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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team restricted as part of a simulation about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or allowing them to leave and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads from 1984

Threads had minimal funding yet among the scariest shows I’ve ever seen owing to its grim authenticity and dismal official figures. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield from the programme which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I was compelled to halt and rise and exit the space repeatedly due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, assuming hazardous chances with a gamble on the pound which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, does tons of drugs and drink and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Every time you think it can’t get any worse, it worsens. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes in the concluding part of the season. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. However, the Holiday episode contains such levels of cringe that it will make you rise the whole episode, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over 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 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched 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 private assistant and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, coupled with verification of his aim to run for another term. Superb programming. Unequaled.

The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, is personally a top tense installment. He observes a woman in Islamic attire entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Suspense rises to a nearly intolerable level, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy arrives at her residence to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the least common kind of passing in this paranormal series. The episode has no background music, a somber mood, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

The final scene of the final episode of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, 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. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela problems are brewing with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony selects a song 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 heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)

I stayed up to watch this episode at 2am. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan locating the survivors, mercilessly mocking his targets and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season