seeking recommendations: fiction with interesting interrogation/therapy/etc scenes?

[queenlua]

what it says on the tin! basically, i'm interested in hearing from y'all: any recommendations you've got for really good/interesting scenes from any kind of fiction (film, movie, novels, whatever) in which there is (1) Person A, who is interested in finding out something from Person B, and (2) Person B, who has a vested interest in not revealing that thing (whether or not they consciously realize it), and (3) there's relatively little action happening in their scenes together besides them talking. (so, this could be anything ranging from "gritty grimdark interrogation" to "the only piece of fiction that's ever managed to make a therapy session look compelling," lol, so long as it's relatively talk-y)

for some reason i'm getting a mental block on this and can only think of The Silence of the Lambs? which is, y'know, great at what it's doing, but i'm trying to collect a few examples/case studies for the sake of A Thing I'm Working On TM

so yeah, reply a way, and thanks a bunch if you can help!

Comments

[rachelmanija]

The Regeneration trilogy by Pat Barker, historical fiction about the RL psychologist who treated Siegfried Sassoon for shell shock. Lots of scenes of therapy like you describe. The movie is quite faithful and also has scenes with this.

Equus by Peter Shaffer is very much this - almost the entire play is a therapist trying to figure out what's up with a mysterious patient. There's a movie but I think the play is good reading experience.

The Sopranos has excellent therapy and interrogation scenes!

[brainwane]

Regeneration was the very first thing I was going to recommend here.

[queenlua]

(embarassingly belated) THANK YOU for all these recs!!! just popped off the waitlist for Regeneration at my library and i am SO excited to dig into it :D

[rachelmanija]

Excellent!

I forgot to mention another play, Agnes of God by John Pielmeier. The entire play is a psychiatrist interrogating a young nun and her Mother Superior to find out what went down when the young nun seemingly concealed a pregnancy and then killed the baby.

[queenlua]

ooh, that ALSO sounds excellent, tyty!

Regeneration

[brainwane]

YAYYYY and I am so looking forward to your thoughts!!

[ioplokon]

The Sopranos is probably the obvious one, for both therapy and interrogations (though they are correct about torture being primarily punitive/dominating than extractive, unlike most fiction where torture exists bc the writer couldn't figure out how to move the plot along).

Sticking with HBO, the Wire also has many interrogation scenes, the Where's Wallace one probably being the most memorable, though that scene is kinda two people asking each other things they already know/sucpect (I also like Kima's partner trying to get the truth out of her).

The crown jewel of the talking & extracting info trope is probably Columbo! Also I really like a very Columbo-esque film called Death By Natural Causes.

I'd also say many gay films before the mid 00s have plays on interrogation/interview scenes where it's finding out if the other person is gay. Bound has a really fun one.

If you want to see one of the worst interrogation scenes possibly ever filmed, Amateur (1994) has one so bad it borders on brilliance, where the guy begs for mercy because 'we were accountants together!'

[queenlua]

your columbo icon is the CUTEST. omg. i love it.

and... Columbo is such a good idea, omg. didn't think of it when i was trying to think of "things that match this category" but that's probably closest to what i'm grasping for here, ty

(also, all those movie recs sound v up my alley, including the awful one :D ty!!!)

[ioplokon]

It's from this amazing Frasier/Columbo crossover comic

[queenlua]

oh my *stars*

that comic was pure perfection. beautiful. best thing i've seen all week, tyty

[ioplokon]

It's one of my favorite things! you can tell they really love both shows.

[snickfic]

Have you seen True Detective S1? The first 2/3 or so of the season use the framing device of two different guys getting interrogated regarding events of a case they worked a decade prior. The story returns to their interrogation pretty regularly. And one of the guys also gets a lot of scenes in the past interrogating other people.

[queenlua]

!!! yes, i have seen True Detective, but didn't think of it for some reason! seems like a good excuse for some rewatching, thank you thank you~

[kradeelav]

is there particular vibes you're looking for with this kind of scene? :o most of the ones i know skew towards interrogation with a side of id (lol) but as far as like helping ya out with the description, Hannibal (the new tv show lol) with Will probably has the most variants on it per minute of screentime as far as what I remember.

[queenlua]

*crawling out of inbox a million years later*

i was keeping it vague since i'm not fully decided on the vibes i'm looking for, lol. straight-up max-edgy interrogation stuff isn't quite what i'm looking for, though, which is probably why i mentioned therapy... needs the uncomfortable two-people-trapped-in-a-room dynamic but without leaning into domination/intimidation/etc so much as wheedling and real human connection and stuff. (though i really should watch hannibal someday, just like, in general, feels like i'm missing a part of Mid-2010s Tumblr Lore lmao)

[neotula]

columbo does have that vibe of asking questions/prying out info in a very largely only verbal sort of way in a lot of episodes. that's def the first one i thought of at your question, and looking at other comments i see i'm not the only one! two votes for columbo, please!

[queenlua]

columbo is so good... love my irritating poorly-dressed charming absolutely relentless aw-shucks detective man...

[sideways]

Ooh, that's a fun question. Seconding The Wire for generally having smartly written interactions between characters on opposing 'sides'.

Person of Interest has its share of interrogations, and one with an interesting twist too: Person A and Person B are both in the know and are trying to keep secrets from Person C... who has ordered Person B to interrogate Person A (2.12, "Prisoner's Dilemma", though this arc starts the episode prior).

