‘I truly required a break after that!’ The most intense television episodes ever
The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse
This installment starts with the MI5 agents confined during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As the situation develops, it seems an actual attack has occurred with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.
The 1984 production Threads
The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I have ever watched due to its harsh realism and dismal official figures. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Remaining completely frightening decades on.
Severance – The We We Are from 2022
The first season finale of Severance has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I was throughout the episode literally perched nervously, exerting with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The final climactic moment – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.
Industry – White Mischief from 2024
Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. I had to pause and get up and depart the area multiple times owing to the vast degree of the reckless self-harm I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble in his job and domestic life – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, taking such risks with a gamble on the pound that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, does tons of drugs and drink and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Each instance you believe it can’t get any worse, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes during the season’s final episode. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!
The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday
Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. However, the Holiday episode contains such levels of cringe that it’ll have you standing up throughout the entire episode, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over 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 West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001
Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The installment begins with the consequences of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and escalates to a高潮 involving a Haitian emergency, 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. Unequaled.
Bodyguard – episode one from 2018
The start of the British program Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train accompanied by his small son, is personally a top tense installment. He spots a Muslim woman heading to the toilet and senses something is wrong. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)
Buffy comes into her home to discover her mother has died from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this supernatural show. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.
The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007
The concluding moment of the last installment of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all vanquished. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow stops the car. Tony sadly tells Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Look at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow finds a spot. The door chimes, a person comes in. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It ceases. My heart dropped from my mouth roughly 20 minutes after.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016
I kept late hours to see this show at 2am. It was incredibly tense following the introduction of villain Negan locating the survivors, savagely teasing his prey and then keeping the death a mystery (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the subdued noises – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
