Hannibal Lectures in Live-Action TV series.
- In the Season 4 Angel episodes "Soulless" and "Calvary", Angelus is trapped in a cage most of the time, but throughout his interrogations by the members of team Angel he works at their points of mental or emotional weakness. Unlike most versions of this trope, Angelus knows most of the team's pressure points already because he became aware of them when Angel had his soul, with Angel just not the type of person who would normally use that knowledge).
- His 'grandson', Spike, demonstrates this several times on Buffy the Vampire Slayer, as part of his uncanny ability to read people, from which his particular knack for fighting — and killing — Slayers is derived.
- Battlestar Galactica (2003) had an example when they had one of their Cylon captives aboard the Galactica. Roslin and Adama brought Starbuck in to interrogate him. He is pretty successful at getting under her skin, but, like all Cylons and Cylon collaborators must, he goes out the airlock.
- In the very first episode of Columbo, Columbo is conducting a characteristic interrogation-disguised-as-a-friendly-conversation with the murderer, who happens to be a psychiatrist. He counters by calling Columbo out on his bumbling, genial act, accurately summing up that he takes advantage of his dumpy appearance to put people at ease while actually trying to trip them up in any way that he can. While the psychiatrist is trying to make it clear those methods won't work on him despite the fact they both know he's guilty, Columbo's undeterred.
- The Coroner: Murderer Sidney Sutton attempts this on Jane when she is conducting an investigation of a murder committed in prison in "Life". He doesn't entirely succeed, but he gets inside her head enough that she falls for a deliberate piece of misdirection on his part.
- Being a cop show that deals specifically with serial killers, Criminal Minds does this occasionally.
- In an early Season 1 episodes, the UnSub gave an angry analysis of each of them over the phone... and got it completely wrong. One of the agents has to stifle her laughter. It also proves to be vital in identifying him.
- Exploited in Masterpiece, during the Rothschild/Rossi interrogation scene. Rossi starts by trying to interrogate Rothschild, discussing how pathetic and cowardly he is. Then Rothschild fires back, revealing his master plan to dump acid on The Team, to deprive Rossi of his "family" as Rossi did to him. He even walks around the room while Rossi sits, to switch the interrogator/suspect roles. Rossi panics, rushes to locate the team, sinks into a chair in disbelief as Rothschild gloats in his ear about his brilliant Evil Plan... when Rossi reveals to him that not only has this entire scene been a confession, but they already knew about the killer's plan to dump acid on them, got all the victims out safely, and that he will be there when Rothschild is executed. He even pulls a last-minute Batman Gambit by intentionally turning his back to groom himself in the one-way mirror, catching Rothschild and slamming him up against the wall as he is attacked. Yes, Rossi can manipulate you while stroking his beard.
- CSI: Nate Haskell uses it against Ray, first when he’s brought in to help find Dr. Jekyll, another killer, and then again after kidnapping Ray’s ex-wife who Ray still loves. He knows Ray’s weakness is his struggle with anger and violent tendencies and wants to goad him to action. It works after the kidnapping and Ray kills him.
- Dexter:
- Inverted in the Ice Truck killer case. Lt. LaGuerta is interrogating Neil Perry (who has confessed to being the Ice Truck Killer), he tries to psych her out by discussing the reason she received her promotion (specifically the fact that she wasn't the hero cop the press portrayed her as). This allows LaGuerta to realise that Perry (who is a computer technician) must have hacked into the precinct database, which is where he got his "proof" that he was the Ice Truck Killer. She then gets him to admit his deception, by psyching him out with a severed head.
- Played with in Season 2, when Dexter has Doakes, who knows that Dexter is a serial killer, locked up in the Everglades. Dexter tries to convince him they're not so different, but it never sticks. Their conversations cause Doakes to realize that, like him, Dexter has a conscience and won't actually kill him: from there he persuades Dexter to release him and turn himself in.
- In the Season 3 finale, Dexter is kidnapped by the Skinner and tied to a table while he whistles menacingly. Dexter, quickly realizing that the Skinner is a Control Freak, immediately throws him off his game by casually admitting that he already murdered the man the Skinner is looking for and mocking him. The Skinner decides to just skip ahead to the torture part and goes to get his "tools", which gives Dexter an opportunity to break free from his restraints.
- Doctor Who:
- "Boom Town": After being captured by the TARDIS crew, Margaret Blaine (aka Blon Fel-Fotch Passameer-Day Slitheen) resorts to this tactic in an attempt to guilt them into letting her go by pointing out that if they take her back to her homeworld, she will be executed. After her back-up plan nearly destroys Earth, the Doctor finds an alternative by exposing her to the raw energy of the TARDIS so that she will be 'de-aged' back into an egg, allowing him to take her back to her home planet and get adopted by a new family.
