I have only seen two episodes of Doctor Who but one of them (the first I saw) was “Blink”. While I know some about DW, no knowledge really seemed necessary as the story was mainly about a character separate from the regular characters of the show. Essentially it was a 45 minute sci fi horror film.
A recent episode of Louie “In the Woods” was a story about Louie catching his daughter smoking pot and flashing back to a “lost year” of his youth when he basically did nothing but get high. Very little continuity and someone who ever saw the show would probably enjoy it as an hour plus (without commercials) short film.
I figure this is probably rare but any other examples of episodes of shows that are basically self contained and would work as a full story in and of themselves?
I don’t mean just self contained episodes. I mean where someone could watch and appreciate without ever seeing a previous episode or knowing much about the show.
Those two sentences contradict each other, don’t they? I think RealityChuck is right. A generation ago, series tried to make each episode self-contained so as to not scare away new viewers. Now, season-long story arcs are common because they want to lock in existing viewers. It’s just a change in marketing tactics, which is arguably due to the changing landscape of viewership.
I used the episode “Black and Blue” as an introduction to Homicide: Life on the Street once. It’s nicely self-contained, showcases the strong points of the show well, and doesn’t reveal anything that might ruin future episodes.
And while I agree that many older shows could be watched in any order, I do think that there are still some episodes which stand up as something like a movie in terms of quality of storytelling and for encapsulating the whole premise of the show.
I did a little searching and found this list of TV episodes that are particularly scary. I think that most of them work as self-contained movies. “Blink” is listed as one of them. That particular episode was what I was going to recommend when I saw the title of this thread. The lis split into two halves:
Movies traditionally have a very different type of arc than a classic “episodic” tv show. Movies (and novels) generally feature a plot in which the characters experience some sort of transformation or permanent change. The protagonist starts off as a club owner/moisture farmer/princess and ends up a hero of the Resistance/Rebellion/little people. Often, especially in pulpier genre movies, the protagonist is shown returning to his or her previous life, but there is always some sense that a major goal has been achieved: the girl won, world saved, car found, virginity lost, etc. When the arc is I sufficiently transformative or the goal too minor, it’s often said that the movie feels too much like a tv show.
This is because in episodic tv shows, the main characters almost never experience transformation or accomplish major goals. Instead, secondary guest characters are brought in to experience those things, or the main characters are shown experiencing minor, temporary problems whose resolution merely reinstates the status quo, or the main characters experience minor, temporary victories in which the larger permanent problem is unresolved, again restoring the status quo. In modern serialized tv shows, the main characters do experience transformation, but it tends to be gradual, or at least the culmination of several episodes.
It’s rare for a tv episode to feature an arc in which the main character undergoes a major, transformative experience. When it happens, the episode is often praised as “cinematic.” “Blink” and “Love and Monsters” from Doctor Who was the first thing that came to mind when I read the thread title, even before I read the OP. They both work by making the guest characters into the protagonists and telling the story from their point of view, rather than using the series regulars as the POV characters who watch and motivate the secondary characters’ transformations. The other way is to have a transformative experience for a series main character that doesn’t overtly effect the plot of other episodes! but leaves the audience feeling that their relationship with the characters has changed. None of the characters bring up Spock’s pon farr, but the audience sees Spock differently and reads into his friendship with Jim and Bones a new level of respect and intimacy, even if their actual interactions on the show are unchanged. Those are the types of episodes I think the OP is looking for.
Most TV series with self-contained episodes still rely on viewers’ familiarity with the characters and their relationships with each other, the settings, and even familiar catchphrases and bits of recurring shtick, to fully appreciate them. (The exception would be “anthology” shows like The Twilight Zone, successful ones of which are relatively rare.)
I think Moonlighting’s (Bruce Willis/Cybill Shepherd) *Taming of the Shrew *episode might fit the OP although I don’t think it would enlighten a casual viewing to the main story arc.