‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ Your most intense TV episodes you’ve seen
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)
This installment starts with the Spooks team confined while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse when the leader seems contaminated, with the two officials trying to exit, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.
The 1984 production Threads
The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I have viewed because of the stark reality and grim official statistics. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show that highlighted the truth and the casual, straightforward government details that were transmitted. Still absolutely terrifying decades on.
Severance – The We We Are (2022)
The season one finale of Severance deserves a top spot as a tense chapter. I was throughout the episode actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
Installment five in Industry’s third series caused my heart to pound. I was compelled to halt and rise and depart the area multiple times due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a gamble on the pound which may result in huge losses for his employer. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, gets beaten to a pulp. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it worsens. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Certainly required a rest afterward!
The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday
The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. Yet the installment Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise for the full show, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies once Jeremy and Mark find themselves being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it can be!
The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001
Nothing I have seen has been as tense compared to my initial viewing the second season finale of The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to seek re-election. Superb programming. Never bettered.
The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode
The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He notices a Muslim female entering the restroom and knows something is off. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)
Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.
The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007
The final scene of the final episode of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow parks. Tony gloomily informs Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks the vehicle. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Don’t stop. It stops. My spirit fell roughly 20 minutes after.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016
I remained awake to view this installment during the night. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan locating the survivors, mercilessly mocking his targets and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muted audio – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season