Top 10 Hardest TV Scenes to Shoot

“Breaking Bad” (2008-13)

In the eighth episode of “Breaking Bad’s” second season, we meet criminal lawyer Saul Goodman, played by Bob Odenkirk. Saul advises one of his clients to give Walt and Jesse up, so the duo kidnap Saul to try and convince him otherwise. According to actor Bryan Cranston, the scene that followed was incredibly hard to film. Walt and Jesse bring Saul to an open grave in a desert that wasn’t exactly the most hospitable of environments. According to Cranston, it was about nine degrees during the shoot, not accounting for windchill – and it was windy. With the sand blowing in his face and with the cold, Cranston could barely hold a prop gun.

“Bridgerton” (2020-)

We generally don’t think of period pieces as particularly difficult to film. But according to the “Bridgerton” cast, all that dancing is a lot harder than you think. There were a total of 11 dance scenes in the show’s first season, and the cast had to undergo pretty strenuous rehearsals to get all the moves right. Not only do they have to know the steps, however – they also usually have to hold conversations while they’re dancing. The actors reportedly have earpieces in to help them better hear the music and keep in time, but that poses an issue too. They have to switch the earpiece depending on where the camera is – or “headphone choreography,” as actor Luke Newton calls it.

“The Haunting of Hill House” (2018)

The sixth episode of “The Haunting of Hill House” is one of the most ambitious feats of filming to ever hit Netflix. In a thread on his Twitter account, director Mike Flanagan broke down the mechanics of the 56-minute episode, which consisted of five long takes meant to look like one. Flanagan said that from the beginning, the set was designed to be able to handle the filming of this episode. The two sets involved – the manor home and the funeral home – were connected, and both had hiding places for crew and equipment so they wouldn’t be seen in any long take. There was even an elevator so a cameraman could move between stories seamlessly. Talk about planning ahead.

“Stranger Things” (2016-)

The third season of “Stranger Things” involves some of the most intense sequences the show has ever had. It was especially difficult for actors Millie Bobby Brown and Dacre Montgomery, who played Eleven and Billy. The two faced off in some of the most gruesome and physically demanding fights we’ve ever seen. To capture a shot of Eleven falling into a void, Brown was fixed into a harness that flipped her backward multiple times. In an interview with The Independent, Montgomery said while filming the final battle at the mall, he and Brown would repeatedly lose their voices from screaming. Luckily, these two seem to have come out on the other side without too much damage – to their bodies or their vocal cords.

“Daredevil” (2015-18)

Netflix’s “Daredevil” series had some of the best fight choreography we’ve ever seen – and they were on top of it right from the jump. In just the second episode of the first season, the cast and crew let us know we were in good hands with an iconic three-minute, single-shot fight scene. In the sequence, Matt Murdock – Daredevil himself – fights a bunch of Russian mobsters. The camera moves around a hallway while the actors and stuntmen go in and out of the frame. According to stunt coordinator Philip Silvera, you would normally have a week or two to rehearse a scene like this for a feature film. But the “Daredevil” crew only had two days. Talk about learning fast.

“The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” (2017-)

While season two’s Yom Kippur sequence reportedly took three days to shoot, there’s no way we could ignore the amazing season two opener of “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel.” With this opening shot, the cast and crew showed us just what they were capable of. The season opens with a long take that moves the viewer through the hustle and bustle of a department store, then down to the basement to find our main character. The take lasts about a minute and a half, and the Steadicam operator had the difficult job of deftly moving the camera through very cozy spaces packed with multiple actors. The actors had to time their movements perfectly to not hit each other or the camera.

“Euphoria” (2019-)

The cinematography of HBO’s “Euphoria” is one of its main draws. What we love most about the raunchy teen drama is this amazing use of practical effects. In the pilot episode, Rue, the main character, is having a bit of a trip after doing some drugs. The hallway starts to spin, a physical representation of her state of mind. But what you might not have known is that the hallway is actually turning in circles – no CGI needed. Zendaya had to interact with the hallway as it spun and she stayed upright. As for the extras who are rooted to the ground, which way is up? They were quite literally strapped down and spinning. We can’t imagine the dizziness.

“Midnight Mass” (2021)

When Mike Flanagan filmed that amazing “one-take” episode in his show “The Haunting of Hill House,” we’re sure he thought that would be the hardest thing he or his crew would ever do. But then came “Midnight Mass.” According to Flanagan, the show’s titular moment – a full-on church massacre – was more difficult than the “Hill House” episode in a lot of ways. The scene included hundreds of smaller interactions that had to be planned out to a tee. There were around 100 extras in a tiny room where a huge action sequence had to take place. Plus, the show filmed at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic – and a six-day shoot meant a lot of rapid tests. That’s almost too much to handle.

“The Bear” (2022-)

“The Bear” took the TV world by storm in 2022, offering an authentic look at the anxieties of working in a restaurant. But no episode better put that stress on display than episode seven, “The Review.” The episode itself is only 18 minutes long, but is done entirely in a singular take. Once the filmmakers had the script for the episode, they decided that any cuts away from the action would interrupt the intensity of the moment. So, they created a map of the set to go along with the script, meticulously outlining where mini scenes would take place, which routes actors would walk, and how the camera would follow. While some “oners” combine shots from different takes, this is truly, amazingly, one take.

“Game of Thrones” (2011-19)

“Game of Thrones” is pretty well-known for its out of this world battle sequences. We were primed to expect the show to go big when it came to war. But with “Battle of the Bastards,” the show exceeded expectations. The famous fight between Ramsay Bolton and Jon Snow took a whopping 25 days to film. With 500 extras, 600 crew members, and 70 horses, you can imagine there was a lot of chaos on set. Director Miguel Sapochnik said the horses were hard to manage, and making 500 guys look like 8,000 also posed a challenge. We don’t feel envious of those 500 men – according to actor Kristofer Hivju, sometimes they would shoot one sequence 80 times in a day. Yeesh.