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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the Spooks team restricted as part of a simulation about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it appears that there really has been an attack with a chemical weapon released. The anxiety increases as incoming communications show a crisis unfolding beyond their walls, and intensifies when the leader seems contaminated, and the government agents endeavor to depart, compelling the character played by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or allowing them to leave and potentially infecting the secure MI5 headquarters. As this is Spooks, the outcome is expected.

Threads from 1984

Threads was low budget but one of the most frightening programmes I have viewed due to its harsh realism and grim official statistics. 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 that were transmitted. Continuing to be utterly horrifying after three and a half decades.

Severance – The We We Are (2022)

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there in terms of gripping installments. I remained for the whole show literally perched nervously, 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 final climactic moment – “she is living!” – felt like an explosion.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Installment five in Industry’s third series made my pulse quicken. I had to pause and get up and depart the area multiple times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt from unscrupulous lenders due to his addictive betting, assuming hazardous chances with a gamble on the pound which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and experiences wins and losses, is brutally attacked. Every time you think things cannot decline more, it deteriorates. There is a chance for salvation at the end of the episode but he misses the opening, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. 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 will make you rise throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. The tension escalates when Jeremy and Mark realize having to lie about the dog they unintentionally hit and subsequent attempts to dispose of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode 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 demise (in a car crash) of the president’s confidential aide and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the fallout from the non-disclosure of the president’s MS diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to seek re-election. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train alongside his juvenile boy, is personally a top tense installment. He spots a Muslim woman entering the restroom and knows something is off. The bomb diffuser experts are called, enter the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Tension escalates to a nearly intolerable level, until, indeed, the vest is disarmed.

Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body (2001)

Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away from natural reasons, which is the least common kind of passing in this supernatural show. The episode has no background music, a gloomy atmosphere, 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 show was pants-wettingly tense. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, had all been defeated. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Recall the minor details.” However, the vibe is oddly threatening. Approaching Twin Peaks-esque horror. The family gathers in a diner. Meadow stops the car. 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 is parking. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The door chimes, a person comes in. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony glances upward. Don’t stop. It ceases. My spirit fell 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 incredibly tense after the establishment of antagonist Negan discovering the characters, savagely teasing his prey then not knowing who he killed (ended on a cliffhanger). The first-person perspective of the victim and the subdued noises – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season