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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse (2003)

This installment starts with the Spooks team restricted while undergoing a drill about a potential terror incident, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it seems an actual attack has occurred with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and gets worse as the boss appears to be infected, and the two Home Office officials attempt to leave, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to opt for either shooting them or allowing them to leave and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. Given it’s Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads from 1984

Threads was low budget yet among the scariest shows I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and grim official statistics. Watched it about a month ago following the initial broadcast; I often attended the bar in Sheffield featured in the show that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that aired. Remaining completely frightening 35 years later.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The season one finale of Severance deserves a top spot in terms of gripping installments. I spent the entire episode actually sitting tensely, exerting with Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to reveal their realities. The ultimate peak – “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 was compelled to halt and rise and depart the area multiple times because of the sheer scale of the reckless self-harm I observed. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, taking such risks on a wager involving sterling that might cost his firm millions. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, consumes excessive substances and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Whenever you assume things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. There is a chance for salvation as the installment closes but he squanders the opportunity, resulting in dreadful effects 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’ll have you standing up for the full show, filled with nervousness. It all ramps up once Jeremy and Mark find themselves 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 from 2001

Nothing I have seen has been as tense as when I first saw the second season finale of 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 involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information of the president’s MS diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Wonderful television. Never bettered.

Bodyguard – episode one from 2018

The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the hero aboard 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 senses something is wrong. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy arrives at her residence to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, and we see the episode through the experience of Buffy’s astonishment upon finding her mother.

The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007

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 the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all overcome. 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 parks. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with an additional associate working with the government. Meadow parks. Strange people enter the restaurant. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow finds a spot. The bell rings, someone enters the restaurant. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony glances upward. Don’t stop. It ceases. My heart dropped from my mouth around 20 minutes subsequently.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016)

I remained awake to view this installment at 2am. It was so intense following the introduction of villain Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims and then keeping the death a mystery (finished with an unresolved situation). The point-of-view shot from the victim and the muted audio – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season