Global Drama’s Golden Age: Why Television Must Dare to Surprise

Ron Leshem, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and creator of the Israeli series that influenced HBO’s cultural juggernaut “Euphoria,” has stated that television is moving into a golden age of global drama. Speaking at this year’s Canneseries festival, Leshem—whose credits feature “Valley of Tears,” “No Man’s Land” and “Bad Boy”—argued passionately that independent producers and international storytelling hold the key to reinvigorating dramatic television. As streaming services progressively focus on domestically-oriented programming and broadcasters take conservative approaches, Leshem stays firmly confident about the future, backed by his own slate of expansive global initiatives spanning Brazil, Australia, Europe and France. His belief comes at a pivotal juncture when international drama risks being dismissed as little more than a budget solution or exotic niche rather than a artistic movement transforming the medium.

The Case for Courageous, Convention-Challenging Story Creation

Leshem’s central argument contests the widespread risk-aversion in contemporary television. Rather than falling back on safe formulas, he contends that worldwide television offers something the industry critically demands: authentic originality. When broadcasters and streaming platforms play it safe, approving only time-tested formulas and familiar narratives, they surrender the medium’s fundamental power to captivate and provoke. Leshem believes this point in time demands the reverse strategy—creators must welcome the untested, push into new spaces, and believe in audiences to accompany them into challenging new territory. The Israeli original “Euphoria” demonstrated this principle, bringing raw authenticity and cultural specificity to a narrative that went beyond its origins to become a international hit.

The economics of worldwide production, Leshem emphasises, genuinely free rather than constrain artistic vision. Whilst American television persistently calls for massive budgets to justify greenlight decisions, cross-border ventures can achieve equivalent production quality at significantly lower expense. This monetary freedom surprisingly facilitates more adventurous creative choices. Production teams spanning multiple territories aren’t constrained by the same commercial pressures that force American networks toward formulaic narratives. Instead, they can invest in distinctive voices, unconventional narratives, and the kind of daring innovation that finally creates the most enduring and culturally important content.

• Global drama opens doors to new worlds, setups and narrative journeys
• Independent producers can deliver premium content at significantly reduced costs
• International content appeals to audiences fatigued by conventional TV
• Cultural specificity creates authenticity that transcends geographical boundaries

Breaking the Conventional Model

The television industry’s current risk aversion constitutes a fundamental misreading of audience appetite. Streaming services and traditional broadcasters have become fixated with metrics and algorithmic predictability, leading to an endless parade of rehashed content and franchises. Yet audiences keep turning toward programmes that surprise them—narratives that feel genuinely dangerous, ethically nuanced, and culturally grounded. Global drama, by its very nature, resists the homogenising impulse that dominates mainstream American television. When creators operate within different cultural contexts and production ecosystems, they’re forced to think differently, to question assumptions, to move past the well-worn paths that have become entrenched as industry convention.

Leshem’s personal production outfit, Crossing Oceans, embodies this approach through its intentionally global portfolio. From “Paranoia” in Brazil to “Revolution,” a France Télévisions collaboration with Iranian filmmakers, his works deliberately court artistic tension and cultural collision. These aren’t vanity productions intended to accumulate festival laurels; they’re strategic wagers that audiences globally hunger for stories that challenge, disorient, and eventually reshape them. By embracing the unknown rather than shying away from it, Leshem suggests, television can reclaim its standing as the platform where real creative risk still matters.

From Israeli Heritage to International Goals

Ron Leshem’s path from Israeli television to global recognition exemplifies the far-reaching influence of locally-rooted storytelling. His early work in Israeli drama positioned him as a recognisable storytelling force, willing to confront sophisticated social and moral issues with unflinching honesty. This base proved essential in shaping his subsequent methodology to global production. Rather than abandoning his cultural specificity for expanded commercial viability, Leshem has consistently leveraged his Israeli perspective as a artistic resource, proving that profoundly rooted narratives possess global relevance. His trajectory demonstrates that the most captivating worldwide programming often emerges not from diluting cultural identity, but from doubling down on it.

