Breather Episode / Live-Action TV

Breather Episodes of live-action TV.

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• 24's first season is structured in such a way as to provide closure to the plot involving Jack's family in the event that the show wasn't given a full season order. Episode 13 is a transitional and relatively "talky" episode and is the first episode of the show in which nobody is killed.
• All in the Family:
  • The 1977-1978 season is acclaimed for having some of that series' darkest and most memorable episodes: Archie buys Kelsey's Bar and is addicted to amphetamines, Edith's cousin comes out of the closet, Archie has an all-too-close encounter with the Ku Klux Klan, Edith witnesses a murder, Edith is nearly raped, Archie admits to Mike he was abused as a child, Mike gets a job offer in California, Mike and Gloria say goodbye. But, lest we forget, there were a number of lighter episodes – Edith being hired to do a TV commercial, Archie hosting his first Super Bowl party (even if he was robbed that day), Archie wants to go on a fishing trip but must host an impromptu wedding between two old codgers and a few others. Even though themes of ethics and morals came into play for several of the "lighter" episodes, they were considerably easier and more family friendly than the most memorable of the season's episodes.
  • Speaking of which, each one of the seasons, from the second season on, had episodes that were played more for laughs (in the vein of the traditional sitcom of the 1950s and 1960s) than to break another of TV's taboos or address a controversial topic. One of the first – and perhaps the signature episode of the entire series – was a 1972 episode featuring a beloved singer and dancer named Sammy Davis Jr..
• The first four seasons of The Amazing Race had a non-elimination leg between the final elimination leg and the finale. Since there were no penalties given out to teams saved by the non-elimination for those seasons, most teams considered this a free leg.
• In Angel, the first half of Season 3 is a moderately dark arc involving the birth of Angel's son. Then we have "Provider", which includes moments between Wes and Fred, Gunn and Fred, Angel and Cordy, Cordy and Gunn, and especially Wes and Gunn.
  • It's followed immediately by "Waiting in the Wings", where the crew attends a performance by a cursed ballet troupe just before the very dark arc dealing with Holtz's plan to kill Angel and kidnap his son.
  • In Season 5, Cordelia's and Fred's deaths are separated by "Smile Time", which is this trope writ very large indeed.
  • While less well known than "Smile Time", "The Girl in Question" is also a perfect fit for this trope. The episode was immediately before the show's extremely dark and depressing final two episodes. It featured, among other things, Angel and Spike's "arch nemesis" The Immortal, a decapitated demon's head held for ransom, and more than a few Ho Yay moments between the aforementioned vampires.
• Atlanta has the Season 2 episode "Champagne Papi" — a Day in the Limelight episode where Van and her friends attend a New Year's Eve party at the mansion of Drake — which is a much needed breather after the events of Surreal Horror that occurred in the previous episode "Teddy Perkins".
• Babylon 5 had a mix of Wham Episodes and Breather Episodes earlier on, but even the latter usually advanced some aspect of the overall series Arc, if only in B-plot. By the climax of the arc, they were rarer. They returned some in the fifth season, though they were not necessarily light or fluffy. For example, the fifth-season episode "Day Of The Dead," written by Neil Gaiman, was a completely stand-alone story, and a definite breather after the missteps of the Telepath plotline and before the Centauri War; it was not, however, simple fare. A deliberate subversion with "Interludes and Examinations", which was given an innocuous title to lull the audience into expecting a breather. It isn't.
• Ron Moore attempted to do this once or twice with Battlestar Galactica.
  • After nearly a dozen hours of the most dramatic and emotionally draining stories that the Sci-Fi Channel had seen, the network pleaded with him to create a lighter, more humorous episode. That episode ended up being "Tigh Me Up, Tigh Me Down". While somewhat more schticky than any previous or following episode, it certainly didn't help the goal that Eddie Olmos himself took the reins as director.
  • The writing team of Battlestar Galactica was notoriously incapable of producing such episodes. The third season episode "Taking a Break From All Your Worries" was another response to a plea from the network for a breather. It was originally intended to be a fun, light stand-alone episode concerning the establishment of a bar on the Galactica. what made it onto the screen was an almost unbearably grimdark episode in which the B-plot involves the suicidally depressing dysfunction of several romantic relationships, while the A-plot covers the force-feeding, mock execution, and drug-induced torture of a major character. Fun!
  • Season 1 episode Act of Contrition came on the heels of the rather heavy Miniseries and similarly intense episodes of 33, Water and Bastille Day. The network requested that this episode be about something happy, like a celebration or a birthday party. It seemed like Ron Moore had acquiesced, with the start of the episode seeing Starbuck tell a humorous story and a group of pilots celebrating one of them making their 1000th Landing. Then, the pilots are all killed in what looks like a freak accident and the rest of the episode is dedicated to the investigation that culminates in numerous false accusations; Starbuck dealing with Survivor Guilt; and the Fleet struggling with loss of a dozen or so skilled pilots.
• Subverted in Blackadder Goes Forth: The episode "Major Star" is the only episode of the series not directly centered on Edmund's attempts to escape, but instead focuses on him staging a war relief show (with an obvious purpose).
