🔗 Share this article

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team restricted while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The suspense builds as incoming communications show a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies as the boss appears to be infected, and the government agents endeavor to depart, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to choose between firing at them or allowing them to leave and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.

The 1984 production Threads

The production was inexpensive but arguably the most terrifying series I have viewed owing to its grim authenticity and grim official statistics. Viewed it recently after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the offhand factual official statements that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying after three and a half decades.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The first season finale of Severance has to be right up there among intense episodes. I was throughout the episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, exerting with Dylan to hold the switches that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while yelling at the Innies to get their truths out there. The final climactic moment – “she is living!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

The fifth episode of Industry’s third season made my pulse quicken. I was compelled to halt and rise and exit the space repeatedly because of the sheer scale of the reckless self-harm I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, engaging in dangerous ventures on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. There is a chance for salvation at the end of the episode but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. Yet the installment Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it will make you rise the whole episode, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize having to lie about the dog they unintentionally hit and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it turns out to be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The episode starts with the aftermath of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s confidential aide and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Superb programming. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb squad is alerted, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Anxiety builds to a practically unendurable point, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy arrives at her residence to realize her mom has deceased from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The concluding moment of the last installment of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all vanquished. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” However, the vibe is oddly threatening. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow stops the car. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with yet another of his crew working with the government. Meadow parks the vehicle. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony raises his gaze. Don’t stop. It ceases. My heart dropped from my mouth around 20 minutes subsequently.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)

I kept late hours to see this show during the night. It was extremely gripping following the introduction of villain Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season