Individual episodes that were a little more ambitious than all the rest

[Sin Agog]

Maybe after that last bottle episode there was some spare money lying around to ditch the same tired mildewing sets and go on a creative field trip. Y'know, episodes like Buffy's Hush and that Sopranos one in the woods with Paulie and Christopher and a Russian alcoholic war vet with half a head.

[Sin Agog]

Fuck, and Twin Peaks, Season 3, Episode 8!

[Dr Rock]

Came here to say Sopranos dream one.

Ok M*A*SH where he kills the baby who was a chicken or whatever happened.

[Dr Rock]

OK google says they did 7 dream ones.

[Icehaven]

Brian and Stewie in the safe in Family Guy. It's not one of the best IMO, but it is one where they've tried to do something different. And the murder mystery one too, that was alright.

[Sin Agog]

That episode of Deep Space Nine where Avery Brooks plays a black sci-fi writer dreaming up the show worked much better than it should. I sometimes wonder whether Brooks is a really good actor or a slightly dodgy actor who gives weirder line readings than Shatner ever did, but I suspect he is actually quite good, even if the man himself was a genuine space cadet. That episode also had the added interest of seeing all the usually heavily made up characters as themselves.

[rasta-spouse]

I always thought Star Trek episodes with Q were a lot more fun than most of the others.

Also every so often inbetween the boring monster-of-the-week streak or Mulder's sister arc of The X-Files there'd be a really great meta/non-linear/comedy episode that would really confuse you.

Haven't seen either of these shows for years though.

[Endicott]

Farscape - S3 Ep16 Revenging Angel. Half of it is done as a Chuck Jones cartoon, mostly based on Road Runner.

[EOLAN]

'The Betrayal' Seinfeld episode; with the scenes progressing backwards. Inspired by Pinter's play of the same name which used a similar structure. 

Bojack Horseman 'Fish out of Water' almost completely silent underwater episode.

Twin Peaks one is still probably the winner though.

[Endicott]

Farscape - S3 Ep16 Revenging Angel. Half of it is done as a Chuck Jones cartoon, mostly based on Road Runner.

Also, S2 Out of Their Minds - body swap episode
S3 Scratch 'n Sniff - completely different directorial/editing style
S4 John Quixote - done as a video game

[NoSleep]

Bojack Horseman 'Fish out of Water' almost completely silent underwater episode.

And the eulogy episode.

[rasta-spouse]

OK google says they did 7 dream ones.

The Sopranos dream episode in which Annette Benning shows up is a really good one, I think that has like 25mins of dreaming.

[Icehaven]

There was a 'backwards' episode of Scrubs once as well where it started at the end and worked backwards to see how it ended up that way, which I thought was quite good at the time but now obviously know it wasn't because it was Scrubs.

Episode of Futurama 'The Sting' where Fry appears to be dead but at the end it turns out Leela's actually been in a coma and the whole episode has been in her head.

[bigfatheart]

There's the semi-infamous Chalet 2000 episode of Kids in the Hall, which was an episode-length sketch written by Scott Thompson about a love affair between the Queen and a beaver.

[Icehaven]

Mad Men had a few goes at these, most notably the one which was just Don and Peggy (mostly took place only in the office too but I think they may have gone out for food at one point.) Can't remember anymore right now, could maybe say the ones where they were out of New York, but there were quite a few of those so they don't really count. (MM was more about individual moments/scenes than entire episodes really, and while as a fan I don't agree with this, there is an argument you could cut at least 25% from most episodes and lose absolutely nothing.)

[sevendaughters]

- the Eastenders episode that is just Dot Cotton monologuing on her own on a sofa.
- Finding Frances episode of Nathan For You is clearly a break from the regular series and powerful as hell

Generally they can be a mis-step and a bit overrated.

[rasta-spouse]

There's an episode of Deadwood which has a really long fight between some dude and one of Al's henchmen, with an eye-extracting ending. That always stood out.

Any Game of Thrones episode that's dedicated to a long battle is worth watching just for how they choreograph it (haven't seen the latest season!).

