Notice: there are doctors, detectives, accountants, cops and singers…but not a single drug lord or cholo in half a dozen different comedies and dramas.
Kind of nice, isn’t it? Latino actors–some of them actually playing Latino characters–are visible on every broadcast and some cable networks Thursday nights this fall, playing a wide range of intelligent and admirable roles. Who says we haven’t come a long way (maybe not all the way, but some…). Check it:
ABC has Sara Ramirez as the courageous and intense Dr. Callie Torres on Grey’s Anatomy, (9P) followed by Scandal, with Guillermo Diaz as Huck, the violent ex-CIA tech guy who works for Kerry Washington’s ‘damage control’ firm.
CBS gives us Manny Perez as a cop who works with a modern-day Shock Holmes and Dr. Watson on Elementary at 10P–a show exec produced and often directed by Emmy Award nominee Michael Cuesta.
NBC’s contribution is less adventurous and just as charming: Oscar Nuñez as a mild-mannered but sharp-tongued accountant on The Office, at least for a few more weeks, and the formidable Aubrey Plaza is…well, we’re not quite sure what she does on Parks and Recreation, but we’re too scared to ask her. She’s on at 9:30P.
FOX, meanwhile has both Lea Michele, Naya Rivera and Harry Shum Jr. still singing and dancing up a storm on new episodes of Glee.
It’s fascinating: there are a total of 12 programs on four networks on Thursday nights…and there are Latinos in exactly half of them, playing–for the most part–actual Latino characters.
Maybe things are getting better.
