I've stopped watching shows like Homeland, Person of Interest, 24 (only saw like 3 seasons), etc a while ago. The level of US propaganda in them made them unbearable to watch.
Homeland was pretty subversive in its first season, I mean, up until Brody decided not to blow himself and the rest of the high-ranking officials up in that bunker it was a pretty bleak affair: a decorated US marine, now a politician, who decides to kill the VP of the United States and a couple of other generals, you don't usually get that in block-busters. Afterwards, and especially starting with season 2, it did indeed become a propaganda thingie.
Otherwise you're completely spot on. As a film junkie it really bothers me that our generation doesn't have its "Apocalypse Now", "The Deer Hunter" or "Rambo I - First Blood" (whose director has just been interviewed in the latest Cahiers du Cinema issue), it's all white-washed, depressing propaganda. There are a few exceptions here and there (De Palma's "Redacted", Bigelow's "The Hurt Locker", partially), but otherwise we're treated not as adults, but as kids who need to be told "nice" stories about what's really happening around us.
How is Person of Interest propagandized? The first couple of seasons are about a secret government program designed to spy on everyone in the world, a black ops unit that assassinates American citizens, and a group of corrupt NYPD officers. The later seasons don't have much at all to do with the government.
Except the major theme was if it was a closed system vs. an open one. The machine in the show would probably be constitutional given that it goes to a significant length to protect people's privacy.
spoilers...you obviously haven't been watching this season homeland. The cia is backing a known taliban "terrorist" and the US is made to look weak, disjointed, and behind the ball.
Which is still a classic old Hollywood BS distortion.
The US hasn't been "weak" compared to anything since the USSR collapsed, and probably not even when it existed.
The US shown as "weak, disjointed, and behind the ball" is the classic tactic to show that some lame figure is a "credible enemy", so that any pre-emptive attack or move is justified -- since we're talking about "capable enemies" that could really damage the country.
It's akin to putting a gun on the hands of some black kid the police shot, to make him look more threatening that he was.
