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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team confined as part of a simulation relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, 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 when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to opt for either shooting them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. Given it’s Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

The 1984 production Threads

Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I have viewed due to its harsh realism and dismal official figures. Viewed it recently after seeing the first airing; I often attended the bar in Sheffield shown in the series that highlighted the truth and the casual, straightforward government details that were transmitted. Still absolutely terrifying after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season ranks highly among intense episodes. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, pushing alongside Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to reveal their realities. The concluding高潮 – “she’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the wanton self-destruction I saw. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble in his job and domestic life – overwhelmed by debt to loan sharks due to his addictive betting, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, gets beaten to a pulp. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it worsens. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise for the full show, filled with nervousness. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover needing to deceive regarding the dog they by chance collide with and later efforts to get rid of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it is possible!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing the second season finale of The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s confidential aide and reaches a crescendo with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure of the president’s MS diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Unequaled.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, board the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a somber mood, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The final scene of the final episode of the show was pants-wettingly tense. 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.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow stops the car. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Don’t stop. It halts. My heart sank around 20 minutes subsequently.

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

I stayed up to watch this episode at 2am. It was incredibly tense following the introduction of villain Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the muffled sounds – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season