- "The Idiot's Lantern": The Doctor is arrested by a police inspector after he uncovers a warehouse full of faceless people who have been rounded up by the police. When the inspector tries Perp Sweating him, the Doctor casually asks why the inspector isn't doing any actual "inspecting", and it only takes a few minutes for him to reduce the inspector to a flustered, uncertain wreck... at which point the Doctor authoritatively takes over the interrogation.
- "Journey's End": The Doctor and Rose are taken prisoner by the Daleks and locked in a cell to be tormented by Davros. Rather than break down in fear, the Doctor scoffs at Davros' supposed authority and says he's nothing more than the Daleks' pet. However, Davros almost immediately turns it on him, after the Doctor's companions call in, threatening Davros and the Daleks with, respectively, the annihilation of Earth — a Heroic Sacrifice on the grounds that it's Better to Die than Be Killed and it'll derail the Daleks' plan — and/or the annihilation of the vast Dalek mothership, the Crucible. Rose reacts with a certain glee at the sheer Nerves of Steel implicit in both threats, but the Doctor looks away, and Davros pounces.Davros The man who abhors violence, never carrying a gun. But this is the truth, Doctor: you take ordinary people, and you fashion them into weapons. Behold your Children of Time, transformed into murderers. I made the Daleks, Doctor. You made this.The Doctor: They're trying to help.Davros: Already I have seen them sacrifice today, for their beloved Doctor. The Earth woman who fell opening the Subwave Network.The Doctor: Who was that?Rose: Harriet Jones. She gave her life to get you here.Davros: How many more? Just think. How many have died in your name? [pause to let it sink in] The Doctor. The man who keeps running, never looking back because he dare not, out of shame. This is my final victory, Doctor. I have shown you... yourself.
- Firefly: River is good at these.
- An inversion of this takes place in "Objects in Space", where River pulls one of these on Jubal Early, using a combination of her Psychic Powers and being on his ship the whole time to comprehensively outline just how much a sick bastard he is, and tear apart all his pretensions that "he has a code". It's monkeywrenched, as she isn't the prisoner, but her brother Simon is, and midway through, Early finally catches on — though that itself is probably part of the Lecture too, as River uses Early's realization to really turn the tables on him.
- While being questioned by Badger in "Shindig", she turns around and instantly deconstructs his gangster facade, outlining just what a pathetic little thug he really is, and then casually dismisses him....in his own Cockney accent.Sure, I got a secret. More'n one. Don't seem like I'd tell 'em to you now, do it? Anyone off Dyton colony knows better than to talk to strangers. But you're talking loud enough for the both of us, ain't tya? I've known a dozen like you, skipped off home early, minor graft jobs here and there. Spent some time in the lockdown, but less than you claim. And you're what? Petty thief with delusions of standing? Sad little king, of a sad little hill. [to the others] ...call me when someone interesting shows up.
- Badger is initially shaken by River's assessment, but at the end he settles down and says that "I like her."
- This trope is both played straight and inverted in one episode of The Pretender. In the episode, Jarod has to interrogate a imprisoned serial killer to catch a copycat killer. The killer convinces Jarod to take him to the house of the victim. At the house, the killer talks Jarod into removing his handcuffs, after which he escapes. However, it turns out that this was all part of Jarod's plan to get the killer to lead him to the site where the copycat is dumping the bodies. It then turns out that the copycat killer is a psychiatrist writing a biography of the Serial Killer.
- Parodied in Reno 911!, where a serial killer gives Jones one from his cell, and promptly gets everything wrong about Jones' "ghetto upbringing". The cops use him for computer advice.
- The fourth season of Sherlock gives us Eurus Holmes, who may be even better at this than the Trope Namer himself. Apparently, every single person who's ever tried to interrogate them, every one, has been actually brainwashed just from talking to this person. One doctor was convinced to kill himself, and his family, just because they kept suggesting it. And yet people keep trying. The only exceptions to this rule are Mycroft, because he knows what her tricks are, and how to avoid them, and Moriarty, because he's just as crazy as she is. John has an Oh, Crap! moment when he realizes this includes the director of the facility that holds her.
- The Shield:
- Inversion where Dutch (the station's Butt-Monkey) seemingly gets verbally torn to pieces by a serial killer he is "interrogating"; the killer tries to demoralize Dutch at every turn, deriding him as being "a lowly civil servant" who is trying to get respect he doesn't deserve; insinuating that Dutch's father lied to him about being proud that Dutch became a cop; and that not only did Dutch never get a date in high school, he's still having problems now. However, in one fell swoop, Dutch turns it around, beginning by saying that he did have girlfriends in high school, and that he also has one now, who's "hot". When the killer demands to leave, Dutch ridicules him for the fact that instead of leaving earlier when they didn't have any solid evidence, he chose "to stick around and make fun of" Dutch. Dutch and his partner then reveal that Dutch was just feeding the killer lines to buy out-of-town cops time to search the killer's aunt's house, where they find the bodies of over a dozen of his victims. To ream things in further, Dutch points out how humiliating it must be for the killer to have been arrested by "a lowly civil servant like me". With the killer arrested, Dutch leaves and finds that the entire station has been watching through the interrogation room's cameras. Impressed, they applaud him. However, true to the trope, some of the killer's barbs struck a note, and as soon as he gets into his car, Dutch breaks down in tears.
