🔗 Share this article ‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ Your most gripping television episodes ever The 2003 Spooks episode I Spy Apocalypse The show kicks off with the Spooks team locked down while undergoing a drill relating to a hypothetical terrorist attack, overseen by two Home Office officials. As events unfold, it appears that there really has been an attack and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The suspense builds as reports reveal a catastrophe taking place outside, and escalates as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the government agents endeavor to depart, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to decide between shooting them or letting them go and risking contaminating the sealed MI5 offices. This being Spooks, the outcome is expected. Threads (1984) The production was inexpensive but one of the most frightening programmes I have ever watched because of the stark reality and bleak government data. Saw it not long ago having watched the original; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub from the programme which emphasised the reality and the casual, straightforward government details that aired. Continuing to be utterly horrifying decades on. The 2022 Severance episode The We We Are The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season has to be right up there among intense episodes. I remained for the whole show literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to hold the switches that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to get their truths out there. The concluding高潮 – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption. Industry – White Mischief from 2024 Installment five in Industry’s third series caused my heart to pound. I had to pause and get up and leave the room several times because of the sheer scale of the wanton self-destruction I was witnessing. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – overwhelmed by debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, engaging in dangerous ventures with a bet on sterling which may result in huge losses for his employer. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, uses copious drugs and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is brutally attacked. Each instance you believe the situation cannot deteriorate further, it worsens. Redemption seems possible at the end of the episode yet he wastes the chance, resulting in dreadful effects in the season finale. Definitely needed a lie-down after that! Peep Show – Holiday (2007) Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. Yet the installment Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise for the full show, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover being compelled to falsify about the canine they accidentally run over and later efforts to get rid of 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 2001 The West Wing episode The Two Cathedrals No other viewing has been as gripping as when I first saw the season two finale to The West Wing. The installment begins with the consequences of the death (in a traffic accident) of the president’s private assistant and escalates to a高潮 with a crisis in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to run for another term. Superb programming. Unsurpassed. Bodyguard – episode one from 2018 The start of the British program Bodyguard, with the protagonist on a train alongside his juvenile boy, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He observes a woman in Islamic attire heading to the toilet and realizes something is amiss. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, enter the train, and attempt to convince 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 from 2001 Buffy enters her house to find her mum has passed away due to natural factors, which is the rarest form of demise in this paranormal series. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a sullen tone, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering 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 – initially – were uncertain of the reason. Tony’s adversaries, actual and perceived, were all vanquished. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Recall the minor details.” But the mood is bizarrely ominous. Almost Twin Peaks levels of terror. The family sit in a restaurant. Meadow stops the car. Tony gloomily informs Carmela there’s trouble afoot with an additional associate working with the government. Meadow parks the vehicle. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Gaze at Tony(?) Meadow is parking. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It isn’t Meadow, she remains parking. Tony looks up. Don’t stop. It halts. My spirit fell around 20 minutes subsequently. The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016) I stayed up to watch this episode during the night. It was incredibly tense after the buildup of bad guy Negan discovering the characters, mercilessly mocking his targets and then keeping the death a mystery (ended on a cliffhanger). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muffled sounds – oh no! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season