‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ The most gripping television episodes ever
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003
The episode begins with the Spooks team confined while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As events unfold, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical agent deployed. The suspense builds as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, with the two officials trying to exit, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.
Threads (1984)
Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I have viewed owing to its grim authenticity and grim official statistics. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show which underscored the actuality and the glib matter-of-fact official information that aired. Still absolutely terrifying 35 years later.
Severance – The We We Are from 2022
The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season ranks highly as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show quite literally on the edge of my seat, straining every sinew with Dylan to hold the switches that allowed the Innies to remain active, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. The concluding高潮 – “she’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.
Industry – White Mischief (2024)
Installment five in Industry’s third series had my heart racing. I had to pause and get up and exit the space repeatedly because of the sheer scale of the reckless self-harm I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit in his job and domestic life – buried in financial obligations from unscrupulous lenders due to his addictive betting, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on 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 alternates between success and failure, gets beaten to a pulp. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it does. There is a chance for salvation as the installment closes but he misses the opening, leading to terrible outcomes during the season’s final episode. Absolutely had to relax following that!
The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday
Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. Yet the installment Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, permeated with worry. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and later efforts to get rid of it. You then spend the rest 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 as when I first saw the second season finale of The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s confidential aide and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Wonderful television. Unsurpassed.
Bodyguard – episode one (2018)
The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is personally a top tense installment. He spots a Muslim woman entering the restroom and senses something is wrong. The bomb diffuser experts are called, board the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Tension escalates to a practically unendurable point, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)
Buffy comes into her home to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the least common kind of passing in this supernatural show. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding 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 the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, had all been defeated. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with yet another of his crew collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks the vehicle. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony looks up. Continue. It stops. My heart sank about 20 minutes later.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016
I stayed up to watch this episode in the early morning. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muffled sounds – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
