🔗 Share this article

The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the Spooks team confined as part of a simulation concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As the situation develops, it appears that there really has been an attack with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or allowing them to leave and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads (1984)

Threads had minimal funding but arguably the most terrifying series I have viewed because of the stark reality and bleak government data. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub shown in the series which emphasised the reality and the casual, straightforward government details that aired. Remaining completely frightening decades on.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The first season finale of Severance deserves a top spot in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to hold the switches that allowed the Innies to remain active, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. The final climactic moment – “she survives!” – was like an eruption.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

The fifth episode of Industry’s third season made my pulse quicken. I had to pause and get up and leave the room several times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty at work and home – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors due to his addictive betting, taking such risks with a bet on sterling that might cost his firm millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it worsens. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode but he squanders the opportunity, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Certainly required a rest afterward!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. Yet the installment Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize needing to deceive regarding the dog they by chance collide with and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it can be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I have seen has been as tense than the first time I watched the season two finale to The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s confidential aide and builds to a peak 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 run for another term. Wonderful television. Unequaled.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train accompanied by his small son, 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, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a gloomy atmosphere, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s shock of discovering 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 for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all overcome. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Think about the small elements.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow stops the car. Tony sadly tells Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony looks up. Keep going. It halts. My spirit fell roughly 20 minutes after.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was so intense following the introduction of villain Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets and then leaving the victim unknown (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