Monday, 7 September 2020

How the Bottle Episode Went From Frugal to Flex

quote [ Paring down a cast and limiting a TV installment to one location used to be a challenge initiated by budgets—now it’s one thrown down by the creators themselves ]

But it’s like a bottle episode
[SFW] [tv & movies] [+3 Underrated]
[by ScoobySnacks]
<-- Entry / Comment History

hellboy said @ 8:15pm GMT on 8th September
Strictly self-contained episodes using only the existing set or sets and the main cast (no guest stars, no new locations). The use of highlight clips is orthogonal - most clip shows are also bottle episodes, but it would be possible to do a clip show with a guest star, introducing them to the main cast or explaining the back story, and that would not be a bottle episode, so they're not the same thing.

"Blackwater" is not a bottle episode by any definition that makes sense ("fewer locations than usual" is not a bottle). "Rixty Minutes" isn't either because the clips they watch are new material. The Archer elevator episode qualifies (and maybe more so than the article author realizes, if they recycled existing animation). Even "Pine Barrens" doesn't qualify, since it has several distinct locations, and the main location itself is new.

"Bottle episode" does NOT mean "a story that mostly takes place in a single location". There's already a term for that: chamber piece. Most bottle episodes are also chamber pieces, but not necessarily (if the show has multiple standing sets, it can be a bottle episode without being confined to one location). Twelve Angry Men is a classic example of a chamber piece. "Pine Barrens" is mostly a chamber piece despite being out-of-doors. But just because something is a chamber piece, that doesn't make a it a bottle episode.


hellboy said @ 8:17pm GMT on 8th September
Strictly self-contained episodes using only the existing set or sets and the main cast (no guest stars, no new locations). The use of highlight clips is orthogonal - most clip shows are also bottle episodes, but it would be possible to do a clip show with a guest star, introducing them to the main cast or explaining the back story, and that would not be a bottle episode, so they're not the same thing.

"Blackwater" is not a bottle episode by any definition that makes sense ("fewer locations than usual" is not a bottle). "Rixty Minutes" isn't either because the clips they watch are new material. The Archer elevator episode qualifies (and maybe more so than the article author realizes, if they recycled existing animation). Even "Pine Barrens" doesn't qualify, since it has several distinct locations, and the main location itself is new.

"Bottle episode" does NOT mean "a story that mostly takes place in a single location". There's already a term for that: chamber piece. Most bottle episodes are also chamber pieces, but not necessarily (if the show has multiple standing sets, it can be a bottle episode without being confined to one location). Twelve Angry Men is a classic example of a chamber piece. "Pine Barrens" is mostly a chamber piece despite being out-of-doors. But just because something is a chamber piece, that doesn't make a it a bottle episode.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BottleEpisode



<-- Entry / Current Comment
hellboy said @ 8:15pm GMT on 8th September
Strictly self-contained episodes using only the existing set or sets and the main cast (no guest stars, no new locations). The use of highlight clips is orthogonal - most clip shows are also bottle episodes, but it would be possible to do a clip show with a guest star, introducing them to the main cast or explaining the back story, and that would not be a bottle episode, so they're not the same thing.

"Blackwater" is not a bottle episode by any definition that makes sense ("fewer locations than usual" is not a bottle). "Rixty Minutes" isn't either because the clips they watch are new material. The Archer elevator episode qualifies (and maybe more so than the article author realizes, if they recycled existing animation). Even "Pine Barrens" doesn't qualify, since it has several distinct locations, and the main location itself is new.

"Bottle episode" does NOT mean "a story that mostly takes place in a single location". There's already a term for that: chamber piece. Most bottle episodes are also chamber pieces, but not necessarily (if the show has multiple standing sets, it can be a bottle episode without being confined to one location). Twelve Angry Men is a classic example of a chamber piece. "Pine Barrens" is mostly a chamber piece despite being out-of-doors. But just because something is a chamber piece, that doesn't make a it a bottle episode.

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BottleEpisode




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