# Bottle Episode — Series Format

> Episode set in single location with reduced cast. Originally for budget reasons; now creative choice.

## Format basics

- Length: matches series
- Single location (often)
- Reduced cast (regular characters only)
- Dialogue-heavy
- Production: cheap, fast

## Why bottle episodes exist

### Budget
- Money for expensive episodes elsewhere
- Single set already built
- No location costs
- Minimal extras

### Creative
- Forces character focus
- Tests writer skill
- Often most memorable episodes

## Structure

Standard episode structure but constrained by location:

```
COLD OPEN
- Establish situation in location
- Why are they there?
- Tension

ACT 1
- Conflict develops in location
- Characters can't leave (literally or figuratively)

ACT 2
- Pressure cooker
- Tensions explode
- Revelations

ACT 3
- Resolution within location
- Or escape becomes possible
- Character status changed
```

## Famous bottle episodes

### Breaking Bad — "Fly"
- Walt and Jesse alone in lab
- Trying to catch a fly
- Real conversation about life
- Production cheap, emotionally massive

### Mad Men — "The Suitcase"
- Don and Peggy in office overnight
- Working on Samsonite ad
- Their relationship explored
- Single location

### Community — "Cooperative Calligraphy"
- Study group locked in study room
- Looking for a missing pen
- Self-aware bottle episode
- Comedy on the form

### The X-Files — "Ice"
- Mulder, Scully + small team in arctic station
- Single location thriller
- Like John Carpenter's "The Thing"

### Better Call Saul — "Plan and Execution"
- Several scenes in single locations
- Character pressure cooker

## Sample bottle episode

```
TITLE: "Karavan" Episode 8 — "The Storage Room"
(Bottle episode — single location)

LOGLINE: When a winter storm cuts power to the warehouse, three
siblings are trapped in the storage room overnight with nothing to
do but talk — and they finally do.

LOCATION: The storage room of the warehouse — single location, all
60 minutes

COLD OPEN (0-5 min):
- Storm warning on radio
- Eldar, Nigar, Ramin at warehouse for inventory
- Power flickers
- They go to the basement storage room to check the backup generator
- The door slams shut behind them
- Generator is broken
- Their phones — no signal in basement
- They are stuck

ACT 1 (5-15 min):
- They try to break out — door is metal, won't budge
- They try to call for help — no signal
- They have a small lamp, a thermos of tea, and each other
- They settle in for what could be hours
- Tension immediate

ACT 2 (15-40 min):
- The conversation begins reluctantly
- Light tasks: organize coffee bags, sweep floor
- Then deeper:
  - Why Eldar left for London
  - Why Ramin chose academia over the family business
  - Why Nigar built her own restaurant rather than join
- Old wounds surface
- Father's death and what it meant to each of them
- Unspoken resentments
- The fight about who was the favorite (turns out, it was Nigar)
- The fight about who left first (turns out, all three did, in different ways)
- Tears
- Long silence
- Then quiet honesty
- Each shares one thing they have never told anyone

ACT 3 (40-55 min):
- The lamp dies
- They sit in darkness
- The vulnerability easier without seeing
- More truth
- They realize: they have been a family this whole time. Their
father knew that even when they didn't
- The storm passes
- Help arrives
- They emerge from the basement at dawn

TAG (55-60 min):
- They walk out of the warehouse together
- Sun rising over the Caspian
- They don't speak. They don't need to.
- ELDAR puts his hand on RAMIN's shoulder. Nigar walks between them.
- Final image: three siblings walking together into the morning,
backs to camera.

(Quiet score. No sound except their footsteps.)
```

## Key principles

### Forced proximity
Characters can't leave. Must engage.

### Time pressure (often)
Limited time amplifies tension.

### Dialogue carries
This is character work, not action.

### One conflict can sustain hour
With right characters, single conflict + single location = full episode.

### Production discipline
Single location = no overshooting. Tight schedule.

## Bottle vs single location

Some episodes have single location but aren't true "bottle":
- Many guest characters
- Big production despite location
- Action-heavy

True bottle = constraint creative as well as budget.

## When to write bottle

- Budget pressure
- Character work needed
- Pressure-cooker tension
- Writer wants test
- Memorable episode opportunity

## Common bottle mistakes

- Boring without action (need character)
- Forced excuse for being stuck
- Out-of-character reveals (just for episode)
- Resolution magical (door opens, why?)
- Too dialogue-heavy (no visual)

## Production benefits

- Cheap to shoot
- Fast schedule
- Often during break in main production
- Saves budget for big episodes
- Showcases acting
- Win for writers' rooms
