

Let’s say your location is a closet, and you have two characters that are locked inside it. Whatever your setting is, be it an elevator, locked room or underground bunker, you’ve got to use the location to heighten the drama. Let’s look at the essential building blocks of writing a bottle episode. A bottle episode can be and often is a showpiece within the series. And in recent years bottle episodes have gone from just money savers to opportunities for the creative team to really flex their creative muscles. Writers have to constantly adapt to the locations and storylines they have at their disposal.īottle episodes, though they restrict writers to one setting and a certain number of characters, also open up opportunity for creativity.
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One week we see an epic bloodbath full of explosions & effects, next week, we might find our characters stuck in an elevator, opening up to each other. For instance, the Friends Season 4 finale, was set in London (where Ross marries Emily) and divided into two parts. This is why we often see a season finale set in a one-off location. Whether it is a specific stunt, effect or an exotic location, producers will invest money in the most important episode of that series. This is often the result of production companies spending more money on certain episodes. Imagine your favourite TV series, and there will likely be at least one bottle episode within that series.
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These will normally be episodes in the middle of the series where the budget has been prioritized mainly towards the season finale.A bottle episode is a low budget episode, primarily set in a single location, often with a reduction of the main cast.

TV series have a fixed budget, and while you could think production costs would be spread evenly across episodes, it’s actually far from it.

Why Does This Work Well As a Bottle Episode?.Why does this work well as a bottle episode?.What makes this a good example of a bottle episode?.Friends – ‘The One Where No One’s Ready’.Make Things Difficult For Your Characters
