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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)

This installment starts with the MI5 agents locked down during a training exercise relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical agent deployed. The anxiety increases as reports reveal a catastrophe taking place outside, and gets worse as the superior shows signs of exposure, with the two officials trying to exit, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads from 1984

Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that aired. Remaining completely frightening 35 years later.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The season one finale of Severance ranks highly among intense episodes. I remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, 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 ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – resembled a outburst.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I was compelled to halt and rise and depart the area multiple times due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty at work and home – overwhelmed by debt to loan sharks because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is brutally attacked. Each instance you believe it can’t get any worse, it does. There is a chance for salvation at the end of the episode but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes during the season’s final episode. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it’ll have you standing up throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. The situation intensifies when Jeremy and Mark realize needing to deceive regarding the dog they unintentionally hit and later efforts to get rid of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it can be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy of the president’s MS diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Excellent TV. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train with his young son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He observes a woman in Islamic attire heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to a nearly intolerable level, until yes, the vest is diffused.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a somber mood, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The ultimate sequence of the series finale 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 enemies, real and imagined, were all vanquished. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow parks. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow finds a spot. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony looks up. Don’t stop. It halts. My spirit fell around 20 minutes subsequently.

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

I kept late hours to see this show at 2am. It was so intense following the introduction of villain Negan locating the survivors, mercilessly mocking his targets then not knowing who he killed (ended on a cliffhanger). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season