‘I definitely needed a lie-down after that!’ Your most gripping television episodes of all time
Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)
This installment starts with the Spooks team restricted while undergoing a drill 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 messages indicate a disaster happening externally, 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 allowing them to leave and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. Given it’s Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.
The 1984 production Threads
The production was inexpensive but arguably the most terrifying series I have viewed due to its harsh realism and dismal official figures. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying after three and a half decades.
The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are
The season one finale of Severance has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I was throughout the episode literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while shouting to the Innies to disclose their facts. The concluding高潮 – “she is living!” – was like an eruption.
The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief
Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I needed to stop and stand and exit the space repeatedly owing to the vast degree of the wanton self-destruction I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit at work and home – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors because of his compulsive gambling, engaging in dangerous ventures on a wager involving sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is severely assaulted. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it does. There is a chance for salvation as the installment closes yet he wastes the chance, resulting in dreadful effects in the concluding part of the season. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!
The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday
Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. However, the Holiday episode includes such amounts of embarrassment that it’ll have you standing up the whole episode, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates as Jeremy and Mark discover needing to deceive regarding the dog they accidentally run over and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it turns out to be!
The 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals
Nothing I have seen has been as tense as when I first saw the season two finale to The West Wing. The show opens with the fallout of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s private assistant and builds to a peak with a crisis in Haiti, and the effects of the withheld information of the president’s MS diagnosis, coupled with verification of his aim to pursue re-election. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.
Bodyguard – episode one from 2018
The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, is for me one of the most intense episodes ever. He observes a woman in Islamic attire entering the restroom and realizes something is amiss. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to take off her suicide vest. Anxiety builds to an almost unbearable degree, until yes, the vest is diffused.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)
Buffy arrives at her residence to discover her mother has died of natural causes, which is the most unusual type of death in this paranormal series. The show features no musical score, a somber mood, 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 final scene of the final episode of the program was incredibly anxious. 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. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Recall the minor details.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sadly tells Carmela difficulties are arising with an additional associate working with the government. Meadow parks the vehicle. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow finds a spot. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Keep going. It stops. My heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.
The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)
I kept late hours to see this show at 2am. It was extremely gripping after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey and then leaving the victim unknown (ended on a cliffhanger). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the muted audio – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season
