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 entering a golden age of global drama. Addressing this year’s Canneseries festival, Leshem—whose credits feature “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 platforms increasingly retreat into local-focused content and broadcasters take conservative approaches, Leshem remains bullishly optimistic about the future, backed by his own collection of expansive global initiatives spanning Brazil, Australia, Europe and France. His belief comes at a critical moment when international drama risks being dismissed as merely a cost-effective option or exotic niche rather than a transformative medium transforming the medium.

The Case for Courageous, Convention-Challenging Storytelling

Leshem’s central argument questions the widespread timidity in contemporary television. Rather than retreating into familiar templates, he maintains that worldwide television offers something the industry desperately needs: authentic originality. When networks and streaming services avoid taking risks, approving only proven templates and recognizable plots, they forfeit the television’s fundamental power to engage and challenge. Leshem believes this juncture demands the opposite approach—creators must adopt the unfamiliar, explore untested territories, and trust audiences to follow them into challenging new territory. The Israeli original “Euphoria” exemplified this philosophy, bringing raw authenticity and cultural distinctiveness to a tale that went beyond its origins to become a international hit.

The economics of worldwide production, Leshem highlights, actually liberate rather than constrain artistic vision. Whilst American television persistently calls for considerable spending to justify production approvals, international productions can achieve comparable production values at a fraction of the cost. This budgetary adaptability somewhat counterintuitively allows increased artistic experimentation. Creators operating in international settings aren’t constrained by the same market demands that force American networks toward formulaic narratives. Instead, they can support original viewpoints, non-traditional storytelling, and the kind of daring innovation that finally creates the most memorable and culturally significant television.

• Global storytelling opens doors to unexplored territories, frameworks and narrative journeys
• Independent creators can deliver premium content at significantly reduced costs
• International content attracts audiences tired of standard programming
• Cultural particularity creates genuine appeal that goes beyond geographical boundaries

Challenging the Conventional Formula

The television industry’s current risk aversion represents a core misreading of audience appetite. Streaming services and traditional broadcasters have grown obsessed with metrics and algorithmic predictability, leading to an endless parade of rehashed content and franchises. Yet audiences keep turning toward programmes that catch them off guard—narratives that feel genuinely dangerous, ethically nuanced, and culturally rooted. Global drama, by its very nature, resists the homogenising impulse that dominates mainstream American television. When creators work across different cultural contexts and production ecosystems, they’re forced to approach things anew, to question assumptions, to move past the well-worn paths that have become entrenched as industry convention.

Leshem’s own production company, Crossing Oceans, reflects this philosophy through its deliberately international slate. From “Paranoia” in Brazil to “Revolution,” a France Télévisions partnership with Iranian filmmakers, his projects intentionally pursue creative friction and cultural collision. These aren’t prestige vanity projects intended to gather festival laurels; they’re calculated bets that audiences worldwide crave stories that provoke, disorient, and eventually transform them. By embracing the unfamiliar rather than shying away from it, Leshem argues, television can reclaim its position as the medium where real creative risk still counts.

From Israeli Heritage to Global Aspirations

Ron Leshem’s path from Israeli television to worldwide success exemplifies the transformative power of culturally grounded narratives. His early work in Israeli drama marked him as a distinctive creative voice, willing to confront sophisticated social and moral issues with unflinching honesty. This foundation proved instrumental in shaping his later approach to worldwide content creation. Rather than abandoning his cultural specificity for expanded commercial viability, Leshem has consistently leveraged his Israeli perspective as a storytelling strength, proving that deeply local stories possess universal resonance. His trajectory demonstrates that the most engaging global content often emerges not from diminishing cultural specificity, but from doubling down on it.

The creation of Crossing Oceans, his production company based in Los Angeles but working chiefly across global markets, constitutes a deliberate rejection from Hollywood-centric production models. Working alongside longtime collaborators Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Leshem has developed a collection strategically created to emphasise genuine creativity over commercially proven templates. His active ventures span Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France in cooperation with Iranian filmmakers—a geographical and creative range that would have been inconceivable in established industry frameworks. This international presence goes beyond simple ambition; it’s a calculated claim that the trajectory of dramatic television lies in distributed production networks where regional expertise and worldwide vision intersect.

