The world is a panic-inducing place right now. Dire warnings are shared daily about the parlous state of our climate. Authoritarian strongmen are establishing a foothold across Europe and beyond. Footage of seemingly interminable conflicts are broadcast on news roundups. So what better way to escape all that than by watching a TV show so tense it has you gnawing your fingernails down to the whites?
We’ve talked about agonisingly tense TV before, in 2022, when Industry and The Bear gave viewers palpitations. But this year, TV seems to ratcheted up the tension to new heights. (I blame/credit the influence of the Safdie brothers’ hernia-inducing film Uncut Gems for this wave: it showed that people can tolerate an obscene amount of on-screen stress.) Indeed, by the time Industry and The Bear have aired their respective third series – The Bear later this month, Industry in the autumn – we’ll be hollow-eyed nervous wrecks.
Because 2024 has been such a banner year for stressful series, The Guide has devised its own tense-o-meter (patent pending) to measure them …
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Blue Lights (BBC iPlayer)
This BBC drama about rookie cops in Belfast feels, at points, like a daytime soap in its unfussy direction and uncomplicated plotting. But dismiss it at your peril – there’s depth and complexity to its depiction of a city scarred by sectarianism and inevitably distrustful of authority. Not to mention moments of high anxiety as seemingly routine moments of neighbourhood policing suddenly explode into violence.
Tense-o-meter: 2 stomach ulcers out of 5
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Ripley (Netflix)
With its meticulous monochrome cinematography and languorous pacing, this Netflix adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel almost feels too classy to be truly tense. Plus, the fact that we’re pretty familiar with how things turn out should lower pulse rates further. And yet, in its own ambling, meditative way, Ripley is really stressful: you can feel your skin prickling as Andrew Scott’s suave sociopath casually lifts a glass ashtray from a side table, ready and willing to lodge it in the skull of the next person in his way.
Tense-o-meter: 3 stomach ulcers out of 5
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Baby Reindeer (Netflix)
Richard Gadd’s endlessly discussed comedy drama doesn’t need gunfire or grisly murders to raise the blood pressure. Its tension is drawn from smaller, though no less intense moments: the whiplash you experience as stalker Martha flips from doting to violent; the stomach lurch as Donny makes another disastrous, but understandable, life decision. The fact that Baby Reindeer is drawn from reality only adds to the intensity – this nightmarish scenario could happen, and has happened, to anyone.
Tense-o-meter: 4 stomach ulcers out of 5
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Jerrod Carmichael Reality Show (Now/Max)
Tension takes many forms: sometimes it can come out of sheer awkwardness. This unscripted series from US standup Jerrod Carmichael luxuriates in that quality. An attempt by Carmichael to embrace radical honesty, it sees him divulge the deepest, most personal details of his life to those around him, often with toe-curling results.
The scene with Tyler, the Creator has been much talked about, but even more excruciating is the road trip Carmichael takes with his father, Joe, where topics of conversation include his family’s discomfort with their son’s homosexuality.
Tense-0-meter: 4 stomach ulcers out of 5
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The Responder (BBC iPlayer)
The titan of tense TV. Tony Schumacher’s drama about a corrupt cop offers many of the familiar storylines and beats of police drama, but manages to do something uniquely excruciating with them. Much of that is down to Martin Freeman’s brilliant performance as the hollowed-out copper Chris, forever scrambling to get through his shift without being found out or done in. A scratchy restlessness seeps into every scene, whether it’s a standoff with drug dealers or just Chris trying to connect with his daughter.
Frankly, we could have done with just the one outing of it, but last month brought a second series pitched at the same relentless register as the first. Get the Pepto-Bismol out.
Tense-o-meter: 5 stomach ulcers out of 5
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