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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the intelligence unit confined during a training exercise 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 agent deployed. The suspense builds as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. Given it’s Spooks, his decision is predictable.

Threads from 1984

Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I have viewed owing to its grim authenticity and dismal official figures. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme which underscored the actuality and the glib matter-of-fact official information which was broadcast. Remaining completely frightening after three and a half decades.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I remained for the whole show literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that allowed the Innies to remain active, while shouting to the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she survives!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry had my heart racing. I was compelled to halt and rise and exit the space repeatedly because of the sheer scale of the reckless self-harm I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit at work and home – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, gets beaten to a pulp. Each instance you believe things cannot decline more, it does. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the concluding part of the season. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday from 2007

Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. However, the Holiday episode includes such amounts of embarrassment that it’ll have you standing up for the full show, filled with nervousness. The tension escalates 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 then occupy the remainder of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it is possible!

The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense as when I first saw the concluding episode of The West Wing’s second season. The show opens with the fallout of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s personal secretary and reaches a crescendo with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to pursue re-election. Wonderful television. Unequaled.

The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He spots a Muslim woman entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy arrives at her residence to discover her mother has died from natural reasons, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The episode has no background music, a somber mood, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America

The concluding moment of the last installment 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, were all vanquished. 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 family gathers in a diner. Meadow stops the car. Tony gloomily informs Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team collaborating with the authorities. Meadow secures a parking space. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The door chimes, a person comes in. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It stops. My heart dropped from my mouth about 20 minutes later.

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

I stayed up to watch this episode at 2am. It was so intense following the introduction of villain Negan finding the group, savagely teasing his prey and then leaving the victim unknown (concluded with a suspenseful moment). 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