🔗 Share this article ‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ Your most gripping episodes of TV you’ve seen The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse The show kicks off with the Spooks team restricted while undergoing a drill concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical agent deployed. The suspense builds as reports reveal a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or letting them go and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected. The 1984 production Threads Threads had minimal funding yet among the scariest shows I have viewed because of the stark reality and bleak government data. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme which underscored the actuality and the casual, straightforward government details which was broadcast. Still absolutely terrifying decades on. Severance – The We We Are (2022) The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there as a tense chapter. I was throughout the episode literally perched nervously, exerting with Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while shouting to the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she survives!” – was like an eruption. The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief Episode five of the third series of Industry caused my heart to pound. I needed to stop and stand and depart the area multiple times owing to the vast degree of the reckless self-harm I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – up to his eyeballs in debt to illegal creditors owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances with a gamble on the pound that might cost his firm millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, is brutally attacked. Each instance you believe the situation cannot deteriorate further, 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. Certainly required a rest afterward! Peep Show – Holiday (2007) Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. But the episode Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it can cause you to stand for the full show, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates as Jeremy and Mark discover having to lie about the dog they by chance collide with and following tries to eliminate it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it turns out to be! The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals No other viewing has been as gripping compared to my initial viewing the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The episode starts with the aftermath of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s private assistant and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure about the president’s MS condition, coupled with verification of his aim to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Unsurpassed. The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and senses something is wrong. The bomb diffuser experts are called, get on the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001 Buffy comes into her home to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the most unusual type of death in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering her mother. The Sopranos – Made in America (2007) The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all vanquished. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Think about the small elements.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela difficulties are arising with yet another of his crew cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The door chimes, a person comes in. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony glances upward. Keep going. It ceases. My spirit fell around 20 minutes subsequently. The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth I stayed up to watch this episode during the night. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, mercilessly mocking his targets and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season