[queenlua]

oh, Person of Interest is an excellent idea! i watched most of s1, never got around to watching the rest even though i liked it plenty, just got distracted... will plan to take a peek at s2, thanks~

[garonne]

The Bright Sessions is a podcast that is structured as a series of therapy sessions. (I haven't actually listened to it, but it's very popular and highly rated within the audiodrama world. I think it must definitely fulfil the "piece of fiction that makes a therapy session look compelling" challenge :D)

[queenlua]

oh wow. making that setup work in a solely-audio format sounds like such an intriguing challenge :o added it to my podcast app, ty!

a few recs

[brainwane]

I have never watched In Treatment -- therapy session fiction -- but I bet the Israeli show it's based on is good.

The Good Omens fic "Demonology and the Tri-Phasic Model of Trauma: An Integrative Approach" by Nnm has many scenes of this type probably for 3/4 of its length. This chapter has a good one where one character is trying to help another one notice and acknowledge a particular self-destructive tendency.

The police comedy Brooklyn 9-9 has an episode called "The Box" that is one long interrogation scene; I really enjoyed it. However, there are 2 interrogators, not just 1.

A wacky sort of example: fairy tales like Rumpelstiltskin.

Maeve Binchy's Evening Class has several small domestic examples where one character is trying to connect with his wife by asking her questions about her day and she just completely stonewalls him by saying it's not interesting and scorning him for even asking. It turns out she's hiding something, but it also works on the surface.

Re: a few recs

[queenlua]

i wound up watching E_WAYTOOMANY episodes of In Treatment the past few weeks, bizarrely compelling television, so thanks very much for that rec :P (and for all the others that i haven't gotten to yet!!!)

Re: a few recs

[brainwane]

Enjoyed your review just now!

Glad to share!

[necrophilia]

Criminal: UK might be exactly what you're looking for, although it has multiple interrogators. It should be available on Netflix (at least, it is in Canada). It's a show where a team of police inspectors/constables interrogate suspects in real time. Has some truly fantastic guest stars, too, such as David Tennant, Sophie Okonedo, and Hayley Atwell (she knocked it out of the park in particular).

In particular, I'd recommend episode 1, season 2 - it's the strongest example of 1x1 interrogation in the series.

[queenlua]

oh wow, those are some impressively sparkly guest stars.

will be taking a peek, tyvm!

[wolffyluna]

It's been a hot minute since I read it, so it might take me awhile to find specific scenes if you want it, but "Mo Du" by priest has some good ones. It's got a few [wiggle hands] criminal of the week interrogations, but one of the main characters, Fei Du, constantly plays his hand close to his chest by being a little shit, so a lot of the conversations between the two leads are in effect interrogations.

[queenlua]

if this is the thing that finally gets me into webnovels i stg

(i mean, i've been meaning to take the plunge for a while! but i hear "being a little shit" and i'm like oooOOOH tell me MORe lol)

[wolffyluna]

There is a good English translation, that's even straightforwardly available as ebooks: https://edanglarstranslations.com/modu

Mo Du is so fun. Fei Du is a flirty lil' shit, the most annoying counselling patient, who also makes everyone worry that he might be a serial killer.

(Though, as a note, Mo Du is a crime investigation series following a (fictionalised) police force in contemporary China, with all that entails.)

[airlock384]

hmmmm. Order of the Stick probably has like ten-thousand of those for how dialogue-heavy it gets -- I'm sure even a fair number of fight scenes would qualify -- but the one thing my brain keeps coming back to is a scene where a villain suggests that there should be an intense interrogation scene, but that doesn't end up happenning.

if I don't end up being 10000 years late with it I'll be sure to bop on here once I've thought of an actual example though

[airlock384]

oh yeah, I just remembered, one of the very latest strips to come out actually qualifies; it's really not the best example as interesting/intense goes, but I guess it could serve as an appetizer?

anyway I'm linking to it with this sentence
(context, also: Serini -- the old halfing lady with the troll skin grafts -- is in charge of stewarding the elaborate dungeon that houses one of the keystones that prevents the world from unraveling. she is, at this point, working with the heroes to keep the main antagonist away from that keystone, but she doesn't trust the heroes and still isn't being forthcoming at all with information about the dungeon. which makes it deeply annoying for her when the party wizard manages to figure out what she's trying not to tell them about, based on what she won't tell them)

[airlock384]

OH YEAH OKAY I REMEMBERED ABOUT A REALLY GOOD ONE NOW and I wasn't expecting to get there so soon so I guess you'll just have to deal with me blowing up your inbox--

it starts here and goes on for another two pages. not much context is needed on this one, but just so you can keep up with what's going on:
-the tied-up dude with the scars is telling the truth. the thing that the villain is trying to get out of him, he genuinely only knows to the most basic, most "everyone's already heard of this" level that isn't at all helpful to explain
-the villain desperately does not believe that until this scene runs its course, so he keeps trying to squeeze the information out regardless

[queenlua]

i can't believe you're the one who finally convinced me to read (a portion of) Order of the Stick after, like a DECADE of being aware of it and never taking the plunge, lol

(actually, on second thought, yeah, if anyone would convince me to read an old webcomic via SHEER CHARISMA it would be you lmao)

THANK YOU FOR THE READ adding this research to my research-hoard, lying upon it like a dragon upon her gold, etc

[airlock384]

I'm hesitant to call it "charisma" but I will accept the compliment with the due (ie immense) flattery,

oots is really good! albeit hard to casually recommend since it's over 1000 strips long now and has a pretty rough start. definitely a worthy read for anyone wanting to refine their dialogue game in general though!