• Black Mirror is a show that's notorious for spooking viewers with dystopian sci-fi visions of a world in which seemingly cool technology is used to hurt people. Starting in the third season, however, each season has at least one episode that turns this formula on its head in a more optimistic direction. "San Junipero" in season three is a romance in which the technology explored in the episode is used to bring people together. In season four, both "USS Callister" (an Affectionate Parody of Star Trek) and "Black Museum" feature a lot of the series' trademark darkness in how their respective Big Bads operate, but both of them get a righteous comeuppance at the hands of the protagonists, who walk away victorious by turning that technology against the villains. Season five's "Rachel, Jack and Ashley Too" is an R-rated Affectionate Parody of a Disney Channel Original Movie, complete with its teenage protagonists saving the day through a Zany Scheme.
• The Boy Meets World episode "Bee True" from season six was the first purely comedic episode after eight straight episodes with at least one dramatic plotline. In those eight episodes, the show dealt with themes such as death, grief, finding oneself, parental abandonment, parental responsibility, and premature birth. "Bee True" involved Cory and Shawn concocting a Zany Scheme to help Mr. Feeny win over Dean Bolander.
• Buffy the Vampire Slayer:
  • The second half of the second season featured one of the show's darker arcs. Comedic episodes such as "Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered" and "Go Fish" lightened the mood.
  • Season 3 features "Doppelgangland" which comes right after Faith's Face–Heel Turn. It's a light-hearted comedy episode that has a vampire alter ego for Willow walking around causing mistaken identity laughs.
  • "Tabula Rasa", an episode of wacky mind-loss comedy before we plunge headlong into darkness, and don't surface again until the end of the season. May even count as a subversion, as it is the episode where Tara leaves Willow and Giles leaves for England.
  • "I Was Made to Love You" is a fun, light-hearted episode just before Buffy's mother suddenly dies and the gang spends most of the rest of the season running for their lives. Joss loves the subversion involved in ending a breather episode with a harsh return to the darkness of the main plot ... or even ending a happy moment with a cruel twist. Take "Seeing Red", where Willow and Tara are all giddily happy in their newly reignited relationship at the beginning of the episode, something many fans had been waiting for since their breakup, only to have Tara shot to death 40 minutes later.
  • "Intervention". After the previous 2 episodes, the show needed an(other) episode featuring a sex robot.
• For being a show where almost every episode includes at least one murder, The Closer has had surprisingly many:
  • The relatively light episode "The Round File" immediately follows "Ruby", which features a man who rapes and kills black pre-teen girls.
  • "Dial M for Provenza" is a mostly comedic episode about a woman who tries to put out a hit on her husband but is too stupid to pull it off, and is immediately followed by "Problem Child", about a missing 14-year-old boy who turns out to have been a budding psychopath, who terrorized everyone he knew.
  • "Tapped Out", the episode with the over the top fake cop, the screaming woman and the sleazy victim who kind of had it coming, is definitely a breather episode.
  • "Smells like Murder", the episode with the body in the cooler that's sent to the LAPD by mail, is sandwiched between "Identity Theft", about a man who's on trial for murder and pleads guilty to protect his schizophrenic son, and "Maternal Instincts", about a teenage boy who is shot in a parking lot but doesn't die right away and bonds with Brenda's niece.
• In Cobra Kai "Glory of Love" and "Pulpo", the two episodes prior to the Season 2 finale, are fairly fun and lighthearted with a lot of good things happening for Johnny. Then the Season Finale shows up, fittingly called "No Mercy", that has an outright insane battle between Miyagi-Do and Cobra Kai that ends on the absolute darkest note of the series: Sam is hospitalized with Amanda telling Daniel in no uncertain terms that he is done with karate, Miguel is near fatally injured and possibly permanently crippled by Robby who has in turn gone on the run, Carmen now hates Johnny because of this, John Kreese has stolen the Cobra Kai dojo with most of the students turning on Johnny to join him, and it ends with Johnny sitting on the beach having lost everything to an outright depressing remix of Cruel Summer.
• According to Stephen Colbert, A Colbert Christmas was a breather episode for real life. After the intensity of the 2008 elections, this is quite believable.
• The Cold Case episode "The House", about a sympathetic convict who fakes his death, is sandwiched between "Daniela" (a tale of Star-Crossed Lovers which ends in suicide) and "Who's Your Daddy" (a breaking and entering which results in sexual assault and familial massacre).
• CSI had the lighthearted Lower Deck/Bottle Episode "You Kill Me", about The Lab Rat Hodges running the other Lab Rats through elaborate (and absurd) murder scenarios as part of a CSI-themed board game he was creating. The previous episode featured the Put on a Bus departure of a main character, while the following episode concerned another main character breaking down after becoming addicted to prescription drugs.
• Season five of Dexter has the episode "Teenage Wasteland", which takes a break from the Barrel Girls arc to focus on Dexter's reconciliation with his daughter, Astor. If you take out the title character's internal narration, it could almost be taken straight out of a sweet family show.
