’66-Minute Stress Bomb’: The Most Powerful TV Episodes Ever | television

TIt’s supposed to be relaxing. Lie on the couch, immerse yourself in your favorite show and feel your shoulders loosen. However, sometimes the best episodes are the most tense. Nerve shaking. Anxiety levels rise. Before you know it, you’re sitting on the edge of your seat, whimpering softly and grabbing a pillow for comfort.

We pick the ten most intense episodes of TV ever made – two of which aired in the past two weeks. Well, it was a turbulent time. Press the play button and feel your joints whiten…

Homeland: “Marine One” (2011)

It’s been going on for nearly a decade with declining returns, but the first season of the Showtime spy thriller was very exciting. Bipolar CIA analyst Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and “turned” war hero Sergeant Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) play cat-and-mouse to taut effect. The tension reached a nerve-wracking climax with the series one finale. Brody, an al-Qaeda double agent, attempted to detonate his suicide vest at a VIP hideout, blowing up high-value targets including the US Vice President. He is thwarted by a loose wire and a phone call from his very annoying daughter, Dana. For a while, viewers were sweating like Brody in a bathroom stall.

Chernobyl: “The happiness of all mankind” (2019)

Sky and HBO’s detailed dramatization of the 1986 nuclear disaster has become IMDb’s highest-rated television series of all time. The unwavering realism was especially evident in episode four. While a team was sent to shoot the town’s contaminated pets, “liquidators” were sent to the roof of the still-smoldering reactor to manually remove radioactive debris. They each worked frantically for 90 seconds, presumably before the exposure became fatal. Immersively filmed with a Steadicam and recorded with a crackling dosimeter, it included a watch-through-your-fingers moment where one poor recruit’s foot got stuck. It’s terrifying, not least because we know that one in 10 of the real liquidators died.

Happy Valley: Series 3 Episode 6 (2023)

The bloody conflict between Sergeant Catherine Cawood (Sarah Lancashire) and local psychiatrist Tommy Lee Royce (James Norton) lasted for three remarkable series over nine years. It was all building towards a climactic showdown in the final episode ever. After making a dramatic escape from prison, Tommy became desperate and dangerous. Catherine was on the verge of retirement, which is rarely a good omen for a screen cop. While an engaged audience of more than 11 million watched, transfixed by the “Peeping Tommy” scene in which he appeared at Catherine’s window as she dozed in an armchair. When he burst into the house, simple greetings (“Hello?” “Come on”) began a slow-burning 15-minute confrontation across the kitchen table.

game of thrones: “The Rains of Castamere” (2013)

Anyone who had read George R.R. Martin’s novels knew what was coming and watched with uneasy fear. When the Starks arrived at Walder Frey’s castle to support the two clans’ alliance, things seemed to be going smoothly — until Catelyn (Michelle Fairley) noticed that the musicians had changed their tune and the doors to the banquet hall had closed. Immediately the massacre began. Welcome to the red wedding. It was this horrific massacre in the books that convinced series showrunners David Benioff and D. B. Weiss to buy the TV rights. “The Lannisters are already sending their regards.”

Bear: “fish” (2023)

We almost chose to “review” the first season, when a food critic’s brilliant writing led to hundreds of orders being sent out of a pick-up machine at a Chicago restaurant, while the staff collapsed under the pressure. However, the bear became even more confused as he left the kitchen and returned to the dysfunctional Berzatto family’s Christmas dinner. As everyone tried (and failed) to appease toxic matriarch Jamie Lee Curtis, the chaos included multiple timers going off, flaming lines, spilled sauce, flying cutlery, and even a car crashing into a wall. 66 minute stress bomb. Just don’t ask Donna if she’s okay.

Squid game: “Ganbo” (2021)

Every episode of the tracksuit-wearing South Korean hell was nerve-wracking, but this one took Dalgona’s cake. When the surviving contestants gathered to play marbles, the twist was that only one of each pair would survive. They thought they were cooperating to be allies. Suddenly, they became deadly enemies. As the characters we’d known over the previous five episodes pitted against each other, it was painful to find out who lived and who died. The winners were left haunted by the deaths of their friends. Brutal and bleak.

