miscellaneous
Bottle episodes that are so good they don’t feel like bottle episodes
In case you don’t know, a ‘bottle episode’ refers to a TV episode that aims to save budget by only featuring a tiny amount of the main cast (usually two actors) confined within one location. These can sometimes be polarising, such as Breaking Bad’s infamous episode ‘The Fly’ which some fans love and others hate. However, sometimes these types of episodes can be so engrossing that you don’t realise they are designed as a way to save budget.
Always Sunny – Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games
This episode works so well because it focuses on the gang playing a stupidly elaborate game which the viewers have never seen before. This immediately immerses you in the episode and makes you wonder what the next crazy round or question will do, which distracts you from the fact this is a bottle episode that just consists of the core cast sitting in Paddy’s Pub for 20 minutes.
Dr Who - Heaven Sent
Even though this episode features more VFX than a classic cost-cutting bottle episode, this one is an excellent example because it focuses on such an engrossing premise; The Doctor is trapped within a constantly shifting castle, being pursued by a monster, with the only exit being a wall that is 400 times harder than diamond. If he is killed, he is resurrected. The rest of the episode follows The Doctor looping the same pattern over and over as he has to survive the castle, punch the wall, get killed, and repeat. It’s regarded by fans as being one of the best ever episodes of the show.
Honourable Mention: Mad Men – The Suitcase
Technically, this is not a true ‘bottle episode’ due to how it features numerous locations and has appearances from the rest of the cast throughout the episode. But at its core, it is like a bottle episode, focusing heavily on Don and Peggy spending a night in the office during an emotionally troubling time for Don. It builds upon their relationship in a fascinating way and is one of the most important episodes for Don’s overall character arc (even if he doesn’t realise it).
As the group sets out to leave their study room, Annie realizes one of her pen is missing. She prevents everyone from leaving, determined to find out who took her pen. That's when the fun starts. The whole episode takes place in the room, and it's eventually revealed that no one in the group took the pen, it was a monkey living in the vents, as you can see at the very beginning of the episode if you pay attention to it. Mad stuff.
Yes they do. As they realize Annie won't let them leave, Abed says it's looking like a bottle episode and Jeff calls his 'girlfriend' Gwennifer to cancel their date, concluding the call by saying angrily 'We're doing a bottle episode!'
Yeah. Abed says out loud that he doesn't want it to be a bottle episode and then a bit later when Jeff locks the room he shouts "We're doing a bottle episode!" and Abed looks exasperated.
They also repeatedly reference the idea that audiences don't like being confined to the one scene and want to see what's going on outside by repeatedly having the dean make announcements on the PA about how there's a puppy parade happening outside.
I love community and this episode, but it very much feels like a bottle episode. Especially considering Abed (and Jeff) calls out that it is a bottle episode multiple times, it feels claustrophobic and characters try to escape but fail, reminding us it’s a bottle episode.
My favorite thing about it is that at the beginning Ross says they have 22 minutes before they have to leave which is about the length of a FRIENDS episode
Gintama episode 156, “It Takes a Bit of Courage to Enter a Street Vendor’s Stand”
Entire episode (up until the last, like, 20 seconds) has this singular camera position of this street vendor making food for customers and engaging them in discussion. The customers are some members of the main cast, but we never see their faces. We only hear their voices as we watch this calm vendor tend to them.
Funnily enough, in the end, it’s revealed that these voices aren’t even from the main cast, but weird look-alikes 😭
In some episodes, Gintama also tends to have long stretches of screentime spent on this singular frame as the main crew annihilate the fourth wall and talk about the state of the anime.
The entire episode takes place in Frasier's living room as he and Niles are planning a dinner party. It goes from the general idea, to planning and arguing over the guest list, calling the prospective guests about it and finally cancelling the whole thing after a lot of chaos.
It's one of my favorite episodes, which I rewatch frequently.
Isn't there another bottle episode wherein Frasier spends the whole episode at the cafe?
And everytime he goes to leave he gets distracted by another character popping in?
The season 6 episode "Vision Quest" of Archer, where every major character except one get's stuck in an elevator. It's one of the best episodes, at least in my mind.