The founding of Crossing Oceans, his production company based in Los Angeles but working chiefly across global markets, represents a intentional move away from conventional studio-led frameworks. Working alongside longtime collaborators Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Leshem has built a portfolio strategically created to prioritise creative authenticity over commercially proven templates. His ongoing productions span Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France in collaboration with Iranian filmmakers—a geographical and creative breadth that would have been unimaginable in traditional television hierarchies. This global footprint goes beyond simple ambition; it’s a deliberate statement that the future of television drama lies in decentralised production ecosystems where local knowledge and global aspirations intersect.

The Euphoria Trend

The original Israeli series that inspired Sam Levinson’s HBO adaptation became a defining cultural moment, demonstrating conclusively that international drama could achieve extraordinary international box office success. Leshem’s creation struck such a powerful chord with audiences worldwide that it generated multiple international versions, each adapted to reflect regional cultural nuances whilst preserving the psychological intensity and emotional authenticity of the original vision. This success fundamentally altered professional attitudes about non-English television’s market prospects. Studios and digital platforms that had previously dismissed international drama as niche content suddenly acknowledged the profit prospects of culturally distinct narratives executed with creative excellence.

The HBO adaptation rise to the second most-watched series in the network’s history validated Leshem’s creative philosophy entirely. Rather than proving that international drama needed Americanisation to succeed, it illustrated the opposite: audiences sought the psychological complexity and cultural specificity that the Israeli version embodied. Levinson’s adaptation succeeded not by sanitising the source material but by preserving its fundamental boldness whilst adapting it for American sensibilities. This model—respectful adaptation rather than wholesale reimagining—has become more impactful in how global drama is approached, encouraging producers to seek original indigenous perspectives rather than imposing standardised templates.

• Original Israeli series produced numerous cross-border adaptations throughout different markets
• HBO adaptation rose to network’s second most-watched series in history
• Success proved cross-border television drama could reach unparalleled commercial and critical acclaim

Spanning Continents: Establishing an International Manufacturing Network

Leshem’s production outfit, Crossing Oceans, constitutes a deliberate architectural response to the fragmented nature of international TV production. Founded in partnership with CAA and headquartered in Los Angeles, the company operates as a genuinely international enterprise rather than a Hollywood-focused venture that occasionally ventures abroad. Established alongside long-standing creative partners Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Crossing Oceans serves as a creative centre where creators with varied geographical and cultural perspectives converge to create productions with truly international scope. This structure allows Leshem to maintain artistic control whilst leveraging the unique production environments, local knowledge, and creative talent pools that different territories provide, directly contesting the notion that high-quality drama must emerge from established entertainment hubs.

The company’s current portfolio demonstrates the breadth of its international reach and the diversity of storytelling approaches it champions. Projects span continents and cultures, from Brazilian psychological dramas to European co-productions and collaborations with Iranian filmmakers, each bringing unique viewpoints and production approaches. Rather than imposing a standardised creative template across territories, Crossing Oceans functions as a facilitator of authentic local voices working in collaboration with international ambition. This approach generates productions that demonstrate both cultural specificity and universal emotional resonance, proving that truly global drama emerges not from homogenisation but from celebrating distinctive creative visions whilst linking them internationally.

Partnerships Between Different Continents

Crossing Oceans’ international partnerships demonstrate how current world drama flourishes through real creative teamwork rather than traditional top-down production models. The collaboration with Iranian filmmakers on “Revolution” embodies this approach, introducing perspectives and storytelling traditions that traditional Western studios would commonly ignore. By treating these collaborations as creative equals rather than external vendors, Leshem’s company produces projects strengthened by diverse perspectives and cultural approaches. This collaborative model challenges outdated assumptions about which regions produce quality drama, proving that innovation emerges when diverse creative voices work in genuine partnership toward common creative goals.

The concurrent development of projects across Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France illustrates how Crossing Oceans operates as a authentically distributed creative enterprise. Rather than concentrating control in Los Angeles, the company supports local production teams and creative partners to drive projects forward within their respective territories. This locally-focused structure accelerates development timelines whilst ensuring productions maintain cultural authenticity and local relevance. By treating different territories as creative equals rather than satellite offices, Crossing Oceans establishes a production model that honours local insight whilst upholding the artistic standards and international perspective required for global commercial success.

