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The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse

This installment starts with the Spooks team locked down as part of a simulation concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it appears that there really has been an attack with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as messages indicate 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, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or permitting their exit and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. This being Spooks, his decision is predictable.

Threads from 1984

Threads had minimal funding yet among the scariest shows I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Viewed it recently following the initial broadcast; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub featured in the show which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements that aired. Continuing to be utterly horrifying 35 years later.

The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are

The season one finale of Severance ranks highly as a tense chapter. I remained for the whole show actually sitting tensely, straining every sinew with Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The concluding高潮 – “she survives!” – felt like an explosion.

Industry – White Mischief (2024)

Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I had to pause and get up and exit the space repeatedly because of the sheer scale of the reckless self-harm I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in major difficulty in his job and domestic life – buried in financial obligations from unscrupulous lenders because of his compulsive gambling, taking such risks with a bet on sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. So of course, he goes on a gambling spree, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Every time you think the situation cannot deteriorate further, it worsens. There’s hope of redemption at the end of the episode but he misses the opening, with horrifying consequences in the concluding part of the season. Absolutely had to relax following that!

Peep Show – Holiday from 2007

The series Peep Show isn’t typically anxiety-inducing. However, the Holiday episode features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise for the full show, riddled with anxiety. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize needing to deceive regarding the dog they unintentionally hit and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then spend the rest of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it is possible!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (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 reaches a crescendo with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy of the president’s MS diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Superb programming. Never bettered.

The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode

The opening of the British series Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He notices a Muslim female heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The bomb diffuser experts are called, get on the train, and try to persuade the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Anxiety builds to a nearly intolerable level, until yes, the vest is diffused.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy arrives at her residence to find her mum has passed away from natural reasons, which is the rarest form of demise in this mystical program. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we see the episode through the experience 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 watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all overcome. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with another member of his team collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks. Odd persons arrive at the eatery. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony glances upward. Keep going. It ceases. My spirit fell about 20 minutes later.

The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth from 2016

I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was so intense after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, cruelly taunting his victims then not knowing who he killed (concluded with a suspenseful moment). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – argh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season