‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ The most gripping episodes of TV you’ve seen
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)
The show kicks off with the MI5 agents confined as part of a simulation concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical agent deployed. The anxiety increases as reports reveal a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies as the boss appears to be infected, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. As this is Spooks, his decision is predictable.
Threads from 1984
Threads had minimal funding yet among the scariest shows I have viewed owing to its grim authenticity and grim official statistics. Saw it not long ago following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series which emphasised the reality and the casual, straightforward government details which was broadcast. Still absolutely terrifying after three and a half decades.
The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are
The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, straining every sinew with Dylan to hold the switches that allowed the Innies to remain active, while yelling at the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – was like an eruption.
Industry – White Mischief (2024)
The fifth episode of Industry’s third season caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and depart the area multiple times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors due to his addictive betting, assuming hazardous chances with a bet on sterling that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is brutally attacked. Each instance you believe things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, resulting in dreadful effects during the season’s final episode. Absolutely had to relax following that!
Peep Show – Holiday from 2007
Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it’ll have you standing up for the full show, permeated with worry. It all ramps up as Jeremy and Mark discover having to lie about the dog they unintentionally hit and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it can be!
The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals
No other viewing has been as gripping compared to my initial viewing the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s personal secretary and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to seek re-election. Superb programming. Unequaled.
Bodyguard – episode one from 2018
The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001
Buffy arrives at her residence to discover her mother has died from natural reasons, which is the most unusual type of death in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a gloomy atmosphere, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.
The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007
The concluding moment of the last installment of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all overcome. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It stops. My heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.
The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth
I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muted audio – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
