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aion-rsa · 3 years

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TV’s Most Stressful Episodes From Battlestar Galactica to The Handmaid’s Tale

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Warning: contains spoilers for Battlestar Galactica, Chernobyl, Line of Duty, Ozark, The Handmaid’s Tale, The Knick, Lovecraft Country and Succession.

Considering that most of us watch TV to relax, it’s remarkable how many shows leave us adrenalin-flooded, with hearts beating like hummingbird wings. It’s TV characters’ fault; those guys never know when to stop. They’re always attempting a hostile takeover of the family firm, escaping a race of murderous cyborgs or trying to dismantle a totalitarian regime. It’s exhilarating but exhausting behaviour. And the better a drama is, the more invested we are in its characters, so the more we care when they put their life on the line. That means more fingernails chewed, more faces clawed in horror, and more nervous foot-tapping while we should, by rights, be melted into our sofas like… all the chocolate melted into my sofa.

Forget slow TV, canal boat travelogues and laundry-folding background series, these are the TV episodes that left us in need of some quiet time in a dark room listening to whale song. Add your own suggestions below.

Succession Season 1, Episode 6 ‘Which Side Are You On?

Succession is a brilliant show populated by the richest and most terrible people you could ever wish to spend time with – hell, the patriarch of the family at the centre of this capitalist nightmare, Logan Roy (Brian Cox) has the catchphrase “Fuck Off!”. But this episode, the sixth of season one, is the most Succession-y episode of the lot, and therefore the most anxiety-making. In this episode Kendall Roy’s push to get the board of Waystar to stage a vote of no confidence to remove his father from office comes to a head. Attempting to sway enough board members without alerting Logan to his plans, he’s on a knife edge from start to excruciating finish. Meanwhile this ep has some of the greatest subplots of all time. Logan goes to visit the actual President of the United States who can’t see him because of a threat to security – Logan is obsessed that he’s been snubbed. Tom decides to take Greg out for a ridiculously decadent evening which involves eating a whole deep-fried rare songbird as part of the tasting menu, while we know that Greg has actually had to eat already in an awkward meal with his austere Grandfather, who’s in town specifically for the vote. Also there is an actual terrorist threat. It all culminates in a horror show of lateness, betrayal, disaster and a lot of ‘fuck offs’. Brilliant, tense telly. We love it. RF

Battlestar Galactica Season 1, Episode 1 ‘33’

While Syfy’s (at the time Sci-Fi Channel) superb reboot of Battlestar Galactica technically began with a two-part miniseries, “33” is the show’s first proper episode and it’s amazing. “33” catches us with Battlestar Galactica and its fleet of the last human beings in the universe being pursued across the reaches of space by Cylons. But the Cylons, ever-proficient machines that they are, have found a fool proof way to track down the fleet wherever they are in the universe…every…33…minutes. This episode is a perfect introduction to the themes of the series and the stresses its characters will endure. It’s hard not to empathize with the terror of the exhausted fleet as they face an existential threat every 33 minutes on the dot. AB

Line of Duty Series 3, Episode 6 ‘Breach’

Series three was the crossover point for Line of Duty, when it went from thinking crime fan’s drama to a show watched by everybody and their dog (it’s huge with dogs. They love all those flashing blue lights). The series three finale was the show at its most thrilling, specifically in the 10 minutes that followed the sending of a now-famous text message: “Urgent exit required.” That text was sent by ‘The Caddy’, a corrupt police officer and lifelong organised crime gang member who’d framed one of our heroes for murder. Mid-interrogation, The Caddy realised that he’d been rumbled and so alerted his criminal fraternity. They broke him out of HQ and into one of the most tense street chases on TV, courtesy of director John Strickland. Gunfire, shots taken from moving vehicles, cars spinning, people leaping in front of flying bullets, a woman in her mid-thirties being forced to do cardio… Sunday nights on BBC hadn’t been this stressful since that presenter broke that fifty grand vase on The Antiques Roadshow. The culmination of a multi-series arc, it was heart rate-racing TV – the sort of finale that makes you stand up and jog on the spot until your husband tells you to sit down, you’re scaring him. LM

Kitchen Nightmares Season 6, Episode 2 ‘Amy’s Baking Company’

The formula for Kitchen Nightmares (based on the British series Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares) is a simple one. Renowned chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay enters into a failing restaurant, yells at the owners and staff for a little bit, then some lessons are learned and business turns around. To say that the infamous Amy’s Baking Company episode of Kitchen Nightmares doesn’t follow this formula would be putting it lightly. This is a stressful episode of television because our hero Gordon Ramsay comes across two genuine sociopaths. Amy’s Baking Company (or ABC) is an Arizona restaurant owned by husband and wife team Amy and Sami Bouzaglo. When Gordon first enters the premises, everything seems relatively normal. But it’s not long before he discovers that Sami is a former mobster who steals tips from the servers and threatens to fight several customers a night and Amy is a bug-eyed fire demon from hell who sees enemies and conspirators around every corner. While it’s usually cathartic to watch Gordon yell at delusional small business owners, this episode has viewers praying Gordon will escape Arizona with his life intact. AB

