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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team confined during a training exercise relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, supervised by two Home Office agents. As the situation develops, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The tension ratchets up as incoming communications show a disaster happening externally, and intensifies as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the government agents endeavor to depart, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or permitting their exit and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.

Threads (1984)

The production was inexpensive yet among the scariest shows I have viewed because of the stark reality and dismal official figures. Saw it not long ago after seeing the first airing; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield featured in the show that highlighted the truth and the casual, straightforward government details that were transmitted. Still absolutely terrifying decades on.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The first season finale of Severance deserves a top spot in terms of gripping installments. I remained for the whole show quite literally on the edge of my seat, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that allowed the Innies to remain active, while screaming at the Innies to reveal their realities. The final climactic moment – “she’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.

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 depart the area multiple times because of the sheer scale of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty in his job and domestic life – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors owing to his uncontrollable gaming, taking such risks with a bet on sterling that might cost his firm millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Whenever you assume the situation cannot deteriorate further, it does. There’s hope of redemption by the episode’s conclusion yet he wastes the chance, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Certainly required a rest afterward!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode features such degrees of awkwardness that it can cause you to stand for the full show, permeated with worry. The tension escalates 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 spend the rest of the episode questioning whether it truly can be worse than incineration, and it turns out to be!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001)

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense as when I first saw the season two finale to The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s confidential aide and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information of the president’s MS diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to run for another term. Wonderful television. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, featuring the main character on a train accompanied by his small son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and try to persuade the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to a nearly intolerable level, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001

Buffy arrives at her residence to realize her mom has deceased of natural causes, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a somber mood, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. This seems similar to the first season’s finale, right? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow stops the car. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with an additional associate cooperating with the officials. Meadow secures a parking space. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The door chimes, a person comes in. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony looks up. Don’t stop. It ceases. My heart sank around 20 minutes subsequently.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I stayed up to watch this episode during the night. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan finding the group, cruelly taunting his victims then not knowing who he killed (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The victim’s POV shot and the subdued noises – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season