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

Ron Leshem, the Oscar-nominated writer and co-creator of the Israeli series that influenced HBO’s cultural juggernaut “Euphoria,” has declared that television is moving into a golden age of international storytelling. Addressing this year’s Canneseries festival, Leshem—whose credits include “Valley of Tears,” “No Man’s Land” and “Bad Boy”—argued passionately that independent creators and cross-border narratives hold the key to revitalising television drama. As streaming services increasingly retreat into domestically-oriented programming and broadcasters play it safe, Leshem stays firmly confident about the future, backed by his own collection of expansive global initiatives spanning Brazil, Australia, Europe and France. His belief comes at a pivotal juncture when global drama risks being dismissed as merely a cost-effective option or exotic niche rather than a artistic movement transforming the medium.

The Case for Daring, Limit-Breaking Story Creation

Leshem’s core argument questions the widespread timidity in current television. Rather than reverting to formulaic comfort, he argues that international storytelling offers something the industry urgently requires: authentic originality. When television channels and digital platforms play it safe, approving only time-tested formulas and conventional stories, they surrender the medium’s essential ability to captivate and provoke. Leshem believes this juncture demands the reverse strategy—creators must adopt the unfamiliar, push into untested territories, and believe in audiences to go along into challenging new territory. The original Israeli “Euphoria” exemplified this approach, bringing authentic intensity and cultural distinctiveness to a story that surpassed its origins to become a global phenomenon.

The economics of global production, Leshem stresses, genuinely free rather than constrain imaginative drive. Whilst American television increasingly demands substantial financial investment to justify greenlight decisions, overseas projects can achieve comparable production values at reduced financial outlay. This financial flexibility surprisingly facilitates increased artistic experimentation. Creators operating in international settings don’t face the same business imperatives that force American networks toward safe, accessible content. Instead, they can invest in unique perspectives, unconventional narratives, and the kind of bold experimentation that eventually generates the most impactful and culturally relevant programming.

• Global storytelling opens doors to unexplored territories, frameworks and narrative journeys
• Independent production companies can produce premium content at significantly reduced costs
• International storytelling engages audiences tired of standard programming
• Cultural distinctiveness generates authenticity that goes beyond geographical boundaries

Challenging the Conventional Formula

The television industry’s present 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 keep turning toward programmes that catch them off guard—narratives that feel truly transgressive, 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 challenge conventions, to venture beyond the well-worn paths that have calcified into industry convention.

Leshem’s own production outfit, Crossing Oceans, embodies this philosophy through its intentionally international slate. From “Paranoia” in Brazil to “Revolution,” a France Télévisions partnership with Iranian filmmakers, his projects deliberately pursue creative friction and cross-cultural exchange. These are not vanity productions designed to gather festival laurels; they’re calculated bets that audiences globally hunger for stories that challenge, disorient, and eventually reshape them. By embracing the unfamiliar rather than shying away from it, Leshem argues, television can restore its standing as the platform where genuine artistic risk-taking still counts.

From Israeli Origins to Global Aspirations

Ron Leshem’s journey from Israeli television to global recognition exemplifies the far-reaching influence of stories deeply embedded in place. His foundational creations in Israeli drama established him as a unique artistic perspective, unafraid to tackle complex moral and social themes with candid directness. This groundwork became crucial in shaping his future direction to international filmmaking. Rather than abandoning his cultural specificity for broader commercial appeal, Leshem has consistently leveraged his Israeli perspective as a storytelling strength, proving that intensely localised tales possess worldwide appeal. His trajectory reveals that the most compelling international television often emerges not from diminishing cultural specificity, but from doubling down on it.

The founding of Crossing Oceans, his production outfit headquartered in Los Angeles but operating primarily across international markets, constitutes a deliberate rejection from traditional Hollywood production approaches. Working alongside longtime collaborators Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Leshem has developed a collection strategically created to emphasise creative authenticity over commercially proven templates. His active ventures span Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France in collaboration with Iranian filmmakers—a geographical and creative range that would have seemed impossible in established industry frameworks. This worldwide reach goes beyond simple ambition; it’s a calculated claim that the future of television drama lies in decentralised production ecosystems where regional expertise and global aspirations intersect.

The Euphoria Phenomenon

The original Israeli series that inspired Sam Levinson’s HBO adaptation became a defining cultural moment, establishing definitively that international drama could achieve unprecedented global commercial success. Leshem’s creation resonated so profoundly with audiences worldwide that it generated multiple international versions, each adapted to reflect local cultural contexts whilst preserving the emotional depth and genuine emotional resonance of the original vision. This success significantly transformed professional attitudes about the commercial potential of international television. Studios and digital platforms that had previously dismissed non-English language drama as specialised programming suddenly recognised the profit prospects of culturally distinct narratives executed with artistic integrity.

The HBO adaptation ascent to become the second most-watched series in the network’s history vindicated Leshem’s creative philosophy completely. 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 increasingly influential in how global drama is approached, motivating producers to seek authentic local voices rather than imposing standardised templates.

