist/black racist sister, Mavis, to team up with a local fanatic civil rights preacher, Basil Matheson, to insist that an investigation be launched to find out who "murdered" her brother. Patrol Sergeant Francis Donovan, tries to keep the situation together while consulting Officer Ann-Marie Kersey who's detective fiancee was one of the victims. Unknown to everyone, Donovan is revealed to be an informant for the hated Internal Affairs Bureau over some past issues involving his father. Phil Roussakoff is a new transfer and he is partnered with Jimmy Doyle to find a sniper who intervened during the shootout. At the same time, Doyle, who lives with his younger sister Kathleen and brother Terry, is overjoyed with Terry announces that he's joining the police academy to follow in his brother's and their late father's footsteps. Kevin Patrick, another officer who was shot in the back during the opening shootout, is comforted by Jimmy Doyle at the hospital when it appears that he might end up paralyzed below the waist. Elsewhere, Officer Jake Lowery deals with his difficult job and his troubled home life involving his contemptuous, highly strung-out wife Yvonne. Officer Nona Valentine is also affected by events as well as her former boyfriend, traffic cop Clement Johnson, while rookie newcomer Hector Villaneuva is assisted by Donovan during his first week on the job.

We meet 40ish year old Hank Moody in a church asking Jesus to help him get his life back on track. He is then distracted by a hot nun, which turns out to be a dream that is representative of his lifestyle. Sex-addicted Hank sleeps with many women including a woman who is cheating on her enraged and muscular husband and Mia, a 16-year-old girl (Hank assumes she is older). Moody also has to interact with ex-girlfriend Karen who might still love him. With her, they share the custody of their 12-year-old daughter Becca who is wise beyond her years but is starting to have a sex life, which freaks out both of her parents.