‘I truly required a break after that!’ The most nerve-wracking television episodes ever
The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse
This installment starts with the Spooks team locked down as part of a simulation concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The tension ratchets up as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and gets worse as the boss appears to be infected, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, 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. Given it’s Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.
The 1984 production Threads
The production was inexpensive but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched because of the stark reality and bleak government data. Watched it about a month ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme that highlighted the truth and the offhand factual official statements that aired. 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 spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that allowed the Innies to remain active, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she is living!” – resembled a outburst.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
The fifth episode of Industry’s third season made my pulse quicken. I was compelled to halt and rise and leave the room several times owing to the vast degree of the wanton self-destruction I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty professionally and personally – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is brutally attacked. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it does. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion but he misses the opening, resulting in dreadful effects in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!
Peep Show – Holiday (2007)
The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it’ll have you standing up for the full show, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates once Jeremy and Mark find themselves needing to deceive regarding the dog they unintentionally hit and later efforts to get rid of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it can be!
The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001
No other viewing has been as gripping than the first time I watched the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s private assistant and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the fallout from the non-disclosure of the president’s MS diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Wonderful television. Unequaled.
Bodyguard – episode one (2018)
The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He spots a Muslim woman heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to remove her explosive vest. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until yes, the vest is diffused.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 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 mystical program. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.
The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America
The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, had all been defeated. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with yet another of his crew collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks the vehicle. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow parks. 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 looks up. Don’t stop. It ceases. My heart sank around 20 minutes subsequently.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016
I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, mercilessly mocking his targets and then leaving the victim unknown (ended on a cliffhanger). The victim’s POV shot and the muted audio – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
