Leslie Kean is a big deal in the UFO world right now.
The recent flurry of news coverage discussing UAPs and flying Tic Tacs is largely due to her seminal work.
Kean is an investigative journalist and author who has explored the UFO mystery for over two decades. She’s known for hunting down incredible stories from the most credible sources – as seen in her 2010 book, UFOs: Generals, Pilots, and Government Officials Go on the Record.
In 2017, Kean contributed to a front-page New York Times story that revealed a secret Pentagon UFO investigation program. Publishing that bombshell story in the Times reduced the stigma surrounding the topic.
Mainstream publications began taking the issue seriously. And with UFOs in the mainstream spotlight, concerned American citizens convinced their politicians to enact laws enforcing government transparency.
So when Kean lends her expertise to a new documentary series about UFOs, it’s exciting news. UFOs: Investigating the Unknown is a five-part documentary series directed by Ricki Stern, with Kean onboard as consulting producer. And after watching the first episode, Secret Pentagon Program, you can feel Kean’s influence on the show.
THE PREMISE
UFOs: Investigating the Unknown avoids the speculation and sensationalism of most UFO programs. There’s no talk of alien abductions, the hitchhiker effect, or reptilian overlords. Instead, Secret Pentagon Program focuses on well-documented UFO encounters and credible witnesses who put their reputations on the line by sharing their experiences.
The cast includes notable professionals from a variety of backgrounds. The episode features politicians (Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Rep. André D. Carson, Sen. Harry Reid), former Navy fighter pilots (Commander David Fravor, Lt. Commander Alex Dietrich), as well as astronomers (Derrick Pitts) and skeptics (Seth Shostak).
Secret Pentagon Program begins with scenes from a campy black and white alien invasion movie. These silly clips serve as a reminder of how the average person still thinks about the topic – The X-Files, tinfoil hats, and little green men.
Most people spend 0% of their day thinking about TTSA, the Wilson-Davis memo, and Skinwalker Ranch. Throwing in these kitschy sci-fi movie clips is a clever way of helping newbies recognize UFO biases. This tactic tells viewers to leave expectations at the door and start this series with an open mind.
Secret Pentagon Program covers America’s 75-year relationship with the UFO phenomenon before focusing on the current state of ufology. The episode immediately dispels the notion that only cranks, kooks, and charlatans report seeing UFOs. It establishes that credible witnesses (like military personnel) have encountered UFOs since the 1940s.
Secret Pentagon Program provides a ufology crash course, breezing over the Project Blue Book era before slowing down to focus on a major figure in today’s UFO disclosure movement: Luis Elizondo.
LUIS ELIZONDO
Elizondo is a former Counterintelligence Agent. In 2008 he was hired to operate the Advanced Aerospace Threat and Identification Program (AATIP). Elizondo describes his role with AATIP as “quite literally looking at UFOs.”
He resigned after bureaucratic red tape kept him from getting critical UAP-related security reports into his boss’s hands. After leaving his role, Elizondo became an advocate for government UAP transparency. Since 2017, he’s made countless TV, radio, and podcast appearances and has become a lightning rod for criticism.
Some people see Elizondo as the patron saint of disclosure – he collaborated with Kean on the NYT story, and his presence helped bring credibility to the subject.
But there’s also a segment of the UFO community claiming Elizondo is not who he claims to be. This faction paints him as a government decoy obfuscating the truth rather than forcing disclosure.
Elizondo comes across credibly and explains what makes certain UFO events so mystifying. Stern uses Vox explainer-style animations and infographics to help viewers visualize the mystifying ways UFOs outmaneuver advanced Navy aircraft.
The episode’s main focus is the Navy’s 2004 Tic Tac encounter. This event may surpass Roswell as history’s most infamous UFO incident, so I won’t get into all the details here. While the segment doesn’t feature any major reveals, it offers a comprehensive rundown for folks who haven’t heard the story before.
Commander David Fravor, Lt. Commander Alex Dietrich, and Commander Chad Underwood each sit down before the camera and explain what they saw. Even though they’ve retold these stories countless times, you still see the excitement in their eyes and hear bewilderment in their voices.
The episode shifts its focus to how the declassified Tic Tac, Gimbal, and GoFast UAP videos ended up in the NYT. Kean and the article’s cowriters, Helene Cooper and Ralph Blumenthal, describe the hell they went through getting their story fact-checked and published. It’s an intense ordeal that sounds like something ripped out of a political thriller from the ‘70s.
FINAL THOUGHTS:
Secret Pentagon Program offers no insights or commentary that hasn’t already appeared in other documentaries and news broadcasts. But if you’re diving into UFOs for the first time, this episode is a perfect starting point. It features well-documented cases and credible witnesses discussing encounters guaranteed to pique your curiosity. And it’s all presented in a professional package that avoids the desperate sensationalism most UFO documentaries rely on.
I most enjoyed how this episode functions like a time capsule documenting the current paradigm shift. No matter your thoughts on UFOs, the discussion around them is changing before our eyes.
Outlets like CNN and Fox News regularly cover UAP stories. Former presidents and former CIA directors openly admit there’s something to the mystery. And there’s even been a Congressional hearing on UAPs with another one on the way.
UFOs: Investigating the Unknown highlights how far ufology has come while hinting at what lies ahead.
***NOTE
UFOs: Investigating the Unknown was developed as a CNN Original set to debut last year, but the series was delayed after the Discovery merger. So, if you were looking forward to CNN’s UFO miniseries, it found a new new home. It’s currently airing on NatGeo TV and Hulu.
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