Fig. 1. Still from S3E1, ‘Tomorrow’, The Bear (FX on Hulu, 2022–) There is nothing new about filler or bottle episodes; when I hear the latter term, I always think of Abed (Danny Pudi) from the NBC sitcom Community complaining about how, in ‘Cooperative Calligraphy’ (S2E8), they (the characters) are becoming stuck in a bottle episode. It is a trope so common it can be used for comedy – and that was 15 years ago.

✒️ Editor's Note: Today's guest post was written by Altynai Mambetova . Altynai holds a Master's degree in Data Science from the University of Manchester. Her background spans data journalism to data art, and in her work, she transforms textual data into impactful solutions through research publications.

Booking is now open for the Screen Two at 40 symposium at BFI Southbank, London, on the 12th November 2025.

In a previous academic life, I was trained as an historian and archaeologist, particularly regarding representation of heritage.  While this has proved unexpectedly good training for eventually becoming a media theorist studying representation (amongst other things), it also means I often have a somewhat ambivalent relationship with documentaries about history, archaeology and/or culture.

I was asked to write an op-ed piece saying why I think the BBC’s Written Archives Centre (WAC) is a unique and brilliant resource, which I can do because it’s both – and why, therefore, the BBC’s slimming of its services is a Bad Thing.

This article was first published on WFTHN on the 17th October 2025. Warning: This article is divided into two parts, but both have detailed descriptions of sexual violence in the book and TV series, Rivals. Author’s Note: This essay was written before the death of Dame Jilly Cooper.

Disclaimer I will speak from my own experience and from what I know the most — the case of being a (European) cisgender woman in academia . I don’t claim to represent or fully understand the struggles of transgender women or other genders in this article. Everything: The Weight on Your Shoulders of Multiple Expectations An Invisible Pressure Women in academia constantly feel an

Archival work (photo courtesy of Helen Wheatley) People following the last few weeks of the Critical Studies in Television blog will have seen my brilliant colleagues discussing the essential work that they have been able to do thanks to the previous researcher-led access arrangements at the BBC Written Archives.

Open Science (OS) is a movement that aims to bring about a change to the academic publishing system. Yet, despite being around for over 30 years, it has had relatively limited success. Traditional publishers still dominate the landscape, article processing charges have made publishing less equitable and the whole system is straining under the pressure of increased numbers of papers and a reduced reviewer pool.

Margery Wace in 1935. With kind permission of Cecilia Johnson. My first visit to the BBC’s Written Archives Centre was in 2002. I was working as a producer on Woman’s Hour and had applied for a three-month attachment to what was then the Diversity Centre, to research and write a history of women at the BBC.

Those of you that have been reading CSTonline for a while will know that I have been in the USA for the past 6 years.  I was employed (as an American TV scholar) to write a Master’s Programme in TV Studies.