Critics have mostly ignored the new TNT spy drama Legends, but it’s creating a furore in Venezuela.

Officials in the South American country are denouncing the show for portraying the socialist government stockpiling nerve gas to quash dissent.

The telecommunications commission opened an investigation on Tuesday into the series over an episode in which a character points to President Nicolas Maduro and his socialist party, which goes by the initials PSUV, as the buyer of chemical weapons. On Monday, Minister of Information Delcy Rodriguez denounced the script as hostile and imperialist.

Venezuela was wracked by anti-government street protests this spring, and international observers accused the government of violating human rights in cracking down on the unrest, though never of using chemical weapons.

In the offending episode, titled Lords of War, the star of the show tortures a terrorist 24-style, demanding to know who is buying his chemical weapons. Eventually the terrorist splutters, “Maduro! PSUV! They’re worried about the civil unrest in Venezuela.”

On Twitter, Rodriguez denounced the “lies and manipulations” presented in the brief scene, which she said was part of a “Hollywood-type script typical in its imperialist actions against legitimate governments.”

TNT didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

Legends debuted in August to tepid reviews, scoring a mediocre 58 per cent rating on the review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. It stars Sean Bean, famously killed off in the first season of Game of Thrones, as an undercover FBI operative.

It’s unclear what the government investigation will consist of. On Tuesday, government critics were posting the 20-second clip with the heading, “the scene Maduro doesn’t want you to see”.

It’s not the first time Venezuela has tussled with the Yankee entertainment industry.

In 2012, the government lead by the late President Hugo Chavez accused a US gaming company of doing Washington’s bidding by releasing a shoot ‘em up computer game based on the overthrow of an imaginary Venezuelan “tyrant”.

Last year, the US spy drama Homeland portrayed Venezuela as a lawless hellscape. An outlaw character was depicted laying low in a Caracas skyscraper-turned-slum with thugs who killed people and molested children with impunity. No official repercussions followed.