• Doctor Who:
  • Way back in the days of William Hartnell, a twelve-part epic called "The Daleks' Master Plan" was broadcast. Episode 7, "The Feast of Steven", was broadcast on Christmas Day, and in part to make sure people who weren't watching TV that day didn't lose track of the main story later, it's just a comedy piece with no Daleks in it. "The Daleks' Master Plan" and the story immediately following it, "The Massacre of St Bartholomew's Eve", are arguably the darkest in the show's history, and together aired over a span of four months. The relatively lighthearted serial "The Ark" was a much-welcomed break from the endless death and destruction brought by these two storylines.
  • Tom Baker's first year as the Fourth Doctor has a short two-part adventure called "The Sontaran Experiment". While not the silliest and lighthearted of stories, its short length and fairly straightforward plotline and themes contrasted the serials immediately preceding and following it — "The Ark in Space" and "Genesis of the Daleks", two of the bleakest, most thought-provoking serials the show had ever done. Then, after "Genesis of the Daleks" we get "Revenge of the Cybermen", where the Doctor gets to poke fun at Harry, suddenly launch into Shakespeare performances and complain about the Cybermen's terrible dialogue.
  • Peter Davison's tenure similarly had one two-part serial each year. The most notable was the first, "Black Orchid": a lightweight pure historical with no science fiction elements. It was one last fun adventure for the TARDIS crew before the next serial, "Earthshock", which famously featured both the return of the Cybermen after a nearly decade-long hiatus and, most notably, the death of companion Adric.
  • "Boom Town" in Series 1 provided a much-needed break between the gritty darkness of "The Empty Child"/"The Doctor Dances" and the climactic "Bad Wolf"/"The Parting of the Ways".
  • Series 2 has "Love & Monsters" and "Fear Her", widely considered to be among the series' silliest storylines ever, sandwiched directly between the finale "Army of Ghosts"/"Doomsday", with its famous Tear Jerker ending, and the two-part storyline "The Impossible Planet"/"The Satan Pit", which has the Doctor face Satan himself (possibly) and deals with many heavy themes.
  • Following all-out war in "The Sontaran Stratagem"/"The Poison Sky" and "The Doctor's Daughter" and before the nightmarish Library in "Silence in the Library"/"Forest of the Dead", we have "The Unicorn and the Wasp", a murder mystery parodying Agatha Christie's works. Attempted murder through cyanide has never been so hilarious!
  • Despite "The Next Doctor" and "Planet of the Dead" having the subject matter of a man having missing identity due to a fugue state and a race of aliens that turned a thriving world to dust, respectively, they were fun romps in comparison to the horrifying "The Waters of Mars" and David Tennant's tragic regeneration story "The End of Time".
  • After the viewers start to come to terms with Rory's erasure in "Cold Blood" and the depression factor of Vincent van Gogh in "Vincent and the Doctor", we get "The Lodger", a nice funny episode where the Doctor pretends to be human and plays football rather well before the HSQ hits the fan in the finale "The Pandorica Opens"/"The Big Bang".
  • In the first half of Series 6, we get the fun little pirate tale "The Curse of the Black Spot" wedged between the thrilling, terrifying, heart-wrenching season premiere and the sad and scary "The Doctor's Wife". After Amy, Rory, and the Doctor had their egos completely broken and their faith challenged in the second half, leading to the Doctor leaving Rory and Amy behind, we got "Closing Time", which got pretty scary, but nonetheless was far more lighthearted than the preceding episodes (and, incidentally, featured Craig from the previous year's Breather Episode "The Lodger"). Although in this one, the "breather" ended slightly before the actual episode did, with a scene at the end thrown in to remind the audience what was coming in the finale "The Wedding of River Song".
  • Series 7 has two, both written by Chris Chibnall. "Dinosaurs on a Spaceship" was a fun little romp that came after an emotional and horrifying Dalek episode and before the deconstruction "A Town Called Mercy". "The Power of Three" was a fun and heartwarming Slice of Life episode that focused on the Ponds who get a heartbreaking send-off an episode later...
  • Series 8, which introduced the darker, broodier Twelfth Doctor, has two of these. The sunshiny swashbuckler "Robot of Sherwood" is set between the tragic "Into the Dalek" and the extra-spooky and emotionally tender "Listen". After the scary "Flatline", which sees Clara becoming more of a Pragmatic Hero due to the Doctor's influence, there's "In the Forest of the Night" — it has a spooky fairy tale atmosphere, but there's No Antagonist, Everybody Lives, and cute kids while the positive Character Development of the Doctor, Clara, and Danny comes to the fore. The episode is followed by the tragic two-part finale "Dark Water"/"Death in Heaven", in which Danny dies and ends up a Cyberman, Clara tries to betray the Doctor, Missy is revealed to be the Master, fan favorite Osgood is slain, and the Doctor and Clara part ways via mutual lies.