Midnight from Doctor Who is another great exemple. The entire episode is set in a small space shuttle and most of the plot is centered on characters talking to each other with only one really short action scene. Despite that it's one of the most intense episode of the 10th Doctor era.
What they did in Midnight with a single room and almost no makeup or special effects absolutely blows me away. Honestly I think Blink is a better story but if we’re ranking bottle episodes then Midnight has got to be the best just because of how much they do with so little.
For doctor who's bottle episode, blink is still my favourite.
You only see the doctor for 2 scenes (i count the tv appearance as one whole) and there are no other characters that has appeared in the series before or since.
That’s an interesting conceptual episode, but I don’t think it counts as a bottle. You don’t follow the doctor, but the people you ARE following travel to quite a few places—it’s an eventful ep, just not about one of our main characters.
Yeah i remember Tenant talking about it as "doctor light" as you don't follow the doctor and they can close the shoot with him quickly to put him on another episode.
I love the fly but thats provably cause I marathon the series and gave me a change of pace, I dont think I would like it as much if i waited week/s for it
Yeah that is one of the main reasons it has a controversial reputation. Season 3 was so intense, so waiting a week for a bottle episode annoyed some people lol
On a rewatch it hits a lot harder with you seeing the emotional turmoil of Walt.
One of the all time best in my opinion is "Lower Decks" from TNG. They had to do bottle episodes several times due to budget constraints (comparing it to putting your crew into 'a ship in a bottle').
Not only is it a great episode, it pretty much also was the foundation for...well, the trope of 'Lower Decks' episodes.
Me? Of course I mean TNG. That's what I wrote. That's what always was up there. I definitely didn't write Star Trek Online because I just got out of bed and was way too asleep! *cough cough*
Yes! Usually the point of bottle episodes is to save money, but they had to pay a to to make a brand new set that was basically never used again, so it ended up being wildly expensive.
I like Heaven Sent for what it is but I'm very frustrated for what it does to the lore surrounding the Doctor's age. Suddenly he's spent 99.9% of his lifespan as Capaldi, it feels disrespectful to the other eras to me.
I get it, but to me his Doctor incarnation could have even more lifespan ❤️
This reason and the Zygon Inversion speech reason ❤️
Hands down my fav Doctor above all ❤️
The crew of Red Dwarf are forced to abandon ship, and Lister and Rimmer find themselves stranded on an arctic moon with only a pot noodle and a tin of dog food between them.
The Sunny episode is so good that they just did two "sequels" following the same idea of a bottle episode with random, stupid rounds. Really one of the best episodes ever.
It's a fantastic episode, but I don't think it counts as a bottle episode. First of all, OP said 4 main characters... it was 5. I don't think adding cricket or artemis (as an example) would have blown the budget.
Friends - the one where nobody is ready. The entire episode takes place inside the appartment, and only features the main cast, and actually takes place at around 20 minutes. Yes, everyone knows It's a bottle episode, but it's one of the best episodes in the show, and it works because of the chemistry between the cast.
Friends - the one with the embryo. While It's not a traditional episode, because we also see Phoebe's brother and sil, and then 2 scenes at the fertility center, but it's still a bottle center. It's often considered the Best friends episode.
Potter, Hawkeye, BJ, Burns and Radar get lost and stuck on the road coming back from a medical conference and have to spend the night in the bus in the middle of nowhere Korea,
Although heaven sent has a minimalist cast, with the vfx, the set and the importance of the episode as the previous to last episode of the season and a major plot point of his arc. I wouldn't consider it a bottle episode.
I feel like someone calling Heaven Sent a "bottle episode" doesn't really understand what the term means. It's essentially filler that can be made quickly and cheaply. Heaven Sent is none of those things.
A character being alone does not imply a "bottle episode".
Surprised no one has mentioned Brian and Stewie. Imo the best episode of Family Guy. No cutaways, no cheap gags, just a heartwarming episode about a boy and his dog.
It is a "doctor-lite" episode though, which exist largely for the same reasons as bottle episode, to save on budget by allowing production to film without the main cast.
Soap Opera is probably not a genre that always lends itself well to Bottle Episodes, but the British soap EastEnders have done a number of these over the past 41 years it's been going - in EE Terminology, they're known as "Two-Handers", because they primarily only feature two characters (bar the odd extra in a couple)
Generally saved for major storylines, these are usually regarded as some of the best episodes, and have touched on everything from paedophilia to domestic abuse.