- Season 3 when a serial rapist taunts Dutch over his initial inability to catch the rapist, leading to the guy killing one of his victims before being caught. The rapist/killer informs Dutch that his by-the-book method of catching monsters like the rapist is bound to fail, because he's never killed and as such, doesn't truly know how the mind of a murderer works. Dutch then, that evening, kills a cat with his bare hands just to see how it feels to kill.
- In Season 7, Vic confronts a sociopathic hooker, who manipulates Vic and fellow officer Julian Lowe into killing her pimp by falsely claiming that he murdered one of her fellow hookers. While Vic is threatening physical violence against the hooker, the hooker arrogantly mocks Vic about the way that she manipulated him; his burning need to protect women in peril. She says that the only way he'll be able to prevent it from happening again is if he cuts off his genitals.
- Star Trek: The Original Series: In "Space Seed", Khan delivers one while being interrogated by Kirk, mocking how little man has changed between the three hundred or so years between his exile and reawakening, in an attempt to justify his lust for power.
- Supernatural has the torture/interrogation scene with Dean and Alistair. Supposedly, Dean is extracting information on "who is killing the angels," but not only does Alistair have no idea, he strings Dean along and gives him a thorough mindfuck in between bouts of being eviscerated. The power dynamic in this scene goes back and forth like no other, between Dean relishing Alistair's pain and Alistair breaking Dean down.
- Veronica Mars In "Like a Virgin", Veronica interrogates a murderer who psychs her out. To complete the homage to Silence of the Lambs, Veronica is pretending to be a Southern girl, and speaks with a fake accent that resembles Jodie Foster's in the movie.
- The 100: when Raven "possessed" by A.L.I.E. has been captured by the main characters, she uses just the right words to hurt them, to make them angry until they start turning on each other, and to reveal their plan to her so she can act to prevent it.
- Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.: Coulson and May don't want Skye to talk with the now imprisoned Ward because they're afraid he'll "fill her head with lies". Skye doesn't give him a chance. As soon as he says one word not directly related to her interrogation, she cuts him off.
- Parodied in Arrested Development, when Tobias, former psychologist turned acting-hopeful, manages to accidentally talk his prison bunkmate, White Power Bill, into suicide by questioning him about "where the hate comes from."
- In Ashes to Ashes (2008) Season 3 Episode 6, Alex Drake Interrogates "Thordy", a career conman who is pretending to be Sam Tyler from Life On Mars. As Alex attempts to interrogate Thordy, testing him on future events to see if he really is Sam and trying to extract information on a hostage situation, Thordy thwarts Alex by playing on her doubts of Gene Hunt. Thordy eventually convinces Alex that if he is released, he will reveal the location of evidence against Gene Hunt. As it turns out, it was all The Plan by Alex who had Thordy tailed to find out how the hostages were being kept AND to find out if the evidence was legitimate.
- Cold Case
- A rare Lecture duel in the episode "Mindhunters". They're refusing to respond to each other's taunts. In fact, Lily's refusal to break infuriates George so much that he very nearly confesses before pulling himself together and smugly walking out, much to Lily's frustration. Throughout the episode, he refuses to crack under interrogation and instead taunts the detectives about painful moments in their lives — Scotty's schizophrenic girlfriend, Stillman's failed marriage and the rape of his daughter, Vera's mishandling a rape case and the death of Jeffries' wife.
- A duel takes place in the episode, "The Woods". George Marks, who enjoys this trope, has Detective Lily Rush at gunpoint. Both know devastating facts about the other's past, and how it affects their psyche, and each scores powerful emotional hits against the other.
- Evil Abed delivers one to Britta in Community, in "Introduction to Finality", complete with a Breaking Speech.Evil Abed: Do you know what kind of person becomes a psychologist, Britta? A person that wishes deep down everyone more special than them was sick. Because healthy sounds so much more exciting than boring. You’re average, Britta Perry. You’re every kid on the playground that didn't get picked on. You’re business casual potted plant, a human white sale. You’re VH1, Robocop 2, and Back to the Future 3. You’re the center slice of a square cheese pizza. Actually, that sounds delicious. I’m the center slice of a square cheese pizza. You’re Jim Belushi.
