10 Greatest TV Bottle Episodes

In its capacity as the most meta show on telly, Community dedicated a whole episode to the deconstruction of the bottle episode. Season two episode “Cooperative Calligraphy” is a love letter to the concept - but they raised the stakes significantly for the following year’s “Remedial Chaos Theory”.

While the entirety of the action takes place in Troy and Abed’s apartment, the episode breaks the mould with its brilliantly original structure. A simple game of chance - a dice being rolled to determine who has to go and fetch the pizza delivery - leads to seven separate timelines, the course of history varying sharply depending on who’s not present.

It’s one of the smartest instalments of a show functioning at the top of its game, but it’s not just artifice: over 20 minutes, they manage to set up important stories for the rest of the season and even series: Annie moving in to the apartment, Troy and Britta’s relationship, Jeff’s increasing distance from the gang.

In creating what amounts to seven bottle episodes in one, this was a reminder that Community was operating on a level above most sitcoms at the time. It’s a daring episode which pays off in spades.