🔗 Share this article ‘I absolutely had to rest after that!’ The most gripping TV episodes ever Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003 The show kicks off with the Spooks team locked down during a training exercise concerning a fictional terrorist event, supervised by two Home Office agents. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical agent deployed. The suspense builds as messages indicate a disaster happening externally, and gets worse as the superior shows signs of exposure, and the government agents endeavor to depart, pushing the protagonist portrayed by Matthew Macfadyen to choose between firing at them or allowing them to leave and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. Given it’s Spooks, his decision is predictable. The 1984 production Threads Threads had minimal funding yet among the scariest shows I have ever watched owing to its grim authenticity and bleak government data. Watched it about a month ago after seeing the first airing; I frequently went to the Sheffield pub shown in the series which emphasised the reality and the offhand factual official statements which was broadcast. 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 was throughout the episode quite literally on the edge of my seat, pushing alongside Dylan to keep his hands on the levers that sustained the Innies’ extended time, while shouting to the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she survives!” – was like an eruption. Industry – White Mischief (2024) The fifth episode of Industry’s third season caused my heart to pound. I needed to stop and stand and leave the room several times owing to the vast degree of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani is in deep shit professionally and personally – buried in financial obligations to illegal creditors owing to his uncontrollable gaming, engaging in dangerous ventures with a gamble on the pound which could lose his company millions. Inevitably, he starts a gaming binge, uses copious drugs and alcohol and wins, loses, wins, is severely assaulted. Each instance you believe things cannot decline more, it worsens. Redemption seems possible as the installment closes yet he wastes the chance, leading to terrible outcomes in the season finale. Absolutely had to relax following that! Peep Show – Holiday from 2007 Peep Show is not inherently a tense series. However, the Holiday episode features such degrees of awkwardness that it will make you rise throughout the entire episode, riddled with anxiety. The situation intensifies as Jeremy and Mark discover needing to deceive regarding the dog they unintentionally hit and later efforts to get rid of it. You then occupy the remainder of the episode wondering if it might be more awful than cremation, and it turns out to be! The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals (2001) Nothing I have seen has been as tense as when I first saw the season two finale to The West Wing. The episode starts with the aftermath of the demise (in a car crash) of the president’s private assistant and reaches a crescendo with a situation in Haiti, and the repercussions of the secrecy about the president’s MS condition, with confirmation of his intention to seek re-election. Superb programming. Unsurpassed. The 2018 Bodyguard premiere episode The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train accompanied by his small son, ranks among the most gripping episodes I’ve seen. He observes a woman in Islamic attire going into the loo and senses something is wrong. The bomb squad is alerted, enter the train, and attempt to convince the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Suspense rises to a practically unendurable point, until yes, the vest is diffused. Buffy the Vampire Slayer – The Body from 2001 Buffy arrives at her residence to realize her mom has deceased from natural reasons, which is the rarest form of demise in this supernatural show. The show features no musical score, a sullen tone, and we view the installment through the lens of Buffy’s shock of discovering her mother. The Sopranos – Made in America from 2007 The ultimate sequence of the series finale of the series was extremely nerve-wracking. And if you watched it when it originally aired, you – at first – weren’t sure why. Tony’s foes, genuine and fictional, were all overcome. Surely this has the feel of the season one ending? “Think about the small elements.” Yet the atmosphere is strangely foreboding. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow finds a parking spot. Tony gloomily informs Carmela difficulties are arising with yet another of his crew collaborating with the authorities. Meadow parks the vehicle. Strange people enter the restaurant. Look at Tony(?) Meadow continues to park. Tony plays a track on the music machine. Meadow parks. The bell sounds, an individual enters. It cannot be Meadow, she is still parking. Tony glances upward. Continue. It stops. My spirit fell roughly 20 minutes after. The Walking Dead – The Last Day on Earth (2016) I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was incredibly tense following the introduction of villain Negan finding the group, cruelly taunting his victims and then leaving the victim unknown (finished with an unresolved situation). The first-person perspective of the victim and the muted audio – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season