  • Averted in Series 9's multi-parters if one doesn't count the humourous prequel short "The Doctor's Meditation". The one standalone ("Sleep No More") was Found Footage horror, the lightest ("The Girl Who Died") had a very serious development in the season's Story Arc in its denouement, and the finale three-parter saw Twelve broken by a Trauma Conga Line and temporarily turned into a Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Then came "The Husbands of River Song", a bright and colorful, wacky-yet-poignant Christmas Episode with a Bittersweet Ending much more sweet than bitter: Twelve and River spending twenty-four happy years together before she heads off to meet her destiny. From there, the show took a longer than usual break between seasons and the next Christmas Episode "The Return of Doctor Mysterio" (in which the Doctor and a comic book-style superhero team up) was another breather.
  • Series 10 had three of these.
    • The most obvious is "Knock Knock", set between Bill getting to know the Doctor and their adventures becoming truly grim in "Oxygen" and the Monks Trilogy. While it's spooky, the villain has a sympathetic motivation for his actions, Bill's friends all survive, its first half is heavy on comedy, and the Vault scene at the end just foreshadows the identity of its occupant rather than advances the arc.
    • Later on, the Monks Trilogy and very dark Season Finale two-parter were spelled by "Empress of Mars" and "The Eaters of Light", both of which made incremental progress in the Vault arc (mostly in "back in the TARDIS" closing sequences) but otherwise played as standalones with endings that were bittersweet at worst. In fact, a common complaint was that their plots were too similar (pseudo-historicals in which the Doctor and companion(s) have to mediate peace between two warring factions) for back-to-back episodes; "Empress of Mars" was originally supposed to turn up earlier in the season.
  • "Praxeus" comes just after the midway point of Series 12, and is a stand-alone episode with a happy ending after a number of episodes where the Thirteenth Doctor had been put through the wringer.
• The third season's last episode of Downton Abbey may qualify, with a Bratty Teenage Daughter as the main problem, after the episodes about Sybil's death, and Thomas' first serious trouble because of his orientation.
• ER tended to follow its sadder, wrenching episodes with slightly more upbeat ones that made the lingering effects of the tragedy the B-plot of the episode rather than the main focus—"Love's Labor Lost (Greene mishandles a childbirth, resulting in the woman's death), with "Full Moon, Saturday Night" (a very quirky episode that was basically Exactly What It Says on the Tin, with Greene's subsequent Heroic BSoD being in the background), "The Storm 2" (Doug resigns in disgrace, abandoning Carol), with "Middle Of Nowhere" (taking us completely out of the ER, following Benton as he travels to Mississippi), "All In The Family" (Lucy's death), with "Be Patient" (a very run-of-the-mill episode).
• Farscape had "Revenging Angel", which was mostly done in the style of a Looney Tunes cartoon, wedged between the two episodes dealing with the death of one of the Crichtons.
• Firefly made it a point to follow some of the more intense episodes with much lighter-hearted ones, such as following the tense, horror-themed episode "Bushwhacked" with the lighter swordfight-y episode "Shindig", or the violent and gunplay-heavy episode "War Stories" with the much more humorous caper episode "Trash".
• In the third season of The Flash (2014), after the Wham Episode that revealed Savitar's identity to be a future version of Barry himself, the following episode's plot involved a failed attempt to stop him that resulted in Barry getting amnesia, with hilarious results. This was before the very plot-heavy and emotional last two episodes of the season.
  • Episode 7 of the fourth season serves entirely to reveal the Thinker's origin story and advance the plot in the present day. It's almost an entire episode of Action Film, Quiet Drama Scene; Barry scarcely uses his powers and doesn't battle a Meta, save anyone's life or stop any crimes (although he does commit a couple). The high stakes Crisis on Earth X crossover event with the other DC shows followed the week after, and the mid-season finale the week after that.
• From the Earth to the Moon episode "That's All There Is" depicts Apollo 12, which was almost a Real Life breather episode between the monumental achievement of Apollo 11 and crisis of Apollo 13. With flippant, foul-mouthed Pete Conrad, Dick Gordon, and New Meat Alan Bean making the trip, it's much more lighthearted and comedic.
• Game of Thrones:
  • The first three seasons adopt a general pattern of the penultimate episode being the season's Wham Episode (Red Wedding, anyone?). The season finale episode is usually a quieter episode that serves to set up the next season. Season 3's finale doesn't even have a true cliffhanger. The pattern holds until season 6 where the finale is a major Wham Episode while the seventh season ends on a massive cliffhanger.
  • The second episode of season 8, "The Knight of the Seven Kingdoms", is a calm and relatively lighthearted episode set the night before what promises to be the most crucial battle yet. There are no action sequences at all, just the characters coming together to find solace and comfort on what might be their last night among the living.
• Glee:
  • Episode "Dream On" deals with how dreams don't always come true and is by far the darkest episode in the first season, as it brutally forces wheelchair-bound Artie to accept that he'll most likely be paraplegic for the rest of his life. The next episode was a tribute to Lady Gaga and KISS.
