For me:
-The Expanse - The beginning was confusing AF and the politics didn’t make sense and seemed boring, so I quit. But then eventually after like a year or two, went to reddit and it was recommended again, so I just read some light spoilers and that helped me got through the first season. And then it has been an intriguing and thrilling journey.
Firefly. I watched the very first bit of the first episode, saw the sci-fi infantry scene, decided that the whole thing was low-budget action, and didn’t look at it again for years.
I really think that it’s a good idea to make the first bit of media be more-reflective of the thing as a whole.
Funnily enough, a big part of why the series didn’t even get a full first season, let alone the 7 seasons Whedon had planned, was because when Fox aired the show they did NOT air the pilot first. Fox execs didn’t like the Pilot (which had the infantry scene you referenced) and chose to kick off the series by dropping 3 episodes on the first night. They launched with episodes 2, 3, & 6. They then continued with this out-of-order lineup: 7, 8, 4, 5, 9, 10, 14, pilot, 13, 11, 12.
The show overall isn’t super serialized, but the pilot does actually introduce the characters well. Throwing the audience into the 2nd episode without the introduction to the characters in the pilot was confusing to the audience. Then jumping around, there are constant little mentions to something that happened earlier, but the audience hadn’t seen yet. Then jumping into the pilot late in the run makes it super weird.
The out-of-order release, which was an attempt by the Fox execs to do exactly what you suggested, absolutely killed the show before it had a chance to build an audience.
Hehe I like the pilot more than all the episodes… I mean I like them too but I loved that action sequence.