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April 2020 Watchlist: We Are In A Bottle Episode
A bottle episode of a series is one where the scope is more limited than what is typical, usually with a single location and/or heavily focus on just a few characters. The purpose is usually to save production costs, but it also can be a real playground for writers and actors to explore people and places in depth.
Sound familiar? It should, ‘cause it’s us! Here we go a-sheltering, so thank goodness for television.
Archer S6E5 “Vision Quest” - This show is wacky anyway, but locking all the characters in an elevator for a real time bottle episode is a whole new hilarious danger zone chock-full of in-jokes and call-backs.
Atlanta S2E6 “Teddy Perkins” - Atlanta is a funny show, but “Teddy Perkins” is a psychological horror masterpiece. One of the series regulars arrives at a mansion to pick up a free piano from essentially a late stage Michael Jackson lookalike, and things go from unsettling to much worse over the course of 41 minutes. This aired without commercials or advanced critic screenings, and both helped us feel absolutely suffocated in this giant house.
Breaking Bad S3E10 “Fly” - Extremely over budget and looking at the lives of their characters, the Breaking Bad producers decided to make an episode with just two characters, set in the lab. Rian Johnson- yes, THAT Rian Johnson- directed this tale of two guys with big contamination in their lives who focus their energy on ridding themselves of at least one toxic thing: a fly in their workspace.
Community S2E8 “Cooperative Calligraphy” - Annie’s purple pen is missing, and she is TIRED of lending out her stuff and not getting it back. Nobody is seeing the puppy parade, touching that just-finished diorama, or even leaving this room until it’s found! Community had multiple bottle episodes, but this was a truly incredible feat of small screen filmmaking.
Fawlty Towers S1E4 “Hotel Inspectors” - This show is one of John Cleese’s most enduring works, and still holds up decades later. This particular episode, loosely based on a Nikolai Gogol satirical play, has Basil Fawlty hearing that inspectors are coming to his hotel and immediately mistaking regular guests for them. The cycle of frustration is hilarious!
Friends S3E2 “The One Where No One’s Ready” - It takes a lot of work to make even a single member of an audience feel kinda bad for Ross, but if you’re a punctual person, he’ll earn a bit of your pity in this one. Ross shows up to collect the whole gang for a fancy dress work event only to witness, in real time, some of the most ridiculous bickering, problem solving, and going commando ever undertaken on the show. This is also the one with Monica trying to delete her voicemail message from her ex’s phone and the one where Joey wears all of Chandler’s clothes at once.
It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia S7E7 “Chardee MacDennis” - The absolute chaos that is the Reynolds siblings and the most terrifying tabletop extravaganza of Game Of Games, aka Chardee MacDennis, meet and peak in this episode, when the gang is stuck inside the bar on a rainy day. There are notebook-sized sets of rules for this game if you’d like to risk your life and friendships at home, but we recommend just watching this absolutely ridiculous episode instead.
Mad Men S4E7 “The Suitcase” - There’s a sporting event happening that all but two characters are heading toward. The remaining two are Peggy, who is only waiting for her boss to leave so she can go celebrate her birthday with her boyfriend, and Don, who is sinking into his ad deadline like it’s television quicksand. Peggy and Don end up spending the night working together, refreshingly without romance, even as their personal lives continue to encroach. Their process leads to a brief but absolute understanding between them. Shame the show peaked here, at its halfway point.
Parks & Recreation S7E4 “Leslie & Ron” - There’s a time jump between the 6th and 7th seasons, and for some reason Leslie and Ron are no longer on speaking terms this side of the series. Tired of this nonsense, the rest of the gang tricks them both into meeting in the good ol’ office and locks them in overnight so they can talk it out. What starts as Ron being sullen and silent and Leslie trying to annoy Ron ends in secrets shared, reconciliation, and a stunning rendition of “We Didn’t Start The Fire.”
Star Trek TOS S1E5 “The Enemy Within” - No show ep deserves to be on this list more than The Enemy Within- possibly the origin of the term ‘bottle episode,’ Leonard Nimoy’s invention of the Vulcan nerve pinch, the first time McCoy says, “he’s dead, Jim,” and the true start of the person-split-in-two-parts trope.
Veep S2E8 “First Response” - Imagine the most uncomfortable interview you’ve ever seen or been part of. Now imagine that interview involved a supposed fluff news reporter who is suddenly intent on asking hard-hitting questions and a socially inept, graceless vice president. This episode is all the secondhand cringe an audience could handle, and we will let you decide who- if anybody- won this battle of wills.
The West Wing S2E18 “17 People” - This is a nearly perfect hour of television, even if the show as a whole has some issues in hindsight. Several conversations all happening inside the White House weave together to form a hilarious and heartbreaking narrative that drives the remainder of the season. How good is it, you ask? A fan (some fans?) literally built an entire website for this episode alone.
As always, this pared down dozen and the masterlist are available on our Patreon. Enjoy!
sometimes you get a horrible idea at 2 in the morning and you have no choice but to make it exist
Um well I love comedy so I drew charaters from some of my faves
In order; Basil fawlty-fawlty towers Dell boy- only fools and horses Rodney- only fools and horses Tony- men behaving badly Gary- men behaving badly Hyacinth bucket- keeping up apperances
The greatest television show I've seen in years... what a masterpiece!
Fawlty Towers is now in my google drive for those of you who have never seen this absolute classic of British comedy!