  • After the devastating "Choke", where Rachel bombs the most important audition of her life, Puck finds out he's failing and won't graduate even after trying so hard, and Beiste goes back to her abusive husband, we have "Prom-assuarus", a light-hearted episode about a dinosaur-themed prom. Rachel, Puck, and Beiste's issues are continued in the episode after.
  • In between "Glease", an episode dealing with the fallout of the break-ups and "Thanksgiving", in which Marley's eating disorder gets worse than ever and the New Directions lose sectionals, we have the episode "Dynamic Duets", where the characters spend most of the episode running around in superhero costumes.
  • The episode immediately following "The Quarterback", which deals with Finn's (and his actor's) death, and is basically the most emotional episode in the entire series, is called "A Katy or a Gaga", which was a tribute to Lady Gaga and Katy Perry.
• While Gunsmoke is normally quite the western drama, its breather episode was season nine's "Comanches Is Soft," a flat-out comedy. It deals with the misadventure Quint and Festus have going to get a new bellows for Quint's blacksmith shop with a dance hall girl they pick up along the way.
• Homicide: Life on the Street had Season Five's very funny, self-referential "The Documentary" placed between "Blood Wedding" and "Betrayal", two of the most emotionally-wrenching episodes in the show's history.
• Chapter 8 of House of Cards (US) has Frank Underwood briefly taking a break from politics—yes, he does that occasionally—to visit his old military college in South Carolina, where he attends the dedication ceremony of a new library named after him, and reconnects with his old friends (including his possible ex-lover) with a night of drunken antics. It's the only episode of Season 1 in which Zoe Barnes does not appear, as her story arc is briefly put on hold. Said episode is divided between Frank's time at the Citadel and Peter Russo's subplot.
• This is a recurring trope in multiple Kamen Rider series. Usually done before some kind of big reveal or another plot twist.
  • Kamen Rider Ryuki had a couple, although it did introduce the Sixth Ranger to ORE Journal.
  • Kamen Rider Blade had a story arc in which one of the Riders loses his memory and is found by a rather wimpy Identical Stranger, who swaps identities with him in order to escape his family struggles.
  • Kamen Rider Kabuto has the infamous Dark Kitchen arc, in which Cooking Duels are very very serious business.
  • Kamen Rider OOO has the anniversary arc, in which the cast parodies the first Kamen Rider show in a rather hammy way.
  • Kamen Rider Wizard features an actual Christmas episode, during which Santa Claus saves the day. There's also an arc involving a myna bird and hijinks revolving around not getting the Victim of the Week arrested. Considering what happened in the previous episode and the fact that the endgame gets kicked off right after this episode, it's probably necessary to get one good laugh in.
  • Kamen Rider Gaim's plot was so fast-paced that almost every other episode was just a breather episode near the end. Examples include an episode dealing with the fallout of the previous episode, hijinx involving the baker and his sidekick, a crossover with a rebooted Tokusatsu, and The Rival ending up in an alternate universe where everyone plays soccer. And if you count the direct-to-DVD movie, said rival also has a similar story to Blade's.
  • Kamen Rider Drive gives us a breather episode asking the question of what if the monster ends up copying the body of one of the allies, with hilarity ensuing... until one of the higher ups murders them.
• Knots Landing: "Birds Do It, Bees Do It", a light-hearted episode about sex, comes immediately after the conclusion of the Crazy Jill storyline which featured several very intense episodes.
• Lost:
  • Out from the darkness of season 3 with "Tricia Tanaka is Dead". Lampshaded by Hurley in the episode:
    Hurley: Look, I don't know about you, but things have really sucked for me lately, and I could really use a victory. So let's get one, dude! Let's get this car started. Let's look death in the face and say: "Whatever, man!"
  • Season 2 is filled with these, most notably "S.O.S.", an episode centered on Bernard and Rose's backstory.
  • Season 5's "Some Like It Hoth": a Miles flashback episode whose present-day portion features him and Hurley bumming around.
• In Lost Girl's second season, after a couple of episodes that saw the Big Bad kick everyone's asses, three characters die, and one more be written out, the penultimate episode, "Into the Dark", had the main characters regrouping. Highlights include the Morrigan being forced to dance (badly) in her underwear, Bo turning her seduction powers on the Morrigan and leaving her handcuffed to her own bed, a group of Red Caps mad at Vex because their football^note soccer team lost, a MacGuffin that turns out to be "Fae Viagra", and Kenzi coming at the Norn's sacred tree with a chainsaw.
• Odd Squad:
  • The episodes "Soundcheck Part Deux" and "Jinx", about Soundcheck being separated and Precinct 13579 catching the Jinx respectively, comes before "Training Day", an Origins Episode focusing on Olive and revealing the identity of her former partner.
  • Both Season 2's "Saving Agent Orson" and "The Scientist" serve as lighthearted episodes before the two-part season finale.
  • "The Void", an episode about Omar becoming stuck in a Blank White Void, and "Into the Odd Woods", an episode about Omar suffering from an odd disease known as Clown-itosis, both come before "Slow Your Roll", which establishes the threat of resident Big Bad The Shadow for the first time and features some dark themes and imagery.
