The program was allowed unprecedented access to the actual CIA headquarters, thanks to a partnership that began in 1996 when the CIA hired one of its veteran clandestine officers, Chase Brandon, to work directly with Hollywood studios and production companies influence its public image.
[2] The series was controversial in its exploration of contemporary international affairs and its treatment of the ethical conflicts inherent in intelligence work.
Beckner's pilot script, written in March 2001, posited a re-invented CIA tasked with a "War on Terror" after Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda terrorist organization plots a lethal attack on the West.
In advance of the September 11 attacks, film director Wolfgang Peterson, an executive producer of The Agency, said that post-WW II, the ideas of good and evil are no longer as clear.
A prime-time dramatic series on the CIA could contribute mightily to public understanding--if rigorously independent and unencumbered.