Even "Eye in the Sky" gave me an overwhelming sense that the military use of drones was poorly managed and the decision making process was incompetent.
The series where the protagonist is a CIA super agent who throws away his career because his morals get in the way.
You may not leave with the impression that all of the CIA are moral, but it does spread the idea that the CIA is incredibly capable and individuals can sway overall policy. Which is nonsense.
That’s hardly in dispute, is it?
> and individuals can sway overall policy
Certainly not the impression I got from at least the first three films. The Bourne Identity ends in an unceremonious coverup of a failed operation, and the sole “idealist” character in the next two films torches her career as well to go to the press. Which depending on your view could be considered exactly what Snowden did, for better or for worse.
Certainly typical tropey US spy movie fare (American characters playing CIA assassination games in Europe, etc.), but more revisionist Western than John Wayne.
Roughly at the time of the films release, the CIA had their communications with many of their foreign agents discoverable by Googling. Hundreds of agents died as a result, while the CIA fired the whistleblower who brought up the vulnerability and seemingly made up a Chinese hack to shift the blame. A far cry from creating programs for super assassins.