Carnivale: stereotypes of Russians in Western media

[alexandral]

There is something I have encountered few times in the last two weeks. First, in "Sarah Connor Chronicles". As soon as I saw Dimitry-the-Russian-programmer I thought "Aha! He will be the evil character who stole the Turk". And of course, he was the evil character who stole the Turk.

And after "Sarah Connor" I am watching "Carnivale". The Creature of Darkness is revealed as Russian. Oh dear. These things don't bother me too much usually, but when there are too many of them - this can't just be random.

I am thinking really hard and trying to remember an American show where a Russian person wasn't:

1. Evil
2. Programmer (of evil variety)
3. Low intelligence but good at chess
4. Scary mafia guy involved in human traffic

Oh my, look - I am a programmer myself.

To be honest, the stereotypes of Russians are much "softer" than stereotypes of some other nations or religious and sexual orientation minorities.

Comments

[dianora77.livejournal.com]

One of the most prominent and best Croatian actors (Rade Serbedzija) claims he has made a career for himself in Hollywood and yet is always typecast as East-European/Russian mafiosos. I think that after staring in beautiful, poetic movies, and being one of the best Shakespearean actors in this area, that's a bit of a reversal. But yeah, I suppose the guy's gotta feed his family, too... And actors salaries in our country are laughable indeed. Unless you're acting in soaps. If you can call that horror "acting". :P

P.S. I'm sorry, I totally forgot about that aspect of Carnivale. I suppose it simply didn't register with me. :/

[dianora77.livejournal.com]

Mafioso. Not mafiosos... (That's what happens when you change a part of your sentence without checking the rest of it. :P)

[alexandral.livejournal.com]

I don't think USA media is particular kind to any foreigners. :D

P.S. I'm sorry, I totally forgot about that aspect of Carnivale. I suppose it simply didn't register with me. :/

Hee! Actually I much prefer brother Justine to the good-character buy guy. He is AWESOME.