  • "Music of Sound", which surrounds Soundcheck breaking up, is sandwiched in between "Slow Your Roll" and both "Odd in 60 Seconds" and "Villain Networking", which has The Shadow making progress on her ultimate Evil Plan.
  • Following "Odd in 60 Seconds" and "Villain Networking" are "Mr. Unpredictable", about the Mobile Unit attempting to stop the titular villain, and "Down the Tubes", about Oswald and Orla fixing the scrambled Odd Squad tube system.
  • What comes before the Season 3 multi-part mid-season finale? "The Weight of the World Depends on Orla", an Origins Episode explaining how Orla came to be the protector of the 44-leaf clover, and "Substitute Agents", which focuses on a Maintenance agent named Olanda and a Food and Beverage worker named Oxley as they help the Mobile Unit break free from being trapped in a souvenir snowglobe.
  • Both "Box Trot", about villains teaming up to retrieve The Shadow's box from Odd Squad's hands, and "O for a Day", about Orla and Omar filling in for Seattle Mr. O, serve as a break from the aforementioned mid-Season 3 finale and from "Odd Off The Press", which kicks off the second half of the season.
• The Office had the amusing "Café Disco" episode towards the end of the fifth season to break up the Michael Scott Paper Company storyline and the (assumed) Pam/Jim baby storyline.
• The Orville went a little more serious in Season Two. "All the World Is Birthday Cake" is the story of a First contact gone horribly wrong, landing Kelly and Bortus in a concentration camp. "Deflectors" is a anvil-nuke about a heterosexual Molocan, which is grounds for life imprisonment in their culture, ending in a Sadistic Choice for the new security chief and a Downer Ending all around. Sandwiched between them is "A Happy Refrain," a lighthearted and fluffy episode about Dr. Finn and Isaac starting a romance.
• Parks and Recreation is never anything but lighthearted, but the season 4 Valentine's Day episode breaks completely from the season-long city council campaign arc.
• Patriot: Secret agent John Tavener gets put through the physical and emotional wringer over two seasons. Toward the end of the second season, he's allowed a "day off," in which he spends most of the episode drinking and smoking pot with his friends and family. It turns out to bite him in the ass, but it's a much-needed break while it lasts.
• The popular Power Rangers Wild Force episode "Forever Red", the franchise's 10th-anniversary celebration featuring (almost) all of the series' Red Rangers going on a stand-alone mission, was just after the end of the Animus arc, and is followed by a two-parter that kicks off the final story arc when Master Org returns.
• Prior to its two-part Wham Episode finale, The Prisoner (1967) aired "The Girl Who Was Death", a comedic episode that was unlike any episode of the series to date (and was, in fact, based upon an unproduced script for Danger Man).
• Sadakatsiz: Invoked by Gönül and doctor Derya. Bahar is respectively their sister-in-law and friend, and she is having a hard pregnancy due to her age (she's in her forties), being a new mother, and suffering from a lung illness. Furthermore, Bahar and her husband Melih have gotten caught in the middle of a nasty dispute between Bahar's friends and Melih's family, which also causes her a fair amount of stress. So, the day Bahar takes the test to find out the baby's gender, Derya (who is also her gynecologist), holds the information from Bahar and Melih, only telling Gönül. Together, they organize a baby gender reveal party to "celebrate and give Bahar a breather from all of the negativity". In a meta sense, the episode where this happens still has some plot-related stuff going on that keeps the viewer invested but doesn't affect either Bahar or Melih.
• Skins:
  • The format of the series, where each episode focuses on a different character in its ensemble - gives it a lot of room to do this, as it can easily bounce from a character who is dealing with more serious issues to one dealing with more lighthearted ones, without losing its place in either. Examples:
  • JJ's episode in Season 4, seeing as it was sandwiched between Freddie and Effy's episodes dealing with a very dark storyline about mental illness, self-harm, and an Ax-Crazy psychiatrist. JJ's episode, on the other hand, was a cute, lighthearted romp about him pursuing another employee at the grocery store where he worked, and his friendship with Thomas.
  • Season 3: Effy's horror story episode and the finale's resolution of the Triangle Of Doom are separated by Naomi and Emily's Relationship Upgrade.
• In Smallville, the Darker and Edgier season nine is punctuated by "Warrior", in which a kid gains superpowers by reading a magical comic book.
• Stargate:
  • In the midst of the dark and grim Ori storyline, Stargate SG-1 had "200", the show's 200th episode, which revisited the Show Within a Show introduced in the 100th episode as a way for the creators to parody themselves and lampshade the hell out of everything without having to break the Fourth Wall. It takes the form of a Vignette Episode in which the eponymous team, SG-1, is meeting with an old acquaintance who is writing a sci-fi action film based (loosely) on them and their experiences. Most of the humor comes from the (often bizarre) ideas that the characters propose, including blatant references to The Wizard of Oz, Farscape, and Star Trek, as well as parodies of related genres. Now sandwich this episode between one involving savage murders and evil aliens who have infiltrated Earth, and one involving genocide and presumed character death. And put the main characters through plenty more situations just as nasty throughout the course of the season.
