🔗 Share this article

The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the MI5 agents restricted during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, supervised by two Home Office agents. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The tension ratchets up as messages indicate a catastrophe taking place outside, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, with the two officials trying to exit, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. As this is Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads (1984)

Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Viewed it recently after seeing the first airing; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme which underscored the actuality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Still absolutely terrifying 35 years later.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The season one finale of Severance deserves a top spot among intense episodes. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The concluding高潮 – “she survives!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Installment five in Industry’s third series caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and leave the room several times due to the immense extent of the reckless self-harm I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors due to his addictive betting, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, gets beaten to a pulp. Each instance you believe it can’t get any worse, it worsens. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the concluding part of the season. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. Yet the installment Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise the whole episode, permeated with worry. It all ramps up when Jeremy and Mark realize needing to deceive regarding the dog they accidentally run over and following tries to eliminate it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it can be!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

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 show opens with the fallout of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s private assistant and reaches a crescendo with a situation in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information about the president’s MS condition, along with affirmation of his plan to pursue re-election. Wonderful television. Never bettered.

The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode

The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire heading to the toilet 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. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (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 mystical program. The episode has no background music, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

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 first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Recall the minor details.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony looks up. Don’t stop. It ceases. My heart sank about 20 minutes later.

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

I stayed up to watch this episode during the night. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the muffled sounds – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season