🔗 Share this article

The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the intelligence unit restricted during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical agent deployed. The anxiety increases as reports reveal a disaster happening externally, and gets worse when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or letting them go and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

The 1984 production Threads

Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the casual, straightforward government details that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that allowed the Innies to remain active, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she survives!” – was like an eruption.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Episode five of the third series of Industry 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 reckless self-harm I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks due to his addictive betting, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, does tons of drugs and drink and wins, loses, wins, gets beaten to a pulp. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it does. Redemption seems possible by the episode’s conclusion but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, permeated with worry. The situation intensifies once Jeremy and Mark find themselves needing to deceive regarding the dog they by chance collide with and later efforts to get rid of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it is possible!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

No other viewing has been as gripping than the first time I watched the season two finale to The West Wing. The episode starts with the aftermath of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak with a situation in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to pursue re-election. Excellent TV. Unequaled.

The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode

The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and knows something is off. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Suspense rises to a nearly intolerable level, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy comes into her home to realize her mom has deceased due to natural factors, which is the most unusual type of death in this supernatural show. The episode has no background music, a somber mood, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

The final scene of the final episode of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, had all been defeated. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Recall the minor details.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony gloomily informs Carmela problems are brewing with yet another of his crew collaborating with the authorities. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow finds a spot. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Don’t stop. It halts. My heart dropped from my mouth roughly 20 minutes after.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I remained awake to view this installment in the early morning. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan locating the survivors, mercilessly mocking his targets then not knowing who he killed (concluded with a suspenseful moment). 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