  • Stargate Universe:
    • "Earth" is the first episode which does not involve an imminent threat to the survival of the crew. They then get right back on it with "Time".
    • "Faith" gives the audience a break after the political tension and space battles of "Space" and "Divided".
    • "Cloverdale" provides a mostly-humorous breather in the middle of a darker arc involving Chloe's transformation and Rush's control of the ship.
• Star Trek:
  • Star Trek: The Next Generation does this in the episode "Family", immediately after the climactic events of "The Best of Both Worlds, Part 2". Picard has been rescued and cured of Borg assimilation, and rather than dive straight back into adventure of the week, he takes shore leave on Earth to recover. The episode isn't just light-hearted filler, though: Picard is forced to face his feelings about his violation by the Borg, and the moment when he finally breaks down is a major Tear Jerker. But even that scene ultimately ends up being an Earn Your Happy Ending moment, because it leads to Jean-Luc getting a lot of stuff he'd been bottling up out in the open and starting him on the path towards mending fences with his brother. Tragically, thanks to the events of Star Trek: Generations, their reconciliation is short-lived.
  • Star Trek: Deep Space Nine does this regularly in the later seasons to break up the darkest and most complex storyline in the entire franchise: the Dominion War arc. Comedic episodes featuring the Ferengi are especially prominent. It should be noted, however, that Ferengi episodes were being done before the Dominion War as well.
    • "In the Cards", the last episode to air prior to the Dominion conquering Deep Space Nine, seems designed to lighten a mood that is about to get pretty bleak, with Jake and Nog getting into all kinds of hijinks.
    • The Wham Episode "In the Pale Moonlight" — widely recognized as possibly the darkest episode in Trek canon — is immediately followed by "His Way", a romantic comedy episode explicitly written to get Odo and Kira together.
    • Other examples that are placed in the middle of a string of arc episodes include "Take Me Out to the Holosuite" (a Baseball Episode with the main cast playing against a team of Vulcans) and the holosuite-centered "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang" (a heist caper in 1960s Las Vegas). The former episode is kind of an Invoked Trope: Sisko organises the game specifically because there are a lot of war-weary Starfleet personnel taking some shore leave on the station at the time, and they need a way to blow off some steam that doesn't involve drinking Quark's bar dry and causing trouble.
  • The Star Trek: Voyager episode "Latent Image", which deals with the Doctor suffering a literal Heroic BSoD after a medical incident, is followed by "Bride of Chaotica!", a holodeck story that doubles as a Genre Throwback/Affectionate Parody of 1930s sci-fi films such as the Flash Gordon (serial).
  • Star Trek: Strange New Worlds:
    • Season 1 has the episode "Spock Amok", in which Spock and T'Pring suffer a "Freaky Friday" Flip at the worst possible time, Una and La'an decide to try out "Enterprise Bingo" and Captain Pike and Admiral April trying to woo over a new race to the Federation. This comes after the events of "Memento Mori", which has the Gorn ravage the Enterprise after murdering nearly everyone in a nearby colony.
    • Season 2 has the Musical Episode "Subspace Rhapsody", an example of Star Trek actively not taking itself seriously. This comes after "Under the Cloak of War" (a serious look at PTSD and war crimes) and before "Hegemony" (the season finale, featuring another battle with the Gorn and ending on a "To Be Continued" note).
• Supernatural:
  • After the season three hiatus, there was a Formula-Breaking Episode called "Ghostfacers". It was a light and silly episode to give the fans a break before the last three episodes of the season. Fans literally scoffed until they actually saw the gore, unhinged crazy, and massive angst of those episodes.
  • As "Monster Movie" was supposed to air between "Are You There, God? It's Me, Dean Winchester" and "In the Beginning" — but aired after "Metamorphosis" — it certainly counts as this. Fans generally loved it and it can be agreed that it was a lovely break from the increasingly unrelenting misery that season four had so far inflicted on the boys. And therein lies the problem: season four was so angsty and the boys were so fucked up that this episode doesn't really fit in, making it a complete standalone.
  • It's also remarkable how most of the season 4 Monster of the Week episodes were incredibly goofy. First, there was "Monster Movie". Then "Yellow Fever" (despite the extreme Mood Whiplash). Then "Wishful Thinking" with the suicidal teddy bear.
  • There is usually at least one breather episode per season where the show becomes ridiculously self-aware. See "Tall Tales", "Hollywood Babylon", "Changing Channels", and "The French Mistake", as well as those mentioned above. Although, this being Supernatural, it's hard to have a completely lighthearted episode.
  • In season seven, there was "Plucky Pennywhistle's Magical Menagerie" and "Party On, Garth" as breather episodes. Except the former ended up angsty because Sam and Dean were actually happy for once^note If your fanbase cries because the main characters are happy for once, then you have a seriously angst-heavy show and the latter made everybody tear up because it addressed the possibility of Bobby's ghost hanging around.
  • Season nine has "Slumber Party" and "Dog Dean Afternoon" between two episodes heavy with a star-crossed bromance.
