‘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 intelligence unit restricted during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, overseen by two Home Office officials. As the situation develops, it seems an actual attack has occurred with a chemical weapon released. The tension ratchets up as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or letting them go and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. As this is Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.
The 1984 production Threads
Threads had minimal funding but arguably the most terrifying series I’ve ever seen owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I used to visit the pub 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.
Severance – The We We Are (2022)
The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season ranks highly among intense episodes. I remained for the whole show quite literally on the edge of my seat, pushing alongside Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that allowed the Innies to remain active, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The final climactic moment – “she survives!” – felt like an explosion.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
The fifth episode of Industry’s third season had my heart racing. I was compelled to halt and rise and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the reckless self-harm I saw. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt to illegal creditors owing to his uncontrollable gaming, engaging in dangerous ventures on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and alternates between success and failure, gets beaten to a pulp. Whenever you assume the situation cannot deteriorate further, it worsens. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode yet he wastes the chance, leading to terrible outcomes in the concluding part of the season. Certainly required a rest afterward!
The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday
The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. But the episode Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it’ll have you standing up the whole 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 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 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 confidential aide and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, with confirmation of his intention to run for another term. Wonderful television. Unsurpassed.
Bodyguard – episode one from 2018
The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train accompanied by his small son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and knows something is off. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Tension escalates to a practically unendurable point, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)
Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the least common kind of passing in this supernatural show. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.
The 2007 The Sopranos finale Made in America
The final scene of the final episode of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, had all been defeated. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Remember the little things.” 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 there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow parks. 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 looks up. Keep going. It halts. My heart dropped from my mouth roughly 20 minutes after.
The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth
I remained awake to view this installment at 2am. It was extremely gripping after the establishment of antagonist Negan discovering the characters, mercilessly mocking his targets then not knowing who he killed (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muffled sounds – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
