‘I truly required a break after that!’ The most gripping television episodes you’ve seen
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003
The show kicks off with the MI5 agents locked down during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. This being Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.
The 1984 production Threads
The production was inexpensive but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen due to its harsh realism and dismal official figures. Watched it about a month ago having watched the original; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield featured in the show that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Remaining completely frightening after three and a half decades.
The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are
The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I was throughout the episode actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to hold the switches that allowed the Innies to remain active, while shouting to the Innies to get their truths out there. 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 reckless self-harm I observed. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – overwhelmed by debt from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, taking such risks with a gamble on the pound that might cost his firm millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is severely assaulted. Each instance you believe the situation cannot deteriorate further, it worsens. There is a chance for salvation by the episode’s conclusion but he misses the opening, resulting in dreadful effects during the season’s final episode. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!
The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday
The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. It all ramps up once Jeremy and Mark find themselves needing to deceive regarding the dog they by chance collide with 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 turns out to be!
The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals
No other viewing has been as gripping as when I first saw the second season finale of The West Wing. The episode starts with the aftermath of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s confidential aide and builds to a peak involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information of the president’s MS diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to run for another term. Wonderful television. Unequaled.
Bodyguard – episode one (2018)
The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He spots a Muslim woman going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Suspense rises to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001
Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The installment lacks any soundtrack, 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 the start – didn’t understand the cause. 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. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow stops the car. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela difficulties are arising with an additional associate cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow finds a spot. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Continue. It halts. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later.
The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth
I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, savagely teasing his prey and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muted audio – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
