‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ The most nerve-wracking television episodes you’ve seen
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)
The show kicks off with the MI5 agents locked down as part of a simulation relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it seems an actual attack has occurred with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as reports reveal a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies 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 permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.
The 1984 production Threads
The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I have viewed because of the stark reality and grim official statistics. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show which underscored the actuality 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 among intense episodes. I remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to hold the switches that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I needed to stop and stand and depart the area multiple times due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, taking such risks with a bet on sterling that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode but he misses the opening, resulting in dreadful effects in the concluding part of the season. Certainly required a rest afterward!
Peep Show – Holiday (2007)
Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. However, the Holiday episode contains such levels of cringe that it can cause you to stand the whole episode, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover having to lie about the dog they accidentally run over and following tries to eliminate it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it can be!
The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals
No other viewing has been as gripping compared to my initial viewing the second season finale of The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the fallout from the non-disclosure of the president’s MS diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Never bettered.
Bodyguard – episode one (2018)
The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He spots a Muslim woman entering the restroom and knows something is off. The bomb diffuser experts are called, enter the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001
Buffy comes into her home to realize her mom has deceased of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience 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 show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all vanquished. 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 family sit in a restaurant. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Look at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Continue. It stops. My heart dropped from my mouth roughly 20 minutes after.
The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth
I stayed up to watch this episode in the early morning. It was extremely gripping following the introduction of villain Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the subdued noises – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
