🔗 Share this article ‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ Your most intense TV episodes ever The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse The show kicks off with the intelligence unit locked down while undergoing a drill concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The suspense builds as reports reveal a disaster happening externally, and escalates as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the government agents endeavor to depart, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or allowing them to leave and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable. Threads from 1984 Threads had minimal funding but arguably the most terrifying series I’ve ever seen because of the stark reality and grim official statistics. Watched it about a month ago having watched the original; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield shown in the series which emphasised the reality and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later. Severance – The We We Are from 2022 The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to reveal their realities. The concluding高潮 – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption. Industry – White Mischief (2024) Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I had to pause and get up and leave the room several times owing to the vast degree of the wanton self-destruction I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances with a bet on sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, does tons of drugs and drink 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 as the installment closes but he squanders the opportunity, with horrifying consequences in the concluding part of the season. Definitely needed a lie-down after that! Peep Show – Holiday from 2007 The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. The situation intensifies when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they by chance collide with and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it can be! The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001) 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 confidential aide and builds to a peak with a situation in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Unsurpassed. Bodyguard – episode one from 2018 The opening of the British series Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He observes a woman in Islamic attire heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and attempt to convince 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 enters her house to find her mum has passed away of natural causes, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a sullen tone, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother. The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America The concluding moment of the last installment 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? “Think about the small elements.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela problems are brewing with an additional associate cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Continue. It stops. My heart sank about 20 minutes later. The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016 I remained awake to view this installment in the early morning. It was extremely gripping after the establishment of antagonist Negan finding the group, savagely teasing his prey and then leaving the victim unknown (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season