- In Cracker, the various psychos that Fitz is called in to deal with have a tendency to try this on him. Given how Fitz is a first-rate professional psychologist and they usually aren't, he often ends up doing it right back to them, usually more successfully.
- Gotham: When confronted by Detective Jim Gordon over his vigilantism in "The Balloonman", Davis "The Balloonman" Lamond asks Gordon to contemplate if he really is fighting for the innocent as he claims.
- In the fifth season of Haven, while tied to a chair on the Cape Rouge, Mara uses Breaking Speeches to isolate and manipulate Duke, who is trying to interrogate her for information about his Trouble. She convinces him to run away with her and takes the opportunity to turn him into a living Trouble bomb.
- In Leverage, "The Experimental Job", a Breaking Speech by an interrogator is turned around into a Hannibal Lecture from one of the good guys. A career CIA interrogator tries to break Eliot by getting him to talk about how many people Eliot has killed, but the tactic is unsuccessful — instead, Eliot's response leaves the interrogator shaken badly enough to call an end to the session."What do you want to know? Names? Dates? Locations? You want to know what food was on their breath? Their eyes -– what color their eyes were? You want to know the last words they spoke? You want to know which ones deserved it? Or, better yet, the ones that didn't? Do you want to know which ones begged? Do you know why I remember these things? You don't know? 'Cause I can't forget. So there's nothing you can do, no punishment you can hand out that's worse than what I live with every day. So, to answer your question, no. No, I haven't counted. I don't need to."
- Lost. Since Ben spends a lot of time as a prisoner, this is his favourite toy. It's all he did in Season 2 in the hatch, and more effectively in Episode 4.4, "Eggtown," which makes Locke explode ("Excellent, John. You're evolving!").Sawyer: You wanna tell me why we're keeping this guy alive?
Locke: Because aside from his mouth, he's completely harmless. - Monk: Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck does this after Monk's spoiled his Evil Plan for revenge and gotten his Luxury Prison Suite privileges revoked: "It's true, Adrian Monk. I may be in prison, but you're in a worse prison! You're trapped! Trapped by your own demons! You're in your own private Hell! I wouldn't trade places with you for another billion dollars!" Monk's response is to quietly turn around and walk away, as Dale is too obese to walk.
- Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: In the first season episode "Duet", arrested Cardassian war criminal Gul Darhe'el aggressively lectures Major Kira, coupled with openly bragging about his mass murders. It turns out his purpose was not to break her down but to keep her from guessing he isn't Darhe'el at all, just a simple file clerk who wants to be executed for war crimes in place of Darhe'el, because he believes Cardassia can only survive by admitting its crimes during the Bajoran Occupation.
- Data is polite to his captor, Kivas Fajo, during the Star Trek: The Next Generation episode "The Most Toys" and, instead of trying to pysch him, out tries to outmaneuver Kivas's demands via passive resistance. An attempted escape has resulted in the death of someone trying to help and the tables are turned when Data points a disruptor right at Fajo's face. Now the one at the other's mercy, Fajo says the following:Data: You will surrender yourself to the authorities.
Fajo: Or what? You'll fire? Empty threat, and we both know it. Why don't you accept your fate? You'll return to your chair, and you'll sit there! You'll entertain me, and you'll entertain my guests. And if you don't, I'll simply kill someone else. [points to a henchman] Him, perhaps. It doesn't matter. Their blood will be on your hands too, just like poor Varria's. Your only alternative, Data, is to fire. Murder me! It's all you have to do. Go ahead. Fire. If only you could feel... rage over Varria's death... If only you could feel the need for revenge, then maybe you could fire. But you're... just an android. You can't feel anything, can you? It's just another interesting, intellectual puzzle for you — another of life's curiosities.- Data does make the decision to shoot him, but not out of revenge or anger, but ironically exactly because of the aforementioned description of Data's thought-processes. Data simply was faced with the problem that Fajo not only had killed in cold blood but had even threatened to kill others if Data continued to refuse to obey him, and therefore presented a clear and active threat to other living beings, leading his programming, which obligates him to protect the lives and well-being of other lifeforms, to dictate that he had to find a way of incapacitating Fajo as quickly as possibly, but at the same he had no non-lethal means of achieving this task. To a coldly logical being like Data, the situation really was a puzzle, but Fajo had not expected that a possible solution to it was reaching the conclusion that taking one life was a necessary evil to protect the lives of many others. Fajo only survived because the unsuspecting Enterprise crew beamed Data to safety just as he begins to pull the trigger.
- Spoofed and defied in the live action version of The Tick (2001). A super-villain nearly pulls this off with his guard until a super-heroine shakes some sense into him and takes over as guard. She is then so enthusiastic about discussing every aspect of her personal life that the villain gives up in disgust."Oh, come on! I can't even take a leak without you talking someone into suicide!"
