🔗 Share this article

The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the Spooks team confined during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The suspense builds as reports reveal a disaster happening externally, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or letting them go and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads from 1984

Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I have viewed due to its harsh realism and dismal official figures. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield featured in the show which underscored the actuality and the offhand factual official statements which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The season one finale of Severance ranks highly as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that kept the Innies on overtime, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. The final climactic moment – “she is living!” – resembled a outburst.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. I was compelled to halt and rise and depart the area multiple times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt to loan sharks because of his compulsive gambling, assuming hazardous chances with a gamble on the pound which could lose his company millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is brutally attacked. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it does. There is a chance for salvation by the episode’s conclusion but he misses the opening, leading to terrible outcomes during the season’s final episode. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday from 2007

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it can cause you to stand for the full show, permeated with worry. The tension escalates as Jeremy and Mark discover having to lie about the dog they by chance collide with and later efforts to get rid of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it is possible!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing 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 reaches a crescendo with a crisis in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is personally a top tense installment. He spots a Muslim woman heading to the toilet and knows something is off. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to remove her explosive vest. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy comes into her home to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the least common kind of passing in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Recall the minor details.” However, the vibe is oddly threatening. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The door chimes, a person comes in. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony glances upward. Keep going. It stops. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later.

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

I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, cruelly taunting his victims and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season