‘I truly required a break after that!’ The most nerve-wracking television episodes ever
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)
The show kicks off with the MI5 agents restricted while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, supervised by two Home Office agents. As the situation develops, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. 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, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected.
Threads (1984)
Threads was low budget yet among the scariest shows I have viewed because of the stark reality and dismal official figures. Watched it about a month ago following the initial broadcast; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Continuing to be utterly horrifying decades on.
The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are
The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there 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 kept the Innies on overtime, while shouting to the Innies to reveal their realities. The final climactic moment – “she survives!” – felt like an explosion.
Industry – White Mischief from 2024
Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, taking such risks with a bet on sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, uses copious drugs and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is severely assaulted. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. Redemption seems possible at the end of the episode but he misses the opening, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Certainly required a rest afterward!
The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday
The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. Yet the installment Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. The situation intensifies once Jeremy and Mark find themselves needing to deceive regarding the dog they by chance collide with and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment 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 death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s personal secretary and builds to a peak with a situation in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Never bettered.
The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode
The opening of the British series Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train accompanied by his small son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire entering the restroom and knows something is off. The bomb diffuser experts are called, board the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)
Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a gloomy atmosphere, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.
The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007
The concluding moment of the last installment of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all overcome. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Remember the little things.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Continue. It halts. My heart dropped from my mouth about 20 minutes later.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016
I kept late hours to see this show during the night. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the muffled sounds – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season