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I tried something a bit different to my usual approach - a lighthearted, daft-minded video critique of the new Sky TV comedy Intelligence. It stars David Schwimmer and co-stars/was written by Nick Mohammed. I present the evidence of GCHQ's involvement in the show, and how it functions as propaganda to rehabilitate GCHQ's image in the wake of revelations about their mass surveillance, hacking operations and involvement in extra-judicial assassinations via the drone program. I also take the piss out of it quite a lot because it truly is that bad, both politically and as a piece of entertainment.

As part of their outreach efforts the Air Force’s entertainment liaison office has started running annual tours for dozens of Hollywood bigshots. Recently released documents detail last year’s tour to US Space Command. In this focus episode I go through the documents page-by-page as an open source case study in the government-Hollywood relationship and in how to do this kind of research.

Condor is a TV reboot of Three Days of the Condor, and centres around a CIA officer who goes on the run after he is framed for killing 11 of his colleagues. In this episode I examine whether Condor was CIA-sponsored, why the Agency might support a series that shows them planning massive crimes, and whether the show is intimidation propaganda.

Mark Felt is a 2017 biopic starring Liam Neeson as FBI Deputy Director Mark Felt, telling the story of his role in becoming a source for the Washington Post’s reporting on Watergate. Following on from recent episodes on John Paisley and the Weather Underground, I offer a deconstructive view of Mark Felt: The Man Who Brought Down the White House, and a critique of its historical inaccuracy and political deceit.

The CIA’s Office of Public Affairs (OPA) was established in the late 1970s and contains their entertainment liaison office. This week I go through an 8-page summary of the CIA’s Entertainment Liaison and Media Outreach activities covering 2014-16. This includes their relationships with journalists, their involvement in entertainment such as the Benghazi movie 13 Hours, and their relationship with deep state lawyer and Hollywood consultant Rich Klein.

The new Amazon series Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan is the first TV show to film at CIA headquarters for several years, in keeping with the Agency’s long-time support for adaptations of Clancy’s work. In this episode I review and analyse the series, including the inevitable references to 9/11, the hallmarks of CIA input on the script and the question of whether the series acts as revenge fantasy for Islamist terrorists.

To unsuspecting movie audiences Pitch Perfect 3 is a piece of lighthearted family-friendly entertainment to be enjoyed and then forgotten almost immediately. Lurking beneath this neutrally-toned surface lies a work of military recruitment propaganda, intelligently crafted to appeal to demographics that the DOD usually has trouble reaching. In this episode I break down the film, what the military provided in support of the production, and how they rewrote the script (even making casting decisions) to suit their agenda.

Most government agencies sign contracts with Hollywood producers when they agree to provide support on a film or TV show. These are called Production Assistance Agreements, and set out the legal terms of the partnership between the government and the production company. In this episode I explore these contracts, how long they’ve been in effect, and the powers they grant to both parties. I use this as a basis for a case study of how the Pentagon has repeatedly broken the rules when it comes to the Transformers films.