  • Season fifteen, whizzing toward the big finale, has "Last Holiday" where the monster is mostly benevolent but for her "go(ing) full Nurse Ratched" over Jack.
• Most of the later Super Sentai series have these kinds of episodes for either Christmas or New Year's Day, though there have been some exceptions - Tokumei Sentai Go-Busters had theirs around episodes 31 & 32, tying it into a Crossover with Gavan Type-G.
• After the rather bleak trio of episodes revolving around the death and resurrection of Owen, the Torchwood episode "Something Borrowed" featured Gwen trying to prevent her wedding to Rhys being ruined by an unexpected alien pregnancy. Cue a genuinely funny runaround as the shape-shifting alien's mommy appears at the service looking to retrieve her baby by tearing it out of Gwen's belly.
• The Twilight Zone (1959): "Once Upon a Time" shows that Buster Keaton was still as funny as ever in his final years, casting him as a grumpy janitor in 1890 who uses a time travel helmet and finds himself in 1962. The episode came after seven horror episodes in a row.
• The Twilight Zone (1985):
  • S1E4: "Wish Bank" is a light-hearted, comedic episode which immediately preceded the violent, horror-themed "Nightcrawlers".
  • S1E19: "The Leprechaun-Artist" is a comedic episode about three teenage boys who find a Leprechaun. It immediately preceded "Dead Run", a very dark episode about souls who have been wrongfully sent to Hell.
• Ultra Series like to throw in a few of these every now and then.
  • Ultraman: After "The Forbidden Words", in which Ultraman and Science Patrol are challenged big-time by a vastly intelligent and powerful alien invader named Mephilas who seeks to conquer Earth by manipulating human weaknesses, we get "Gift from the Sky", a comedic Self-Parody in which Science Patrol uses a series of increasingly wacky plans to get rid of an immovable monster named Skydon.
  • Return of Ultraman: After a Nightmare Fuel-laden story where Goh is tormented by a wicked alien disguised as a Creepy Child) and a major Tear Jerker about prejudiced humans who kill a peaceful alien and unwittingly unleash his enraged kaiju pet, we get a comedic episode about a flatulent cicada kaiju and a Bumbling Dad bonding with his son.
  • Ultraman Leo is known as a dark series among fans, but it did have some comedic stories every now and then. Episode 12's Monster of the Week Bango was simply a fun-loving Non-Malicious Monster, while Episode 23 dealt with a child-like alien and his pet kaiju Renbolar inadvertently making mischief on Earth, and finally, Episode 34 dealt with a Bratty Half-Pint alien named Taishoh turning a kid's life upside-down.
  • Ultraman Max: Episode 15 featured Max and DASH faced with an invincible Ultimate Lifeform called IF that has Complete Immortality and an extreme Adaptive Ability, but Episode 16 instead sees Hilarity Ensue when everyone in Tokyo (even Ultraman Max!) becomes amnesiac due to the presence of alien cat monsters. Both episodes were directed by Takashi Miike.
  • Ultraseven X: One episode has a non-malicious spacefaring alien, the final living member of its species, who attaches itself to Jin's space otaku friend to take him with it into space as a companion. This is the only episode where absolutely no one gets harmed. In fact, Jin only turned into Seven just to give them a proper sendoff into space.
  • Ultraman Orb and Ultraman Geed both did Clip Show episodes in the middle of their run after their intense and extremely plot-significant battles against Maga-Orochi and Pedanium Zetton respectively. Both are also then followed up with more incredibly powerful foes, with Orb facing Galactron and then Zeppandon, while Geed battles Zegan and then finally faces Ultraman Belial in the form of Chimeraberos.
• Xena: Warrior Princess employed this trope quite often, particularly when Xena and Gabrielle are each forced to kill each other's children in one particular episode.
• The X-Files:
  • One comes in the middle of three excellent season 2 episodes: "Duane Barry"/"Ascension" (Holy shit! Scully's been abducted!), "3" (Hang on... Mulder wants to bang a vampire...), and "One Breath" (Holy shit! Scully's been returned and might die! What was "3" about again?).
  • There are several times in almost every season wherein The X-Files suddenly shifts from aliens, demons, ghosts, and civilization-threatening conspiracies to straight-up comedy and back again. "Jose Chung's 'From Outer Space'" is considered one of the best episodes of the entire series, despite being self-parody on every level possible (or maybe even because of it).
  • The fourth season is generally considered the darkest, what with Scully's cancer and all. Towards the end of the season, the mood is thankfully lightened by "Small Potatoes". The more light-hearted Monster of the Week episodes are definitely welcome breaks in the show given how dark things start getting during the "mythology episodes" (episodes that further the over-arching storyline instead of telling a one-off story).
• The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles had two comedic episodes "Barcelona: May 1917" and "Prague: August 1917" that were edited together in the DVD release as "Adventures in Espionage". "Barcelona" was directed by Monty Python's Terry Jones and features young Indy getting caught up with a bunch of bumbling international spies. "Prague" fares worse, the whole episode is Indy's quest to... install a telephone.

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