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 phenomenon “Euphoria,” has stated that television is moving into a golden age of global drama. Addressing this year’s Canneseries festival, Leshem—whose credits include “Valley of Tears,” “No Man’s Land” and “Bad Boy”—contended forcefully that independent producers and international storytelling hold the key to reinvigorating dramatic television. As streaming services increasingly retreat into local-focused content and broadcasters play it safe, Leshem remains bullishly optimistic about the future, backed by his own slate of expansive global initiatives spanning Brazil, Australia, Europe and France. His conviction comes at a pivotal juncture when global drama risks being reduced to little more than a cost-effective option or exotic niche rather than a artistic movement transforming the medium.

The Case for Daring, Limit-Breaking Storytelling

Leshem’s core argument contests the prevailing caution in modern television. Rather than retreating into safe formulas, he maintains that worldwide television offers something the industry urgently requires: genuine surprise. When networks and streaming services stick to proven models, approving only established formats and conventional stories, they forfeit the medium’s core strength to inspire and disturb. Leshem believes this point in time demands the opposite approach—creators must welcome the untested, push into uncharted ground, and trust audiences to go along into uncomfortable, unexpected places. The original Israeli “Euphoria” embodied this approach, delivering raw authenticity and cultural specificity to a story that transcended its origins to become a global phenomenon.

The economics of global production, Leshem stresses, genuinely free rather than constrain artistic vision. Whilst American television increasingly demands substantial financial investment to justify green-light verdicts, international productions can achieve comparable production values at reduced financial outlay. This financial flexibility surprisingly facilitates increased artistic experimentation. Production teams spanning multiple territories don’t face the same business imperatives that force American networks toward safe, accessible content. Instead, they can champion unique perspectives, non-traditional storytelling, and the kind of daring innovation that eventually generates the most enduring and culturally important content.

• Global storytelling opens doors to fresh settings, frameworks and narrative journeys
• Independent producers can create quality programming at substantially lower costs
• International content appeals to audiences fatigued by standard programming
• Cultural particularity generates credibility that transcends geographical boundaries

Disrupting the Safe Approach

The television industry’s current risk aversion represents a fundamental misreading of audience appetite. Streaming services and traditional broadcasters have become fixated with metrics and algorithmic predictability, resulting in an endless parade of retreads and sequels. Yet audiences continue gravitating toward programmes that surprise them—narratives that feel genuinely dangerous, ethically nuanced, and culturally grounded. Global drama, by its inherent character, resists the standardising tendency that dominates mainstream American television. When creators work across different cultural contexts and production ecosystems, they’re forced to think differently, to question assumptions, to venture beyond the well-worn paths that have become entrenched as industry convention.

Leshem’s personal production outfit, Crossing Oceans, reflects this approach through its intentionally international slate. From “Paranoia” in Brazil to “Revolution,” a France Télévisions collaboration with Iranian filmmakers, his projects deliberately pursue creative friction and cross-cultural exchange. These are not vanity productions intended to gather festival laurels; they’re calculated bets that audiences globally crave stories that challenge, disorient, and eventually transform them. By embracing the unfamiliar rather than retreating from it, Leshem suggests, television can restore its standing as the medium where real creative risk still matters.

From Israeli Origins to International Goals

Ron Leshem’s path from Israeli television to international prominence exemplifies the profound impact of locally-rooted storytelling. His early work in Israeli drama marked him as a recognisable storytelling force, prepared to engage with complex moral and social themes with candid directness. This groundwork became crucial in shaping his future direction to worldwide content creation. Rather than surrendering his cultural identity for wider market reach, Leshem has continually drawn upon his Israeli perspective as a storytelling strength, proving that intensely localised tales possess worldwide appeal. His trajectory demonstrates that the most compelling international television often emerges not from weakening cultural distinctiveness, but from intensifying it.

