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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team confined while undergoing a drill concerning a fictional terrorist event, monitored by two government representatives. As things progress, it appears that there really has been an attack with a chemical weapon released. The suspense builds as messages indicate a catastrophe taking place outside, and escalates when the leader seems contaminated, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to opt for either shooting them or allowing them to leave and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.

The 1984 production Threads

Threads was low budget but arguably the most terrifying series I’ve ever seen because of the stark reality and grim official statistics. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information which was broadcast. Continuing to be utterly horrifying decades on.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season ranks highly 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 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’s alive!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief from 2024

The fifth episode of Industry’s third season caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and exit the space repeatedly owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – overwhelmed by debt from unscrupulous lenders due to his addictive betting, assuming hazardous chances with a gamble on the pound that might cost his firm millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, gets beaten to a pulp. Whenever you assume the situation cannot deteriorate further, it deteriorates. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode but he squanders the opportunity, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Absolutely had to relax following that!

Peep Show – Holiday (2007)

Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. But the episode Holiday contains such levels of cringe that it can cause you to stand throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. The situation intensifies when Jeremy and Mark realize having to lie about the dog they by chance collide with and following tries to eliminate it. You then spend the rest of the episode 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 have seen has been as tense compared to my initial viewing the second season finale of The West Wing. The episode starts with the aftermath of the passing (in a road incident) of the president’s personal secretary and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to seek re-election. Superb programming. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He spots a Muslim woman going into the loo and realizes something is amiss. The bomb squad is alerted, get on the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to remove her explosive vest. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a gloomy atmosphere, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America (2007)

The final scene of the final episode of the program was incredibly anxious. And if you viewed it when it first premiered, you – at the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all vanquished. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Remember the little things.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sadly tells Carmela there’s trouble afoot with an additional associate working with the government. Meadow parks. 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 raises his gaze. Continue. It halts. My heart sank roughly 20 minutes after.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I remained awake to view this installment during the night. It was incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan locating the survivors, cruelly taunting his victims and then keeping the death a mystery (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muffled sounds – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season