🔗 Share this article

Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

The show kicks off with the Spooks team confined during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, monitored by two government representatives. As things progress, it seems an actual attack has occurred and a chemical agent deployed. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a catastrophe taking place outside, and gets worse as the boss appears to be infected, and the government agents endeavor to depart, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. Given it’s Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads from 1984

Threads was low budget but arguably the most terrifying series I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Watched it about a month ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements which was broadcast. Remaining completely frightening decades on.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The first season finale of Severance has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode literally perched nervously, exerting with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

The fifth episode of Industry’s third season made my pulse quicken. I was compelled to halt and rise and leave the room several times due to the immense extent of the wanton self-destruction I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty at work and home – overwhelmed by debt from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, assuming hazardous chances with a gamble on the pound which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it does. There’s hope of redemption as the installment closes yet he wastes the chance, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Certainly required a rest afterward!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. Yet the installment Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it can cause you to stand the whole episode, filled with nervousness. It all ramps up once Jeremy and Mark find themselves being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it turns out to be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense than the first time I watched the second season finale of The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s private assistant and reaches a crescendo with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to run for another term. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and senses something is wrong. The bomb diffuser experts are called, board the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy enters her house to discover her mother has died due to natural factors, which is the least common kind of passing in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a somber mood, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, had all been defeated. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “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 sadly tells Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony raises his gaze. Keep going. It ceases. My heart sank about 20 minutes later.

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

I remained awake to view this installment at 2am. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (ended on a cliffhanger). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season