FUBAR: Is Sardovia A Real Country?

"FUBAR" sees Luke (Arnold Schwarzenegger) and Emma Brunner (Monica Barbaro) — a father-daughter duo who just happen to work for the CIA — travel the globe in search of Boro Polonia (Gabriel Luna), an evasive international arms dealer. Their adventures take them everywhere from Guyana to Eastern Europe, but are all of their destinations based on real places?

In the episode titled "Urine Luck," Luke and Emma lead their team to a communist country called Sardovia, which appears to be located near Azerbaijan. It turns out that their target is hiding out below a nuclear reactor, and their plan is to capture him before he commits more crimes. It seems like another run-of-the-mill mission in a country that all of the agents are familiar with, so why question it?

No matter how much "FUBAR" tries to convince us otherwise, Sardovia isn't a real country. That said, television aficionados can be forgiven for thinking that it is due to its name being used on another action-packed show about espionage.

"Scorpion" was canceled in 2018, but for four seasons, it provided viewers with high-stakes thrills. The series chronicles a group of super-geniuses as they travel around the world saving people and stopping threats. "Scorpion" is similar to "FUBAR" in the sense that both shows feature spies embarking on globetrotting missions, so it's fitting that they both showcase the same fictional country.

In Season 3's "Keep It In Check, Mate" episode, the "Scorpion" gang heads to Sardovia to take part in a chess tournament and save the life of an agent. This version of Sardovia is also located in Eastern Europe, albeit closer to Belarus than Azerbaijan. It's also politically problematic and ruled by a dictatorship, so their trip isn't exactly smooth sailing.

Sardovia might not be a real place, but it's the perfect destination for television creators who want to portray dangerous countries without offending real-world nations. "Scorpion" and "FUBAR" highlight Sardovia as the type of place one wouldn't want to visit on a family holiday, but it's certainly provided some entertaining drama.