Trainwreck Episode

The experience of watching some episodes or even series has been compared to watching a train wreck in slow motion.

This is when you actually watch a train wreck in slow motion. Or a plane crash.

Common in the Medical Drama and Crime and Punishment Series, this is any episode of those shows that focuses around a big disaster. Frequently used as a season opener or finale, this will usually involve the creation of a spectacular crash scene and may well get covered in Radio Times or another such publication.

In Crime and Punishment shows, expect a focus on the causation, with the Corrupt Corporate Executive likely to make an appearance.

Can also be used for comedic effect; this happens when anything and everything that can go wrong for the main characters does.

Not to be confused with an episode that's So Bad Its Horrible.

Examples of Trainwreck Episode include:

Silent Witness: "Body 21" and a later episode involving a Chinook crashing into a refugee detention centre.
ER
Casualty
Lost: the crash of Oceanic 815 has been shown in nine episodes of the series, the latest being in season 4. Multiple perspectives have been shown, including the midsection, the tail section, and the Others from the ground.
The Final Destination movies all open with a elaborate 'anatomy of an accident' scene.
General Hospital
Seconds From Disaster, a show that goes into showing exactly how certain catastrophes occurred. Several episodes were about train crashes.
- It's not the only such show. In fact, some shows even focus almost exclusively on certain types of disaster; for example, the Canadian TV documentary series Mayday (known in the United States as Air Emergency and in Great Britain as Air Crash Investigation) focuses mostly on plane crashes, with a couple of episodes on train crashes as well.
The Season 4 premiere of House depicted an office building collapsing, whereas the Season 6 finale depicted the process of a crane collapsing and crashing into an apartment building.
- Let's not forget the bus crash at the end of season 4. It's a while before we actually see the bus crash, but when we do, it's all slow-mo, heart-wrenching-ness.
Pretty much every Police Procedural ever, to show that it's not all about Perp Sweating and arguing with Da Chief or the judge every day.
Grey's Anatomy has a few, such as a train accident in Season 2 and a ferry crash in Season 3.
The premiere of Peter Benchley's Amazon included a plane crashing in a jungle with the main characters - some of the crash is seen from different passenger perspectives throughout the first three episodes. Interestingly, this also predate Lost's plane-crash scenario by two years
CSI: Crime Scene Investigation had a bus crash version, which was caused by shoddy materials. It was Greg's first time in the field, too.
Forever Knight had Black Buddha, where a plane crashed outside Toronto. It happened to be carrying Nick's partner, who died.