‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ The most intense television episodes you’ve seen
The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse
The show kicks off with the intelligence unit locked down while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As the situation develops, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The suspense builds as reports reveal a disaster happening externally, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, 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 potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.
Threads from 1984
Threads had minimal funding but arguably the most terrifying series I have ever watched due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Remaining completely frightening after three and a half decades.
Severance – The We We Are (2022)
The first season finale of Severance ranks highly as a tense chapter. I was throughout the episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, straining every sinew with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that allowed the Innies to remain active, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption.
Industry – White Mischief (2024)
Episode five of the third series of Industry caused my heart to pound. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the wanton self-destruction I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty in his job and domestic life – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, gets beaten to a pulp. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. There is a chance for salvation at the end of the episode yet he wastes the chance, 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 will make you rise the whole episode, filled with nervousness. It all ramps up as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they by chance collide with and later efforts to get rid of it. You then spend the rest of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it is possible!
The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001
Nothing I have seen has been as tense as when I first saw the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s personal secretary and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to pursue re-election. Wonderful television. Unequaled.
Bodyguard – episode one (2018)
The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He spots a Muslim woman going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb diffuser experts are called, enter the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Tension escalates to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.
The 2001 Buffy episode The Body
Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this supernatural show. The show features no musical score, a gloomy atmosphere, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.
The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007
The final scene of the final episode of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow stops the car. Tony gloomily informs Carmela problems are brewing 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 plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks her car. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony looks up. Keep going. It stops. My heart dropped from my mouth around 20 minutes subsequently.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)
I remained awake to view this installment at 2am. It was incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