Empathy as Our Central Purpose

At the heart of Leshem’s vision for global drama lies a core conviction in television’s capacity to foster empathy across cultural divides. Rather than approaching global narratives as a business approach or budgetary convenience, he frames it as a ethical necessity—a platform by which audiences worldwide can inhabit unfamiliar perspectives and develop deeper understanding of distinct cultures. This conceptual approach raises international storytelling beyond entertainment into something more consequential: a tool for bridging the emotional gaps that divide different populations. By placing empathy at the centre as the central principle, Leshem argues that television can accomplish what political discourse often cannot: creating genuine human connection across difference.

The proliferation of locally produced content on global streaming platforms has somewhat counterintuitively created both opportunity and risk. Whilst audiences now access stories from previously marginalised territories, there persists a danger of treating such productions as exotic curiosities rather than stories of shared human experience. Leshem’s insistence on empathy-driven storytelling directly challenges this tokenisation. His projects intentionally resist cultural stereotyping or performative diversity, instead constructing stories that expose the common fragilities, ambitions, and moral complexities that bind humanity. This method transforms viewers into genuine participants in other people’s emotional landscapes, fostering the form of intercultural comprehension that has become ever more essential in an interconnected yet polarised world.

• Universal human stories transcend cultural and geographical boundaries
• Empathy-based storytelling prevents exoticisation of international productions
• Common emotional moments create authentic cross-cultural understanding
• Television’s strength resides in rendering distant lives feel intimately familiar

Theatre as a Tool for Comprehension

Television drama, when delivered with genuine artistic ambition, functions as a uniquely powerful medium for building empathy. Unlike documentary approaches that maintain observational distance, drama draws audiences into the inner emotional lives of characters whose situations may diverge substantially from their own. This immersive quality allows viewers to inhabit unfamiliar social environments, familial arrangements, and moral dilemmas with an closeness that generates understanding rather than simple awareness. Leshem’s productions consistently leverage this strength, constructing narratives that push audiences to examine their own assumptions whilst identifying the fundamental humanity in characters whose existences initially appear unfamiliar or bewildering.

The effectiveness of this approach becomes especially evident in programmes tackling conflict, trauma, and community fragmentation. Series like “Valley of Tears” and “No Man’s Land” deliberately situate spectators within disputed regions and fractured communities, demanding that viewers navigate moral ambiguity without straightforward conclusions. Rather than offering reassuring narratives of success or redemption, these series present the complex, nuanced reality of how individuals survive and occasionally flourish within insurmountable conditions. By rejecting reduction, Leshem’s work demonstrates spectators that insight doesn’t necessitate agreement—it requires only the openness to authentically engage with stories markedly unlike one’s own.

What Creates a Series Achieve Success

In an era saturated with content, the dividing line between programmes that merely exist and those that genuinely resonate hinges on a commitment to take creative risks. Leshem argues that international drama’s greatest asset lies not in its budgetary constraints but in its ability to venture into dramatic space that risk-averse American television increasingly avoids. When streaming companies favour algorithmic formulas over artistic surprise, freelance production companies operating across continents possess the ability to pursue stories that truly disturb and challenge audiences. This fearlessness—the refusal to sand down rough edges for commercial viability—transforms television from passive entertainment into something far more consequential: a medium equipped to deepening understanding.

The international productions that break through commercially invariably share an uncompromising fidelity to their original material’s emotional and cultural authenticity. “Euphoria’s” initial Israeli adaptation thrived not because it pursued American tastes but because it remained firmly committed to its specific milieu, ultimately demonstrating that distinctive detail rather than broad genericness creates genuine broad appeal. Leshem’s existing portfolio of works—from “Paranoia” in Brazil to collaborations with Iranian creative practitioners—reflects this conviction that the most widely captivating drama develops when storytellers prioritise their vision’s integrity over organisational demands to dilute distinctiveness. Such artistic bravery, paradoxically, becomes the pathway to international widespread recognition.

• Genuine storytelling rooted in distinct cultural settings resonates universally
• Creative risk-taking distinguishes compelling shows from forgettable content
• Rejecting market pressures frequently generates greater commercial success
• Global drama thrives when artistic vision overrides formulaic patterns