Russians at the Gates
Spies, Saboteurs, and Provocateurs in Jack Ryan 3 and Treason
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Abstract
This article analyzes two recent streaming series—the third season of Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan (Prime, USA, 2022) and the limited series Treason (Netflix, UK, 2022)—as aspects of “Cold War II,” the increasingly common term for the resurgence of anti-Russian attitudes and stereotypes in Anglophone cinema and television that has been apparent since 2010. These two series reflect a shared fear of Russians and offer interesting and illuminating points of comparison, especially regarding their definitions of the threat (internal or external), the battleground (at home or abroad), and strategies for confronting the enemy (shoot ’em up or run and hide). At the same time, these series reflect different national concerns, with Jack Ryan 3 as one of many US-produced spy thrillers that trumpet aggressive, offensive action in a way that deflects attention from the country's serious divisions and protracted domestic crises. Treason, on the other hand, engages with British concerns over corruption in the UK's police and security services. Finally, the series’ differing treatments of the relationship of the not-so-distant past to present dangers (real and perceived) is also noteworthy, if puzzling; the demise of the Soviet Union is central to the crisis in Jack Ryan 3 but only glancingly mentioned in Treason.
Contributor Notes
Denise J. Youngblood, an emeritus professor of history at the University of Vermont, received her PhD from Stanford University and studied film at VGIK, the Soviet state film institute in Moscow. She has published extensively on the history of Russian and Soviet cinema, including seven books and numerous journal articles, book chapters, and film reviews. Areas of particular interest include Soviet-American cinematic relations, Russian and Soviet popular cinema, history on film, and changing representations of enemies and outsiders in US and Soviet/Russian visual media. She presently serves as associate editor of Apparatus: Film, Media and Digital Cultures in Central and Eastern Europe. Email: denise.youngblood@uvm.edu.