"Television is supposed to be relaxing. Flop on the sofa, lose yourself in your favourite show and feel your shoulders unknot themselves. Yet sometimes the best episodes are the most stress-inducing. Nerves jangle. Anxiety levels spike. Before you know it, you're perched on the edge of your seat, quietly whimpering and clutching a cushion for comfort. We select the dozen most intense TV episodes of all time two of which aired in the past fortnight."
"It ran for nearly a decade to diminishing returns, but the debut season of the Showtime espionage thriller was downright electrifying. Bipolar CIA analyst Carrie Mathison (Claire Danes) and turned war hero Sgt Nicholas Brody (Damian Lewis) played cat-and-mouse to taut effect. Tension reached its nerve-shredding peak with its first series finale. Al-Qaida double agent Brody attempted to detonate his suicide vest in a VIP bunker, blowing up high-value targets including the US vice-president."
"Chernobyl: The Happiness of All Mankind' (2019) Sky and HBO's forensically detailed dramatisation of the 1986 nuclear disaster became IMDb's top-rated TV series of all time. The unflinching realism was especially vivid in the fourth episode. As a team were dispatched to shoot the town's contaminated pets (sob), liquidators were sent up to the still-burning reactor's rooftop to clear radioactive debris by hand. Each worked frantically for a 90-second burst, supposedly before exposure became fatal."
Television is often relaxing, but some episodes produce intense stress and anxiety, leaving viewers perched, whimpering and clutching cushions. Dozen intensely stressful TV episodes span multiple series and eras, including two recent broadcasts. The debut season finale of Homeland built nerve-shredding tension as Al-Qaida double agent Nicholas Brody attempted to detonate a suicide vest in a VIP bunker, narrowly foiled. Chernobyl’s fourth episode portrayed liquidators clearing radioactive debris by hand in 90-second bursts, shot with immersive Steadicam and a crackling dosimeter, heightening terror and underscoring real-life liquidator fatalities.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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