The establishment of Crossing Oceans, his production outfit based in Los Angeles but working chiefly across global markets, reflects a intentional move away from Hollywood-centric production models. Working alongside long-standing partners Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Leshem has built a collection deliberately designed to foreground artistic integrity over market-tested formulas. His ongoing productions span Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France in partnership with Iranian filmmakers—a thematic and territorial range that would have been inconceivable in established industry frameworks. This international presence represents far more than ambition; it’s a strategic assertion that the trajectory of dramatic television lies in decentralised production ecosystems where ground-level understanding and global aspirations intersect.

The Euphoria Phenomenon

The original Israeli series that inspired Sam Levinson’s HBO adaptation became a defining cultural moment, demonstrating conclusively that non-English language drama could achieve extraordinary international box office success. Leshem’s creation connected so deeply with audiences worldwide that it produced countless international versions, each tailored to capture regional cultural nuances whilst maintaining the emotional depth and genuine emotional resonance of the original vision. This success dramatically shifted professional attitudes about international television’s commercial viability. Studios and digital platforms that had previously dismissed non-English language drama as specialised programming suddenly recognised the commercial opportunity of culturally distinct narratives executed with creative excellence.

The HBO version ascent to become the second most-watched series in the network’s history validated Leshem’s creative philosophy thoroughly. Rather than proving that international drama needed Americanisation to succeed, it demonstrated the opposite: audiences sought the psychological complexity and cultural specificity that the Israeli version captured. Levinson’s adaptation succeeded not by sanitising the source material but by honouring its fundamental boldness whilst translating it for American sensibilities. This model—faithful reworking rather than wholesale reimagining—has become growing in importance in how global drama is approached, motivating producers to seek genuine regional talent rather than imposing standardised templates.

• Original Israeli series generated multiple international adaptations throughout different markets
• HBO adaptation achieved network’s second most-watched series in history
• Success demonstrated international 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 fragmentation of international TV production. Established in collaboration with CAA and based in Los Angeles, the company operates as a truly global enterprise rather than a Hollywood-focused venture that occasionally ventures abroad. Established alongside longtime collaborators Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Crossing Oceans functions as a creative centre where storytellers from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds gather to create productions with genuinely global ambition. This structure allows Leshem to preserve creative autonomy whilst leveraging the unique production environments, regional expertise, and creative talent pools that various regions provide, directly contesting the notion that quality drama must emerge from established entertainment hubs.

The company’s existing slate demonstrates the breadth of its international reach and the range of storytelling approaches it supports. Projects stretch across continents and cultures, from Brazilian psychological dramas to European collaborations and co-productions with Iranian filmmakers, each bringing distinct perspectives and production methodologies. Rather than imposing a standardised creative template across territories, Crossing Oceans operates as a facilitator of genuine regional storytellers working in partnership 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 championing unique creative perspectives whilst connecting them across borders.

Working Together Throughout the Globe

Crossing Oceans’ global collaborations demonstrate how modern international television succeeds through genuine creative collaboration rather than conventional studio hierarchies. The collaboration with Iranian filmmakers on “Revolution” exemplifies this principle, bringing viewpoints and narrative approaches that traditional Western studios would generally dismiss. By establishing these relationships as artistic partners rather than subcontractors, Leshem’s company creates productions enriched by multiple cultural viewpoints and artistic traditions. This teamwork structure challenges outdated assumptions about the source of quality television, establishing that excellence arises when varied artistic perspectives work in genuine partnership toward mutual artistic objectives.

The parallel development of projects across Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France illustrates how Crossing Oceans operates as a truly distributed creative enterprise. Rather than concentrating control in Los Angeles, the company empowers local production teams and creative partners to advance initiatives within their respective territories. This locally-focused structure speeds up production schedules 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 respects local knowledge whilst preserving the artistic standards and international perspective required for global commercial success.

