‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ Your most gripping episodes of TV of all time
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003
This installment starts with the Spooks team confined while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place with a chemical weapon released. The tension ratchets up as messages indicate a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. As this is Spooks, his decision is predictable.
Threads (1984)
Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I have viewed owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Saw it not long ago following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield from the programme that highlighted the truth and the casual, straightforward government details which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying decades on.
The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are
The season one finale of Severance ranks highly as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, pushing alongside Dylan to hold the switches that allowed the Innies to remain active, while yelling at the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she is living!” – resembled a outburst.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
The fifth episode of Industry’s third season made my pulse quicken. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times owing to the vast degree of the wanton self-destruction I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances on a wager involving sterling that might cost his firm millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Whenever you assume it can’t get any worse, it worsens. Redemption seems possible by the episode’s conclusion but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that!
Peep Show – Holiday (2007)
Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. It all ramps up when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it is possible!
The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001
No other viewing has been as gripping than the first time I watched 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 personal secretary and reaches a crescendo with a situation in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to seek re-election. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.
Bodyguard – episode one from 2018
The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He spots a Muslim woman going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to remove her explosive vest. Tension escalates to an almost unbearable degree, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001
Buffy comes into her home to realize her mom has deceased of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we see the episode through the experience 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 series was extremely nerve-wracking. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all vanquished. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow parks. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with an additional associate working with the government. Meadow parks. Strange people enter the restaurant. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony selects a song on the jukebox. Meadow parks her car. The bell sounds, an individual enters. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Continue. It halts. My heart sank around 20 minutes subsequently.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)
I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was incredibly tense following the introduction of villain Negan locating the survivors, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (finished with an unresolved situation). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
