10 Experimental TV Episodes You NEED To See

Bottle episodes are certainly not a new phenomenon in television, but they do afford creative writers the opportunity to do something wildly different with a given show's ongoing format.

Bottle episodes are typically produced with minimal cast members and confined locations, perhaps in order to free up some of the series' budget for another, more expensive episode, or simply because the showrunner wanted to break from the established template.

And arguably one of the best bottle episode of all time is "Fly," a season three episode of Breaking Bad focused almost entirely around Walt (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse (Aaron Paul) attempting to kill a pesky fly in the meth lab for fear that it will contaminate their meth cooking.

Directed with panache by Rian Johnson and unsurprisingly terrifically acted by both Cranston and Paul - the only two main cast members who appear on-screen in the episode - Fly is nevertheless something of a provocation to those who simply expected the show to keep its foot on the gas with regard to the wider narrative.

Despite receiving rave reviews from critics, Fly was one of Breaking Bad's least-viewed episodes on its initial premiere, as many clearly objected to a character-driven episode focused on Walt and Jesse doing something rather mundane.

All the same, Fly remains proof perfect that when you've got incredible writers, directors, and actors (even just two of them), it's possible to produce can't-look-away television with modest resources.