Empathy as Our Central Purpose

At the heart of Leshem’s vision for international storytelling lies a core conviction in television’s ability to cultivate understanding across cultural boundaries. Rather than treating international storytelling as a business approach or budgetary convenience, he positions it as a moral imperative—a platform by which audiences across the globe can engage with different viewpoints and develop deeper understanding of different societies. This conceptual approach elevates global drama beyond mere entertainment into something far more significant: a means of closing the emotional gaps that separate nations and communities. By centring empathy as the central principle, Leshem argues that television can achieve what political discourse often cannot: creating genuine human connection across difference.

The growth of locally created content on international streaming platforms has somewhat counterintuitively created both opportunity and risk. Whilst audiences now discover stories from historically underrepresented territories, there remains a danger of treating such productions as cultural oddities rather than stories of shared human experience. Leshem’s insistence on emotionally intelligent narrative directly counters this performative representation. His projects intentionally resist cultural stereotyping or performative diversity, instead crafting narratives that expose the common fragilities, ambitions, and ethical dilemmas that bind humanity. This method converts audiences into genuine participants in the emotional worlds of others, nurturing the form of intercultural comprehension that has become ever more essential in an interconnected yet polarised world.

• Universal human narratives transcend geographical and cultural boundaries
• Empathy-based narrative prevents exoticizing of foreign productions
• Common emotional moments foster authentic cross-cultural understanding
• Television’s strength lies in making faraway lives seem intimately close

Dramatic Performance as a Tool for Learning

Television drama, when delivered with genuine creative vision, operates as a uniquely powerful medium for fostering understanding. Unlike documentary formats that maintain observational distance, drama pulls audiences into the inner emotional lives of characters whose circumstances may differ substantially from their own. This immersive quality enables viewers to occupy unfamiliar social environments, familial arrangements, and ethical quandaries with an intimacy that builds understanding rather than mere awareness. Leshem’s output regularly exploit this potential, building stories that push audiences to examine their own assumptions whilst acknowledging the essential humanity in characters whose lives initially seem strange or perplexing.

The effectiveness of this method becomes particularly evident in productions tackling conflict, trauma, and community fragmentation. Series like “Valley of Tears” and “No Man’s Land” purposefully situate audiences within conflicted areas and fractured communities, demanding that viewers navigate ethical complexity without simple answers. Rather than providing comforting stories of triumph or redemption, these dramas present the messy, complicated reality of how individuals endure and sometimes thrive within insurmountable conditions. By resisting oversimplification, Leshem’s work teaches spectators that comprehension doesn’t necessitate agreement—it requires only the readiness to truly hear with stories fundamentally different from one’s own.

What Makes a Series Achieve Success

In an era saturated with content, the dividing line between programmes that merely exist and those that truly connect hinges on a willingness to take creative risks. Leshem argues that global drama’s greatest asset lies not in its budgetary constraints but in its ability to venture into narrative territory that cautious American television increasingly avoids. When streaming platforms emphasise predictable algorithms over artistic boldness, freelance production companies operating across continents possess the liberty to pursue stories that truly disturb and test audiences. This fearlessness—the refusal to sand down rough edges for commercial viability—transforms television from background viewing into something far more impactful: a medium capable of deepening understanding.

The international productions that achieve commercial success invariably share an unwavering fidelity to their source material’s emotional and cultural authenticity. “Euphoria’s” initial Israeli adaptation succeeded not because it pursued American preferences but because it proved fiercely true to its specific milieu, ultimately proving that distinctive detail rather than universal blandness produces genuine broad appeal. Leshem’s current slate of works—from “Paranoia” in Brazil to collaborations with Iranian creative practitioners—embodies this conviction that the most internationally engaging drama emerges when filmmakers place emphasis on their artistic vision’s honesty over institutional pressure to dilute distinctiveness. Such artistic bravery, paradoxically, functions as the route to international success.

• Authentic storytelling grounded in distinct cultural settings resonates universally
• Artistic bold choices distinguishes compelling shows from forgettable content
• Rejecting commercial compromise often yields stronger financial returns
• Global drama thrives when artistic vision overrides formulaic patterns