🔗 Share this article ‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ The most intense TV episodes you’ve seen The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse This installment starts with the intelligence unit confined during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As events unfold, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical agent deployed. The suspense builds as reports reveal a disaster happening externally, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable. Threads (1984) Threads had minimal funding but one of the most frightening programmes I’ve ever seen owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Viewed it recently after seeing the first airing; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub shown in the series which underscored the actuality and the glib matter-of-fact official information which was broadcast. Remaining completely frightening decades on. The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there among intense episodes. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that allowed the Innies to remain active, while yelling at the Innies to reveal their realities. The final climactic moment – “she’s alive!” – resembled a outburst. Industry – White Mischief from 2024 Installment five in Industry’s third series caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and leave the room several times due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty in his job and domestic life – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, assuming hazardous chances on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion but he squanders the opportunity, leading to terrible outcomes in the concluding part of the season. Absolutely had to relax following that! Peep Show – Holiday from 2007 Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. But the episode Holiday includes such amounts of embarrassment that it’ll have you standing up for the full show, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize being compelled to falsify about the canine they by chance collide with and following tries to eliminate it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it is possible! The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (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 installment begins with the consequences of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s confidential aide and escalates to a高潮 involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to pursue re-election. Excellent TV. Unsurpassed. The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train accompanied by his small son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He observes a woman in Islamic attire entering the restroom and senses something is wrong. The bomb squad is alerted, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to take off her suicide vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001 Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The episode has no background music, a sullen tone, 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 for those who saw it during its initial broadcast, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, had all been defeated. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with another member of his team working with the government. Meadow parks. Strange people enter the restaurant. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It stops. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later. The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth I remained awake to view this installment in the early morning. It was extremely gripping following the introduction of villain Negan locating the survivors, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The victim’s POV shot and the muffled sounds – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season