The Best TV Government Conspiracies
The Syfy series Hunters, from executive producers Gale Anne Hurd (The Walking Dead) and Natalie Chaidez (12 Monkeys) is inspired by Whitley Strieber’s best-selling novel “Alien Hunter.” In it, FBI agent Flynn Carroll’s (Nathan Phillips) wife Abby (Lauren Carol) is missing. The crime is connected to alien terrorists called Hunters. Flynn becomes part of a secret government agency taking them on.
We all love a good government conspiracy! To celebrate the genre, we’ve come up with a list of our all-time favourite TV government conspiracies. We’d love to hear yours. Which one is your favourite? Let us know in the comments.
Hunters premieres Wednesday 31st August 9pm on Syfy UK.
Alias (2001 – 2006)
This series created by J.J. Abrams (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens”) follows Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner), a double-agent and spy for the CIA. Bristol has to keep her life of espionage secret from her friends and family. After being recruited in college by the CIA, she’s assigned to SD-6, a black ops division. The thing is, SD-6 isn’t actually part of the CIA. It’s part of a group opposed to the United States. She decides to spy for the CIA and try to take down SD-6 from the inside.
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2014 – )
This Marvel show is a spinoff of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, following S.H.I.E.L.D. (Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistics Division), the secret government agency that deals with superheroes and the exploits of Phil Coulson (Clark Gregg, reprising his film role) and his team of agents. The show runs concurrently with the film, taking on Hydra, the Inhumans and even the cover-up within S.H.I.E.L.D. itself.
The X-Files (1993 – 2001)
This popular series explored a division of the FBI through the eyes of agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson) as they investigate paranormal activity. Mulder believes in aliens and other out-of-this-world activity, while Scully is a sceptic. The show spawned two feature films and a new season premiering in January of 2016.
The Prisoner (1967 – 1968)
This was a 17-episode British series that explored not only government conspiracies, but the theme of individualism in the counterculture of the sixties. A government agent (Patrick McGoohan) is kidnapped after he dramatically quits his job. He’s relocated to “The Village,” where everyone is assigned a number. (He’s Number Six now.) The people running the mysterious village continually try to extract information from Number Six as he tries to make sense of what’s happening. A remake was done in 2009 starring Ian McKellen, Jim Caviezel and Hayley Attwell, and a film adaptation has been in the works with various directors for a number of years.
24 (2001 – 2010)
This show, starring Kiefer Sutherland as Counter-Terrorism agent Jack Bauer, was so popular that it spawned a TV movie in 2008, a 12-episode additional season in 2014 and a spinoff series called “24: Legacy,” which will air in February 2017. Though Bauer fights terrorism on the home front, he’s often battling the government itself. Everyone from the CIA to the President himself is plotting, and Bauer is often the only voice of reason. It certainly doesn’t make him popular with the government types. Even his wife is in on the secrets.
Damages (2007 – 2012)
When young lawyer Ellen Parsons (Rose Byrne) joins high-powered litigator Patty Hewes (Glenn Close), she inadvertently becomes part of a dark world of conspiracies and back room deals. Through the seasons, the lawyers deal with fraud, the mining industry and even the California energy crisis, with environmental lawyer Robert F. Kennedy Jr. consulting on stories.
Burn Notice (2007 – 2013)
Life isn’t great for a burned spy like Michael Weston (Jeffrey Donovan). When you get a burn notice, the government agency you work for has basically disowned you. All those years you worked undercover doesn’t exactly give you stellar work history. In this series that also starred Gabrielle Anwar, Bruce Campbell and Sharon Gless, Donovan is burned after an operation gone bad. Someone high up in the government wants him taken out and is surveilling his every move. While he tries to figure out who wants to destroy him, he works as a private investigator, helping people along the way.
Prison Break (2005 – 2009)
This series starred Wentworth Miller as Michael Scofield, an engineer who creates an elaborate scheme to get his brother Lincoln Burrows (Dominic Purcell) off of death row and out of prison. Michael gets himself thrown in the same jail after committing an armed robbery. He tattoos the prison schematics and other information all over his body, gets himself in good with the prison doctor (Sarah Wayne Callies) and begins to take down the government conspiracy that put Lincoln in jail in the first place. This show had a spinoff shot just for mobile devices and had two episodes shot as a standalone TV movie. A nine-episode series will premiere in early 2017.
Fringe (2008 – 2013)
In this show, there is a secret Fringe Division of the FBI, which investigates the paranormal. Agent Olivia Dunham (Anna Torv) joins “crazy” scientist Dr. Walter Bishop (John Noble) and his son Peter (Joshua Jackson) to investigate using “fringe” science techniques. They uncover a parallel universe and copies of themselves. There were secrets and conspiracies all over this series, including the glyph shown before commercial breaks, which ended up being a substitution cypher.
Edge of Darkness (1985)
This BBC drama was a six-episode serial starring Bob Peck as cop Ronald Craven. His daughter Emma (Joanne Whalley) has been murdered and a simple investigation turns into a world of secrets and cover-ups in the government. It may be an older show, but it’s constantly used as an example of amazing British television. It aired on BBC2 and was so popular that it was rebroadcast just days later on BBC1. If it sounds familiar, it’s because the show’s director Martin Campbell did a remake in 2010 starring Mel Gibson.
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