Spy TV

The finale to season 10 of The X-Files saw the welcome return of Tad O'Malley and the unwelcome return of all the baggage that goes with that.

The X-Files took a hard right turn this week with a proper scare-you-witless episode. In sharp contrast to the comedy of the last instalment, Home Again is another monster of the week but this time with the emphasis on Monster.

The third episode of the new X-Files - Mulder and Scully Meet the Were-Monster - is a comic departure from the storyline laid down in the opening two instalments.

The internet is awash with talk of the new mini-season of The X-Files. As predicted, conspiracy theorists have been particular susceptible to the charms of the reborn UFO extravanganza, searching for clues and meaning in every line and frame of the show.

This review of the finale of Homeland discusses not just the final episode but the entire season. We reflect on what is new and different about this fifth season, from the religious dimensions being crow-barred into the show to the use of Russians as the enemy image and hackers as second-level terrorists.

On this penultimate episode of our Homeland series Tom and I begin by venting about our hatred of Alison. Next we move onto the shows continual use of women as negative characters. We discuss the similarities between Alison and real life Russian spy Anna Chapman. We look at the parallels between these two characters and the notion that Alison will receive a hero’s welcome if she returns to Russia.

This much more dramatic episode of Homeland was the basis for a fun review discussion this week, touching on the hints towards the deep state, the portrayal of the Laura Poitras character, the implausibility of the CIA's handling of the Russian double agent problem and Pearse's hatred of Allison.

On this episode of our Homeland series Tom and I spent the first half of the episode dissecting the falsehoods that this particular episode as put forth in terms of the legality of spying. Suddenly aware of the rule of law and constitutional rights we see all the major characters in this episode pushing this agenda of doing everything by the book.

The world's biggest films now regularly take over a billion dollars in revenue, and the world's biggest film franchises are multi-billion dollar businesses. What has never been reported before is that 6 of the top 10 (and 14 of the top 25) highest-grossing film franchises have been supported by government agencies, particularly the Department of Defense's Entertainment Liaison Offices.(Read more...)

Today Tom and I spoke to the now world famous “Homeland Hackers.” Heba Amin, Don Karl, and Caram Kapp sat down with us to discuss how they got the opportunity to work on the show and how they subverted it by filling the set with Arabic graffiti saying, among other things, “Homeland is racist” “Homeland is not a show” and of course our personal favorite, “Homeland is a watermelon.” We began the conversation by discussing how in fact they were chosen by the set designer to work on episode 2 of season