The Agency and Representing the CIA as it Is

How do you combat growing distrust in your institution? By showing how much it sucks to work there, apparently.

It’s funny to refer to the CIA as part of “the deep state” because the U.S. intelligence and espionage agency is never too far away from popular media.

This simple thought comes after I unintentionally immersed myself in CIA-related projects over the past few months: Paramount+/Showtime’s new drama The Agency, the CIA’s official podcast, recent episodes of Blowback, and The Devil’s Chessboard, David Talbot’s epic account of Allen Dulles’ reign at the agency. Each project presents a different take on the CIA’s impact on the global stage, but they all perpetuate the idea that agents are simultaneously normal and exceptional. I guess there’s nothing more American than that.

The CIA’s podcast, The Langley Files, opens with a knotty narration:

“At CIA, there are truths we can share and stories we can tell. Stories of duty and dedication. Stories of ingenuity and mission. Stories beyond those of Hollywood scripts and shadowed whispers. Today we’re taking a step out from behind those shadows, sharing what we can, and offering a glimpse into the world of the Central Intelligence Agency.”¹

Hosts “Dee” and “Walter” (identified only by first name) speak with then-director Bill Burns in 2022’s first episode about the purpose of a CIA-fronted podcast. The point, Burns explains, is to “demystify” the agency’s operations from glamorous portrayals in media. To prove his normalcy, Burns shares that he drives a Subaru Outback (same) and can’t effectively use a Roku remote (couldn’t be me). Other Langley Files guests take a similar tack: the second episode highlights the minutia of planning the agency’s 75th-anniversary party and the third features an internal recruiter droning on about work-life balance.

But alongside the demystification efforts, The Langley Files reaffirms the exceptionalism of its employees and operations. As Burns praises the “ingenuity” of folks who heroically responded to the 9/11 terrorist attacks and helped find Osama Bin Laden, he notes that they aren’t like Jason Bourne or James Bond. The point is mostly that people collaborate to do all the difficult—and most would say damaging—work.

Sean Parker learned from the CIA. Dropping the “the” is cleaner. (Credit: CIA)

You’d be right to consider The Langley Files an artifact of contemporary propaganda (lower-case p). Of course, so is The Agency. The Showtime drama hustles to underline the toll of CIA employment. Michael Fassbinder’s Brandon can’t trust a woman he loves (Jodie Smith-Turner) or be too honest with his teenage daughter, but he sure can talk to the clinical psychologist about how fucked up you have to be to work for the CIA. Jeffrey Wright’s Henry breaks protocol to protect a brother-in-law and destroys a deep operation in the process. Newbie Danny (Saura Lightfoot-Leon) “successfully” navigates tasks that involve various forms of assault.

The Agency notably differs from Showtime’s previous CIA hit, Homeland, which only intermittently bothered to care about so-called grounded stakes. Nevertheless, just as Homeland fit as an Obama-era thriller signaling its modern bona fides—We’re taking Carrie’s bipolar disorder seriously! Drones!—The Agency tries to battle with the U.S.’s current unsteady global position. This attempt manifests in the aforementioned focus on the job’s consequences but also on the agents’ dedication to the job—even when they fail. It’s here where The Agency reminds me of The Langley Files, a podcast so committed to commitment.

Promotional material for The Agency plays like it was written by the same folks who scripted the opening narration and canned tidbits on The Langley Files. In the behind-the-scenes explainer embedded above, Katherine Waterston uses Bill Burns’ lines in describing The Agency’s stakes:

“It shows that espionage is not all exploding pens and ejector seats in Aston Martins. It’s diligent, carefully planned, and serious work.”

Americans know that James Bond isn’t a CIA agent, right? But it’s a familiar refrain: CIA agents are hard, serious workers, not showboating hip-hop shooters. Fassbinder delivers my favorite line in the promo video, which celebrates both The Agency and the agency:

“We really want to make it [the series] as real as possible and to represent the world as it is.”

Naturally, making the series “real” doesn’t account for much of the evil and suffering that the CIA perpetuates onto other countries and people. The suffering is all targeted at the agents, who bravely and seriously keep at it anyway. Early in the season, Fassbinder’s character learns that the Sundanese community he was in deep cover for five years gets obliterated by an agency operation from an office television report. Hundreds, maybe thousands, are murdered—and it’s filtered through the reaction of our traumatized hero.

My working theory is that The Langley Files and The Agency uphold “competency above all” and claim to value realism to combat the widespread distrust of American institutions and the discourse about the deep state. This wouldn’t be the first time. Scholars like Kathryn Olmsted, Tricia Jenkins, and David McCarthy have astutely pointed out how the agency works closely with the press and Hollywood to shape public opinion, especially in times of crisis. President Trump’s neverending calls to uncover the deep state don’t represent the same level of crisis as post-9/11, but citizens’ crisis in confidence in government agencies is pretty close.

The problem for the CIA is that “demystifying” jokes about Subaru Outbacks and “real” portrayals of fractured relationships with children aren’t convincing justifications to trust Langley. And you don’t even have to read The Devil’s Chessboard to know that. I’m sure the president’s newfound calls to declassify the JFK, RFK, and MLK assassinations will help the cause, though.

This is TV Plus, a newsletter about television written by Cory Barker, a media studies professor and blogger. You can follow me on Bluesky or email me at barkerc65[at]gmail.com. Thanks for tuning in.

1. Other than the podcasts the CIA simply pays for, like Red Scare and The Ryen Russillo Podcast.