Acknowledging that torture is not an efficient form of interrogation

[u/Character_Growth_397]

Torture is often shown as an effective way of interrogation, with writers forgetting one key detail: People lie. AAMOF, it's likely that they will lie and give you untrue information to not be tortured

The Last of Us - Joel has an interrogation map where he'd make two different people point to something on a map. If they both pointed the same thing it meant the info was true. Very often this wasn't the case

Mass Effect 2 - Garrus points out that torture is not effective because victims will lie to make the torture stop

[u/Jedi_Scum_587]

In Burn Notice, Michael Weston says that torture is unreliable, which is the first place where I heard that. Instead he usually goes undercover to get info.

[u/Demoniac_smile → u/Jedi_Scum_587]

My favorite part is that he compares it to using a flamethrower to get groceries.

[u/ZenCyn39 → u/Jedi_Scum_587]

A wild Burn Notice mention, wow

[u/BlueMandaIorian → u/ZenCyn39]

Always deserving of mention. Great show.

[u/TiberianSunset → u/BlueMandaIorian]

You know spies, buncha bitchy little girls.

[u/Nightscale_XD → u/BlueMandaIorian]

I absolutely love Burn Notice

[u/Bulky_Theme_6998 → u/BlueMandaIorian]

Was it? Or was it just an awesome first half of a show?

[u/Technical-Revenue-48 → u/Bulky_Theme_6998]

It definitely got bad in the late seasons when they went full action movie

[u/MnemosyneThalia → u/Technical-Revenue-48]

They let his mom go out like a bad ass though so that was pretty cool. But I definitely agree that the later seasons weren't good compared to the earlier ones.

[u/No_Professional4867 → u/BlueMandaIorian]

*fun show. Not a great show

[u/Chuck_Finley1 → u/ZenCyn39]

What a coincidence

[u/LowmoanSpectacular → u/Jedi_Scum_587]

He mentioned it concerningly often. It went from “a reasonable thing to explain to the third-party his inner monologue is for” to “reminding himself because he kind of really wants to do it”.

[u/No_Professional4867 → u/LowmoanSpectacular]

I think it was more "Almost every spy movie has a torture scene and since this is a syndicated TV show, we need to make sure the audience tuning in to random episodes knows why we don't do that"

[u/Far_Silver → u/No_Professional4867]

I think people who grew up with streaming don't understand that it used to be common to start a series part way through. Your friend recommends a show to you, you watch it the next time it's on, and the episode airing will probably not be the series premiere. Or you surf channels until you find something, again probably not the series premiere.

[u/Butwhatif77 → u/Far_Silver]

This is why procedurals became so popular. They had a formula that allowed the audience to jump in at any point in the season and not have to worry about what came before because the premise is explained in every episode as part of the structure.

[u/dern_the_hermit → u/No_Professional4867]

Yours is a Doylist explanation, poster above has a Watsonian.

[u/Special_Cicada6968 → u/No_Professional4867]

Doesn't help that 24 reinforced the misguided idea that torture works. Hell, even US policymakers referenced the show when in support of torture.

[u/iwanttobespooned → u/LowmoanSpectacular]

He discusses a lot that interrogation is just as much controlling yourself as it is controlling your target, and sometimes shows the consequences of losing that control.

[u/evemeatay → u/Jedi_Scum_587]

For a stupid USA show it was sneaky sophisticated

[u/Raregolddragon → u/Jedi_Scum_587]

Yep he basically said its gets you the first lie to make the pain stop. Better to trick them into thinking your going to do it and let there imagination buildbup the fear do the work or even better trick them to run to or reach out to what or who you want.