The Sopranos episode where they go to Italy stood out to me. Also the first episode of the second half of the final season where Tony, Carmella, Bobby and Janice go to a holiday cabin, and Tony makes Bobby do his first hit seemed like a deep piece of drama. 

[a duncandisorderly]

bouncer's dream, obvs.

close the thread.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia has the single shot episode, Charlie Work and the one in which they're caught in a robbery and Charlie has a Pixar inspired animated fantasy.

Generally they can be a mis-step and a bit overrated.

I don't know about mis-step, but I was thinking they tend to be overrated. I suppose it's because they're stand out, it's easy to hold them up and say why they're good, whereas it's more difficult to praise a great but otherwise normal episode.

[Bad Ambassador]

Not Going Out's been increasingly bold recently. A live Christmas episode, a two-hander with one scene lasting 30 minutes last week and a real-time murder mystery this week.

[Bazooka]

I always thought Star Trek episodes with Q were a lot more fun than most of the others.

Also every so often inbetween the boring monster-of-the-week streak or Mulder's sister arc of The X-Files there'd be a really great meta/non-linear/comedy episode that would really confuse you.

Haven't seen either of these shows for years though.

The x-files episode, Postmodern Prometheus (the Cher loving deformed guy) in particular.

[studpuppet]

- the Eastenders episode that is just Dot Cotton monologuing on her own on a sofa.

Any Eastenders episode where they use a location that's further away than Watford town centre.

[Dr Rock]

Bouncer's dream.

[Ambient Sheep]

Also every so often inbetween the boring monster-of-the-week streak or Mulder's sister arc of The X-Files there'd be a really great meta/non-linear/comedy episode that would really confuse you.

Either Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose or the one where Mulder & Scully explore a haunted house together.  Well, neither of those confused me, but both were out of the (extra)ordinary.


As for Star Trek, the first one that came to my mind was TNG's Chain of Command.  Not a hugely unconventional plot I suppose, but very boldly handled.  I suppose The Inner Light is in with a shout too.  Really there could be half-a-dozen more: Remember Me, Parallels, Frame of Mind and of course, Cause and Effect... as well as others I've probably forgotten.

re. DS9, agree that Avery Brooks as 50s SF writer is a good-un but I'd also have to nominate The Wire: the one that centres on Garak's past career; his interactions with Bashir are superb.  One of the best hour43 minutes of TV drama ever made.

[rasta-spouse]

Although the Fargo tv series does at times seem like a compendium of Coen Brothers quirks directly cut-and-pasted from their movies the episode where the prison bus was assaulted was top viewing.

Either Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose or the one where Mulder & Scully explore a haunted house together.  Well, neither of those confused me, but both were out of the (extra)ordinary.

Clyde Bruckman's Final Repose was a Darin Morgan one, I guess that was pretty easy to follow. But Morgan's Jose Chung's From Outer Space was a delightful brain-breaker.

[neveragain]

And the {Bojack} eulogy episode.

And the dementia 'dream'. They're fond of a good gimmick.

I'd offer the prison-set two-hander with Robbie Coltrane from Lead Balloon (Jack Dee series). Only episode I can remember now!

Wouldn't say that any one episode of the Sopranos was more ambitious than another. Consistent high quality and narrative risk-taking.

[Norton Canes]

Got to be Bouncer's dream.

[bobloblaw]

Twin Peaks: The Return episode 8 rules them all.

But these are close behind:

Atlanta: Teddy Perkins.

Barry: Ronny/Lilly.

[Puce Moment]

The episode of The Leftovers when yer man spends his entire time in that life/death limbo in that hotel where he has to sing karaoke.

But yeah, episode 8 close thread probably.

[Shit Good Nose]

I sometimes wonder whether Brooks is a really good actor or a slightly dodgy actor who gives weirder line readings than Shatner ever did

The latter - the man is off his bonce.  There's a doc that Shatner did when he interviewed all of the captains (up to and including Scott Bakula), and Brooks out-Shatnered Shatner to the point where even Shatner was lost for words at a couple of points, and he (Brooks) said an awful lot without saying anything.  He's an absolute loon.