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The Handmaid’s Tale Season 3, Episode 13 ‘Mayday’

You could pick almost any episode of The Handmaid’s Tale as one of TV’s most stressful watching experiences; relaxation is not this show’s vibe. Set in a dystopia where the most dreadful things happen on so regular a basis it’s genuinely a wonder to get between two ad breaks without somebody being de-tongued or stoned to death, it’s a contender for the most stressful drama on TV. The series three finale is a particularly tense watch because the stakes are so high. Heroine June has decided to hit the brutal theocracy of Gilead where it hurts – right in its kids. She’s got the word out among resistance channels that she’s getting the children out. Bring her a child of Gilead (all of whom were either stolen from their birth parents and forcibly adopted by members of the ruling elite, or born as a product of state-sponsored rape that is the Handmaid system) and she’ll put it on a plane to Canada. What makes it particularly stressful is that when the kids start coming, they keep coming, and coming. Far more than June had allowed for. With Gilead’s thug soldiers going house to house down the street and a constant threat that somebody could betray her at any minute, June has to think and act fast. A terrifying night-time escape, a heavily patrolled airfield and 86 children to herd and keep quiet… my blood pressure’s up just remembering. LM

The Knick Season 2, Episode 10 ‘This Is All We Are’

Thanks to its dim lighting, superb early 20th century set dressing, and gallons and gallons of blood, surgical drama The Knick is always a pretty stressful viewing experience. Its series finale, “This Is All We Are” is particularly intense though. Through 20 episodes, cocaine (and then heroin)-addicted surgeon John Thackery (Clive Owen) has performed countless gory procedures. When his bowels begin to fail (due to the aforementioned) drugs, there is only one person he trusts to perform the corrective surgery on himself: himself. And that’s how viewers are entreated to the sight of our protagonist cutting open his own guts and playing around inside. That, combined with the usual finale stressors, make for one hell of a stressful episode. AB

Lovecraft Country Episode 1, ‘Sundown’

The first episode of this excellent horror drama is also one of the best and the most stressful. Setting out its stall early on, the show follows Atticus (Jonathan Majors), his uncle George (Courtney B. Vance) and friend Leti (Jurnee Smollett) as they travel into the Jim Crow South in 1950s in search of Atticus’ father. Racism is pervasive from the off but the final act of this ep sees the three racing to cross county lines before sunset to avoid the barbaric ‘sundown’ law that prohibits people of color from being out after dark and the racist sheriffs who want to enforce it. It’s a madly stressful car chase against the actual sun and even though the gang just about makes it, the law men pursue them into the woods to lynch them anyway. Fortunately, just in the nick of time a Shoggoth (many eyed, sharp-toothed killing machine) arrives increasing, but levelling out, the peril. It’s a smart, thrilling, break-neck episode that makes it clear that gore and death are definitely on the table and that monsters come in many forms. RF

Chernobyl Episode 5, ‘Vichnaya Pamyat’

Clearly, watching Chernobyl is a stressful experience. Unless the real-life nuclear disaster drama were very badly made, there’s no way it wouldn’t be. Craig Mazin’s five-part HBO series is extremely well made, which makes it extremely stressful and very involving. The first episode, in which Reactor 4 of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant explodes, unfurls like a fast-paced sci-fi thriller. In it, we see the true version of events that will go on, over the course of the next episodes, to be minimised, lied about and suppressed by a Soviet government determined not to let any chinks appear in its flawless façade, whatever the risk to its people. We meet the key players – those who will lie about the explosion, and those who will tell the truth at dire consequences to themselves. It’s in the final episode though, that crushes all the air from your lungs. In it, Jared Harris’ chemist character Valery Legasov lays the blame for truth suppression and the subsequent endangerment of life squarely at the government’s feet. Legasov does the right thing despite knowing it will cost him everything. Watching it feels like witnessing a man get buried alive. LM

Ozark Season 3 Episode 9, ‘Fire Pink’

Heartbreak is stressful, no? The sensation of one’s heart being squeezed hard, steadily, for 62 minutes, until the point that it breaks, is anybody’s definition of stress. That’s exactly what season three Ozark episode ‘Fire Pink’ does, thanks to Tom Pelphrey’s performance as Wendy Byrde’s tragically unstable younger brother Ben. When an All-American family the Byrdes start laundering international drug cartel money in secret, the key word is ‘secret’. Loose lips sink ships, and just when the Byrdes really can’t afford to fuck up, enter: Ben. He doesn’t mean any harm, but off his bipolar meds, he also can’t be trusted to keep quiet. In ‘Fire Pink’ Ben makes one slip-up after another and his every attempt to right those wrongs only digs him and the Byrdes in deeper. As the hour unfurls, we watch Wendy fight inwardly against what she knows to be true: Ben is just too great a liability and something has to be done. It’s a remarkably stressful hour, involving a speed boat escape, a stomach-dropping appearance from the cops, a road trip, a diner and a phone call. And it’ll break your heart. LM

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flexiblecontent · 6 years

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So....I’ve been watching Twilight.

