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Spooks – I Spy Apocalypse from 2003

This installment starts with the intelligence unit restricted during a training exercise about a potential terror incident, overseen by two Home Office officials. As things progress, it becomes clear a real incident has taken place and a chemical weapon has been unleashed. The anxiety increases as messages indicate a catastrophe taking place outside, and gets worse as the superior shows signs of exposure, with the two officials trying to exit, forcing Matthew Macfadyen’s character to decide between shooting them or letting them go and endangering the sterile MI5 environment. As this is Spooks, it is unsurprising which one he chooses.

Threads (1984)

Threads had minimal funding but arguably the most terrifying series I have viewed because of the stark reality and bleak government data. Viewed it recently having watched the original; I used to visit the pub in Sheffield from the programme that highlighted the truth and the glib matter-of-fact official information that were transmitted. Still absolutely terrifying decades on.

Severance – The We We Are from 2022

The concluding episode of Severance’s debut season deserves a top spot in terms of gripping installments. I remained for the whole show literally perched nervously, pushing alongside Dylan to maintain his grip on the controls that kept the Innies on overtime, while screaming at the Innies to disclose their facts. The ultimate peak – “she’s alive!” – was like an eruption.

The 2024 Industry episode White Mischief

Episode five of the third series of Industry made my pulse quicken. I had to pause and get up and exit the space repeatedly due to the immense extent of the deliberate ruin I saw. Rishi Ramdani faces serious trouble at work and home – up to his eyeballs in debt to loan sharks owing to his uncontrollable gaming, assuming hazardous chances on a wager involving sterling which could lose his company millions. Naturally, he embarks on a betting frenzy, does tons of drugs and drink and alternates between success and failure, is severely assaulted. Each instance you believe things cannot decline more, it worsens. Redemption seems possible at the end of the episode but he squanders the opportunity, with horrifying consequences during the season’s final episode. Definitely needed a lie-down after that!

The 2007 Peep Show episode Holiday

Peep Show itself isn’t necessarily a stressful show. But the episode Holiday features such degrees of awkwardness that it’ll have you standing up throughout the entire episode, filled with nervousness. It all ramps up when Jeremy and Mark realize having to lie about the dog they accidentally run over and later efforts to get rid of it. You subsequently use the rest of the installment doubting if it can actually be more terrible than burning, and it is possible!

The West Wing – The Two Cathedrals from 2001

Nothing I’ve watched has been more intense compared to my initial viewing 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 personal secretary and reaches a crescendo involving a Haitian emergency, and the effects of the withheld information regarding the president’s multiple sclerosis diagnosis, along with affirmation of his plan to pursue re-election. Superb programming. Unsurpassed.

Bodyguard – episode one (2018)

The beginning of the UK show Bodyguard, with the hero aboard a train with his young son, is personally a top tense installment. He observes a woman in Islamic attire heading to the toilet and knows something is off. The explosive disposal specialists are summoned, board the train, and endeavor to coax the woman to discard her bomb jacket. Suspense rises to an almost unbearable degree, until, finally, the vest is neutralized.

The 2001 Buffy episode The Body

Buffy enters her house to realize her mom has deceased from natural reasons, which is the most unusual type of death in this mystical program. The installment lacks any soundtrack, a somber mood, and we witness the episode via the perspective of Buffy’s dismay upon uncovering 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 the start – didn’t understand the cause. Tony’s enemies, real and imagined, were all overcome. Doesn’t this resemble the season one conclusion? “Remember the little things.” However, the vibe is oddly threatening. Nearly Twin Peaks-like fear. The clan sits in an eatery. Meadow stops the car. Tony sorrowfully notifies Carmela there’s trouble afoot with yet another of his crew cooperating with the officials. Meadow parks. Unfamiliar individuals come into the diner. Stare at Tony(?) Meadow parks. Tony puts a record on the jukebox. Meadow parks. The door chimes, a person comes in. Can’t be Meadow, she’s still parking. Tony glances upward. Don’t stop. It ceases. My heart dropped from my mouth about 20 minutes later.

The 2016 The Walking Dead episode The Last Day on Earth

I kept late hours to see this show in the early morning. It was extremely gripping after the establishment of antagonist Negan finding the group, 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 – ugh! {We then had to wait for season seven|We then needed to await season