Line of duty: ‘Pierces’ (2016)

He was the slippery antagonist in three series of police corruption plot twists. Now the net has finally closed inside man DI Matthew “Dot” Cottan (Craig Parkinson), also known as bent brass “The Caddy.” During the interesting interview scene, major holes in Dot’s alibi appear. He procrastinated by pretending to check his iCal, slyly sent the fateful text (“urgent exit required”) and everything blew up. Bullets were sprayed. Foot chases unfolded. The getaway cars sped up. Vicki McClure, holding a gun, rode on the side of a delivery truck. Jesus, Mary, Joseph and the little donkey.

a task: ‘Away from the ideas of right and wrong, there is a river’ (2025)

Not the fastest episode title yet Creator Brad Ingelsby knows how to make killer TV. His previous hit, Mare of Easttown, featured an unnerving mid-series sequence when Sergeant Marian Sheehan (Kate Winslet) and Detective Colleen Zabel (Evan Peters) track down a child kidnapper in Pennsylvania. After shockingly shooting Zable in the head, a defenseless and wounded mare, gasping in terror, is chased around the house in a chase reminiscent of Clarice Starling versus Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs. In the follow-up to Ingelsby’s HBO hit, the penultimate episode saw Mark Ruffalo’s FBI task force and Tom Pelphrey’s Dark Hearts biker gang meet at a cabin in the woods. Enjoy an 18-minute continuous shooting spree in which several major characters are killed.

very bad: “Ozymandias” (2013)

In this thrilling installment, five seasons’ worth of villain finally catches Walter White (Bryan Cranston). We also have anti‘His best plans fall apart, he witnesses Hank’s heartbreaking execution, loses most of his ill-gotten spoils, betrays Jesse, alienates his family, kidnaps baby Holly and goes on the run. When it all blew up in Walt’s face and the foundations were laid for the series’ killer finale, it was as comforting as a barrel of cash rolling across the desert. No wonder it won four Emmy Awards and was chosen by showrunner Vince Gilligan as his favorite episode out of all 62 episodes.

Blue lights: “Urdu Up Chow” (2025)

The third series of the BAFTA award-winning Belfast police drama has been its best yet. The penultimate episode has raised the danger to unbearable levels. In response to what appears to be a routine callout, arrogant cop Shane (Frank Blake) is stabbed in the leg. As he bleeds from a potentially fatal femoral artery, his colleague Grace (Sian Brooke) leads a mob accountant to a police safe house – not realizing that organized crime has ordered the hit on the convoy. As renegade militants move into position for a deadly ambush, a special operations surveillance expert attempts to talk Grace to safety via radio. It’s always unsettling when you start the conversation, “Is your car armored or soft-skinned?” “Smooth skinned.” “Fuck.”

succession: “Which side are you on?” (2018)

Jesse Armstrong’s psychodrama was full of excruciatingly tense episodes — Connor’s wedding, Kendall’s 40th, a pig on the floor, election night and a yacht were all there — but this was an early tone-setter. Kendall Roy (Jeremy Strong) painstakingly sets the wheels in motion for a vote of no confidence against his creepy father, Logan (Brian Cox). It crashed and burned when Logan refused to leave the Waystar boardroom, instead bullying his colleagues into standing by his side. Meanwhile, Kendall was stuck in traffic and sprinted through the streets of Manhattan to make it in time, but was kicked out of the building and exited the building upon his arrival. “That was your best shot,” snarled my dear father. “I lost.”

Atlanta: “Teddy Perkins” (2018)

Donald Glover’s diverse creation, specializing in surreal stand-alone episodes, doesn’t get any better than this extremely creepy gem. When stoner Darius (LaKeith Stanfield) picks up a valuable antique piano from a mysterious mansion and meets its strange, reclusive owner, Teddy Perkins (Glover himself, unrecognizable beneath the mask-like prosthetics and ghostly makeup), it turns into a miniature hallucinatory horror film. Director Hiro Murai admitted that he was inspired by the movie The Shining. Teddy’s unsettling personality bears a clear resemblance to Michael Jackson. Get out, Darius, before it’s too late.