Strip Search!

I DVR'ed this thing called "Strip Search"—primarily because it was called "Strip Search" and the program guide promised me some capital NUDITY...

Well, STRIP SEARCH turned out to be this hour-long drama directed by Sidney Lumet...

Had the feeling of a stage play.

Two parallel scenes, intercut. One takes place in China, where an American woman (Maggs Gyllenhaal) is interrogated by Ken Leung. The other scene's in NYC, where an Arab dude is interrogated by Glenn Close. The dialogues in the parallel scenes are oftentimes identical, but the different contexts (acting choices, gender/race politics) change everything.

Ken Leung is surprisingly good in a role where he's not playing the same Asian-American dick-hole character he's come to patent. Carrying a subtle Chinese accent that might arguably err a little too American but doesn't seem incongruous to the setting.

Turns out that Tom Fontana wrote it, which makes a lot of sense. Because Dean Winters gets a role in it. And Fontana comes from playwriting and it shows here.

A little search brought me to this account of the rocky history of this program, which was apparently cut down from its original length of 88 minutes and buried in HBO's 2004 schedule.