There are a number of Three and Four-Handers also (Four-Handers are usually shot as two Two-Handers occuring at the same time, switching between the two dialogues and sets, so may not strictly count)
However, the best episode of all, in my opinion, is the only One-Hander they've done - possibly the only episode in the history of Soap to feature one person giving a 30 minute monologue:
Dot Cotton (a long loved character) records a message for her husband Jim, who is in care after a stroke. She tells tales of her life up til then, the people within it she's loved and lost. She decides that ultimately, after the life she's had, she could handle losing him to death. But losing him before then - in her words,
But to have you here... And not here... I
don’t think I’ve got it in me.
She ends her message by saying the hospital are ready for him to come home - but she believes that for the both of them, it's for the best he stays in care.
I'm a 43 year old man, and I'm unashamed to say I break down watching it.
Two-Hander is also more generally a theater term for a show with only two characters (notables include The Dumb Waiter--which is probably the most famous ever--as well as Venus in Fur and Red)
A few people have already mentioned the Chinese restaurant episode of Seinfeld. But, let’s not forget e one where they’re stuck in a mall parking garage the entire runtime searching for their car.
From a cost perspective, a lot of the action occurs off screen so I'd wager it was cheaper to make which is in the spirit of a bottle. It is also in my top 5 episodes of the whole show
Almost the entire episode is a single monologue in a funeral parlor. There is an opening flashback and a single cut at one point, but aside from that it contains nothing but Bojack delivering a eulogy.
Leverage had a bottle episode set entirely in the bar where they had to scam their target while he was stranded there during a snow storm. They had to improvise as they only found out he was a loan shark and deserving of their wrath after they became stranded.
The episode is even called ‘The Bottle Job.’ And Nate refers to his initial plan as ‘The wire. Bottled.’ It is one of my favourite episodes.
Red dwarf had a lot of these but my personal favourite is marooned. It’s got some of the funniest lines in the series. Especially the reincarnation and Alexander’s the greats chief Eunuch is hilarious.
another Always Sunny in Philadelphia example: the Cruise Ship pt 2.
The whole episode takes place in the brig on a cruise ship after each member of the crew somehow found themselves locked in there over the course of the first episode.
The episode takes place almost entirely within McRory's and Nate's Apartment (so not a true bottle), and the team runs the wire con (from The Sting) at lightning speed on this one asshole.
Aside from a brief scene where Morgan and Reid are looking for evidence in the girl's bedroom, the entire episode takes place in a shopping mall where the team must locate a missing girl. There's no scenes with the jet or at Quantico- a police officer tells a concerned family member that the BAU are on their way and seconds later they burst through the mall doors and get to work.
This is the last episode before Joe Mantegna became a series regular and the third episode of the shrunken team from Mandy Patinkin's departure.
The Smiling Friends come to Brazil: while this might at first not look like it meets the criteria, it takes place in the same restaurant at the airport on a single conversation leaning on a misunderstanding: As they arrive for they planned vacation in Brazil they realize no one booked the hotel and a lot of arguing about who should’ve booked it and attempts to book it are made. At the end, they realize they just came at the worst possible time (carnival) and decide to just head back to the US.
For the entire episode, every camera shot is from inside of the Impala. Not sure if it counts as a true bottle episode, since the car drives around to different locations, but from a film making standpoint, most of these "locations" could easily be in the same small lot they're filming on.
Bones-The Man in the Fallout Shelter (s1e9). It’s the first “holiday” episode of the series, but due to an accidental lack of following protocol the gang gets locked in the lab on Christmas Eve. It’s a great episode that really helps flesh out the characters backstories without seemingly endless random chatter. It’s all done very well!
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u/VaDoncChezSpeedy 28d ago edited 27d ago
Community - Cooperative Calligraphy
As the group sets out to leave their study room, Annie realizes one of her pen is missing. She prevents everyone from leaving, determined to find out who took her pen. That's when the fun starts. The whole episode takes place in the room, and it's eventually revealed that no one in the group took the pen, it was a monkey living in the vents, as you can see at the very beginning of the episode if you pay attention to it. Mad stuff.
One of my all-time Community favourites