• Original Israeli series produced multiple international adaptations in various regions
• HBO adaptation achieved network’s second most-watched series in history
• Success demonstrated cross-border television drama could achieve unparalleled commercial and critical acclaim

Crossing Oceans: Creating Worldwide Production Operations

Leshem’s production company, Crossing Oceans, represents a deliberate architectural response to the fragmented nature of international TV production. Founded in collaboration with CAA and headquartered in Los Angeles, the company operates as a genuinely international enterprise rather than a Hollywood-centric operation that occasionally ventures abroad. Co-founded with longtime collaborators Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Crossing Oceans functions as a creative hub where creators with varied geographical and cultural perspectives converge to develop projects with genuinely global ambition. This structure allows Leshem to maintain artistic control whilst leveraging the distinct production ecosystems, local knowledge, and creative talent pools that different territories offer, fundamentally challenging the idea that high-quality drama must originate from traditional entertainment capitals.

The company’s current portfolio demonstrates the breadth of its international reach and the range of storytelling approaches it supports. Projects span 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 authentic local voices working in partnership with international ambition. This approach produces 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 connecting them across borders.

Collaboration Between Continents

Crossing Oceans’ cross-border partnerships showcase how current world drama flourishes through authentic artistic partnership rather than conventional studio hierarchies. The collaboration with Iranian filmmakers on “Revolution” reflects this philosophy, introducing viewpoints and narrative approaches that conventional industry approaches would commonly ignore. By positioning these partnerships as creative equals rather than service providers, Leshem’s company produces productions enriched by multiple cultural viewpoints and cultural approaches. This teamwork structure challenges outdated assumptions about where quality drama originates, proving that creativity develops when diverse creative voices collaborate authentically toward common creative goals.

The simultaneous development of projects across Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France demonstrates how Crossing Oceans operates as a genuinely distributed creative enterprise. Rather than concentrating control in Los Angeles, the company enables local production teams and creative partners to propel work within their respective territories. This locally-focused structure accelerates development timelines whilst ensuring productions reflect genuine cultural identity and local relevance. By treating different territories as equal creative contributors rather than satellite offices, Crossing Oceans introduces a production model that values regional expertise whilst preserving the artistic standards and international perspective essential to global commercial success.

Empathy as the Core Mission

At the heart of Leshem’s perspective for global drama lies a fundamental belief in television’s capacity to foster empathy across cultural boundaries. Rather than approaching global narratives as a business approach or financial expediency, he frames it as a moral imperative—a medium through which audiences worldwide can inhabit unfamiliar perspectives and develop deeper understanding of distinct cultures. This conceptual approach elevates global drama beyond mere entertainment into something more consequential: a means of closing 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: fostering authentic human bonds across difference.

The growth of locally produced content on global streaming platforms has paradoxically created both opportunity and risk. Whilst audiences now access stories from previously marginalised territories, there remains a danger of treating such productions as cultural oddities rather than universal human narratives. Leshem’s insistence on empathy-driven storytelling directly counters this tokenisation. His projects intentionally resist reductive stereotypes or performative diversity, instead crafting narratives that expose the shared vulnerabilities, ambitions, and ethical dilemmas that unite humanity. This strategy 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 digitally connected but deeply divided world.

• Timeless human narratives go beyond cultural and geographical boundaries
• Empathy-driven storytelling prevents exoticisation of international productions
• Common emotional experiences foster genuine cross-cultural understanding
• Television’s strength resides in rendering faraway lives feel intimately familiar

Drama as a Means for Comprehension

Television drama, when crafted 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 subjective emotional experiences of characters whose circumstances may differ substantially from their own. This immersive nature allows viewers to occupy unfamiliar social contexts, familial arrangements, and ethical quandaries with an depth that creates understanding rather than superficial knowledge. Leshem’s output regularly leverage this strength, building stories that push audiences to confront their own assumptions whilst recognising the core humanity in characters whose circumstances initially seem strange or perplexing.

The impact of this strategy becomes notably evident in works addressing conflict, trauma, and community fragmentation. Series like “Valley of Tears” and “No Man’s Land” intentionally situate audiences within disputed regions and broken communities, demanding that spectators navigate ethical complexity without simple answers. Rather than providing soothing accounts of triumph or redemption, these series present the intricate, messy reality of how people endure and sometimes thrive within insurmountable conditions. By resisting oversimplification, Leshem’s work shows audiences that insight needn’t demand agreement—it requires only the readiness to genuinely listen with stories markedly unlike one’s own.

What Drives a Series Achieve Success

In an era flooded with content, the dividing line between programmes that merely exist and those that truly connect hinges on a readiness to take bold creative steps. Leshem argues that international drama’s greatest asset lies not in its financial limitations but in its ability to venture into storytelling ground that cautious American television increasingly avoids. When streaming companies emphasise algorithmic predictability over artistic boldness, freelance production companies operating across continents possess the freedom to pursue stories that authentically provoke and push audiences. This fearlessness—the resistance to sand down rough edges for commercial viability—transforms television from mere entertainment into something far more significant: a medium capable of expanding consciousness.

The international productions that break through commercially invariably demonstrate an uncompromising dedication to their source material’s emotional and cultural authenticity. “Euphoria’s” Israeli original version prospered not because it catered to American sensibilities but because it stayed deeply faithful to its specific milieu, ultimately establishing that specificity rather than universal blandness generates genuine universality. Leshem’s current slate of endeavours—from “Paranoia” in Brazil to collaborations with Iranian directors—reflects this certainty that the most widely captivating narrative work emerges when creators prioritise their creative vision’s authenticity over organisational demands to homogenise. Such creative courage, paradoxically, becomes the route to international commercial success.

• Genuine storytelling rooted in specific cultural contexts resonates universally
• Creative bold choices sets apart compelling shows from disposable programming
• Rejecting market pressures often yields greater commercial success
• International television thrives when artistic vision supersedes algorithmic predictability