The theme of all my posts has been stress. Stress has been high lately, and I don’t really know how to cope with it. I keep thinking I’ve reached the bottom of burnout and will begin to dig my way out, but lately it just keeps getting worse and worse.

That sounds much more dire than it is, or maybe it sounds exactly as dire as it sounds. Anyway the point is I’m uncomfortable and trying to figure out how to find some sort of relief and so I have turned to one of the most unlikely sources imaginable: Twilight.

I like to watch some sort of movie or TV show in the morning when I’m getting ready. The morning is one of the few times that I get all to myself. I wake up earlier than most people. The world feels quiet and it’s a great time to catch up on media that I don’t have to defend or explain to anyone. Which is why I was browsing through Amazon Prime and discovered that all of the twilight movies are available on Amazon Prime. IT’s been 10 years since the first twilight movie came out, and 6 years since the last movie came out.

While I am certain that there are still staunch fans that are discussing Twilight I feel like it has passed out of its zeitgeist and can now be looked at without the cultural pressure to either adore or despise it.

So, I started watching Twilight. In small 45 minute chunks while I got ready to go to the gym and eat breakfast, and I find myself looking forward to checking in on the Twilight world every day.

Look, I was never a twilight fan. When the books first came out I bought the first one after many recommendations and I remember as soon as the vampires started playing baseball I knew that it was shit.

I’m not here to pile on the criticism of Twilight. That has been circulating for years and it’s too easy, but I am going to try to explain why the Twilight movies feel so comfortable when I am feeling distressed. I’m also not going to say that I like it because it’s bad. While that is partly true I feel like that phrase has come to mean an excuse for enjoying things we know are bad. While Twilight is definitely mockable, again it just feels too easy, and if I only wanted to mocke it then why would I be watching it by myself in my quiet peaceful mornings? The truth is, on some level, I am genuinely enjoying it.

To be clear, I don’t think that twilight is good. I still know it’s shit. It’s just shit that I am really enjoying right now.

So here is my soft defense of Twilight.

The Sincerity:

Twilight is nothing if not sincere. It has no self-awareness of how ridiculous it is. The characters are not winking at the audience, they’re not savvy, and they’re also not apologizing for themselves. They are all so extra but no one ever says anything like “I know I’m being dramatic but….” Or “I know that I am overreacting but….” All these drama queens are completely and sincerely feeling their feelings in really big, over the top ways. They’ve dialed it up to 100 and I’m here for it. So much of coolness and edginess is wrapped up in irony, or cynicism and I don’t think twilight has any of that. That same kind of sincerity is what make Tommy Wiseau’s The Room so watchable. There’s a sweetness and a rawness to not apologizing and not realizing that you are ridiculous. And I love it.

It’s completely outside of reality:

Yes, Edward and Bella’s relationship is problematic. But I’m not a teenage girl. My relationships and my ideas about romance are already fully formed and I’m not going to be swayed by Twilight. These stories don’t take place in a reality that is pretty much like ours except vampires and werewolves exist, it takes place in a reality entirely outside of our own. Nothing makes sense, the relationships don’t make sense, Bella barely goes to school. Everything that happens in these books, even the “Day to day” stuff is so bonkers that it’s like arriving on another planet. Something about watching it first thing in the morning my mind and heart is open and I find myself thinking without judgement, “what are the rules in this world? What does that mean? What exactly is happening right now.” And to be completely honest it’s a reality that I’m enjoying spending time in. We’ve got moody, rainy, northwestern vibes. A world of perpetual sweaters, with small town charm and major hotties around every corner. There’s romance, peril, teenage angst, and seemingly endless amounts of time to do things other than go to school. Right now….that is where I want to be. It’s escapism and I NEED escapism.

Bella is not that bad

The character of Bella Swan gets a lot of crap. I’ve given her crap, I’ve been critical of her as a female character, but maybe it’s because I’m getting old, or maybe it’s because I’m feeling gentle and open hearted but you guys, she’s not that bad. There is this idea that strong female characters needs to mean a Katniss Everdeen who can literally kick some ass. I don’t think that’s really what we are looking for when we talk representation. Women can be strong in lots of ways outside of physical strength, and if we define characters in such a narrow way we will never get female characters that reflect the complexity and nuance of the women that I know and interact with every day. I think maybe the reason she annoyed me so much when I first read the books is because I actually see a lot of myself in her. I know, I know, the “oh I’m so clumsy and I don’t realize I’m beautiful” stuff is pretty cringey, but my memories of being a teenager were mostly just of my emotions being on fire! All the time! I was fully of deep longing, and angst and depression all the time and because I was a teenager I didn’t understand that I would ever feel anything different. Bella is the same way. She is over the top and extra but again, she feels her feelings 100%. Is Bella deeply flawed, yes. Does that mean we should shit all over her? No. I know that Bella isn’t exactly a feminist icon, but lots of young women love her deeply and when we shit all over a TEENAGER we’re not being great feminist icons either.

I guess what I’m really saying is Twilight is self-care and let go of the guilty that comes with your guilty pleasure. Sometimes it’s ok to watch something just because it’s fun.

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