‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ The most nerve-wracking television episodes ever
The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse
The show kicks off with the Spooks team locked down during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it seems an actual attack has occurred with a chemical weapon released. The suspense builds as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, with the two officials trying to exit, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.
Threads (1984)
Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and grim official statistics. Watched it about a month ago having watched the original; I often attended the bar in Sheffield featured in the show which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that were transmitted. Still absolutely terrifying decades on.
Severance – The We We Are from 2022
The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season ranks highly in terms of gripping installments. I was throughout the episode literally perched nervously, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while shouting to the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
The fifth episode of Industry’s third season made my pulse quicken. I needed to stop and stand and depart the area multiple times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble in his job and domestic life – up to his eyeballs in debt from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling that might cost his firm millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it does. There is a chance for salvation as the installment closes but he squanders the opportunity, resulting in dreadful effects in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!
Peep Show – Holiday (2007)
Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, permeated with worry. The tension escalates once Jeremy and Mark find themselves being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it is possible!
The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001
Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched the second season finale of The West Wing. The episode starts with the aftermath of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information of the president’s MS diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to pursue re-election. Wonderful television. Unequaled.
The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode
The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female entering the restroom and senses something is wrong. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.
The 2001 Buffy episode The Body
Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased of natural causes, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a somber mood, 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 program was incredibly anxious. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow parks. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with an additional associate working with the government. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Look at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It stops. My spirit fell roughly 20 minutes after.
The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth
I stayed up to watch this episode at 2am. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey and then leaving the victim unknown (ended on a cliffhanger). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
