🔗 Share this article

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)

The episode begins with the intelligence unit restricted while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The tension ratchets up as reports reveal a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to opt for either shooting them or allowing them to leave and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. As this is Spooks, his decision is predictable.

Threads (1984)

The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Viewed it recently after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that aired. Remaining completely frightening after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The season one finale of Severance ranks highly as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that allowed the Innies to remain active, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. The final climactic moment – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief from 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 because of the sheer scale of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty in his job and domestic life – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks due to his addictive betting, engaging in dangerous ventures on a wager involving sterling that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, does tons of drugs and drink and wins, loses, wins, gets beaten to a pulp. Every time you think the situation cannot deteriorate further, it worsens. Redemption seems possible at the end of the episode yet he wastes the chance, leading to terrible outcomes in the concluding part of the season. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday from 2007

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise for the full show, filled with nervousness. The tension escalates as Jeremy and Mark discover having to lie about the dog they unintentionally hit and later efforts to get rid of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it turns out to be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

No other viewing has been as gripping than the first time I watched the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s confidential aide and escalates to a高潮 involving a Haitian emergency, and the fallout from the non-disclosure of the president’s MS diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to seek re-election. Superb programming. Never bettered.

The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He spots a Muslim woman entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The bomb squad is alerted, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to remove her explosive vest. Tension escalates to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy arrives at her residence to realize her mom has deceased from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this supernatural show. The show features no musical score, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The final scene of the final episode of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all vanquished. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow stops the car. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with yet another of his crew collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The door chimes, a person comes in. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It stops. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I remained awake to view this installment during the night. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muted audio – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season