The Euphoria Trend

The original Israeli series that influenced Sam Levinson’s HBO adaptation became a defining cultural moment, establishing definitively that non-English language drama could achieve extraordinary international box office success. Leshem’s creation struck such a powerful chord with audiences worldwide that it spawned numerous international versions, each modified to represent regional cultural nuances whilst maintaining the emotional depth and emotional authenticity of the original vision. This success dramatically shifted market views about non-English television’s market prospects. Studios and streaming services that had traditionally overlooked international drama as niche content suddenly recognised the commercial opportunity of culturally distinct narratives executed with creative excellence.

The HBO adaptation emergence as the second most-watched series in the network’s history validated 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 reflected. Levinson’s adaptation succeeded not by sanitising the source material but by preserving its fundamental boldness whilst translating 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 original indigenous perspectives rather than imposing standardised templates.

• Original Israeli series generated multiple international adaptations across different territories
• HBO adaptation achieved network’s second most-watched series of all time
• Success proved cross-border television drama could attain unparalleled commercial and critical acclaim

Crossing Oceans: Building a Global Production Network

Leshem’s production outfit, Crossing Oceans, represents a carefully structured response to the fragmented nature of global television production. Established in partnership with CAA and based in Los Angeles, the company functions as a truly global enterprise rather than a Hollywood-focused venture that periodically expands overseas. Co-founded with longtime collaborators Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Crossing Oceans serves as a creative hub where creators with varied geographical and cultural perspectives gather to develop projects with genuinely global ambition. This structure allows Leshem to maintain artistic control whilst drawing upon the distinct production ecosystems, regional expertise, and creative talent pools that different territories offer, directly contesting the notion that high-quality drama must originate from established entertainment hubs.

The company’s current portfolio 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 co-productions and collaborations 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 collaboration 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 Throughout the Globe

Crossing Oceans’ international partnerships showcase how contemporary global drama flourishes through genuine creative collaboration rather than conventional studio hierarchies. The partnership involving Iranian filmmakers on “Revolution” embodies this principle, offering perspectives and storytelling traditions that Western-centric production models would typically overlook. By treating these collaborations as artistic partners rather than subcontractors, Leshem’s company produces works enhanced through varied cultural insights and cultural approaches. This collaborative model disputes outdated assumptions about the source of quality television, demonstrating that innovation emerges when diverse creative voices collaborate authentically toward shared artistic vision.

The parallel development of projects across Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France illustrates how Crossing Oceans operates as a authentically distributed creative enterprise. Rather than centralising decision-making in Los Angeles, the company empowers local production teams and creative partners to advance initiatives within their respective territories. This decentralised approach speeds up production schedules whilst guaranteeing productions reflect genuine cultural identity and local relevance. By treating different territories as collaborative partners 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 the Core Mission

At the heart of Leshem’s perspective for international storytelling lies a core conviction in television’s capacity to foster empathy across cultural divides. Rather than approaching global narratives as a business approach or financial expediency, he positions it as a ethical necessity—a medium through which audiences worldwide can engage with different viewpoints and develop deeper understanding of distinct cultures. This conceptual approach raises international storytelling beyond entertainment into something far more significant: a means of closing the emotional gaps that separate nations and communities. 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 cultural divides.

The proliferation of locally created content on international streaming platforms has somewhat counterintuitively created both opportunities and challenges. Whilst audiences now encounter stories from historically underrepresented territories, there persists a danger of regarding such works as cultural oddities rather than universal human narratives. Leshem’s insistence on empathy-driven storytelling directly challenges this tokenisation. His projects intentionally resist reductive stereotypes or superficial representation, instead crafting narratives that reveal the common fragilities, ambitions, and ethical dilemmas that bind humanity. This strategy transforms viewers into authentic stakeholders in other people’s emotional landscapes, fostering the kind of cross-cultural understanding that has become increasingly vital in an digitally connected but deeply divided world.

• Timeless human narratives transcend geographical and cultural boundaries
• Empathy-driven narrative avoids exoticisation of foreign productions
• Shared emotional experiences foster genuine cross-cultural understanding
• Television’s strength lies in making faraway lives seem intimately close

Dramatic Performance as a Means for Understanding

Television drama, when crafted with genuine artistic ambition, functions as a uniquely potent form for cultivating empathy. Unlike documentary approaches that maintain observational distance, drama draws audiences into the inner emotional lives of characters whose circumstances may differ substantially from their own. This immersive quality permits audiences to occupy unfamiliar social environments, family structures, and ethical quandaries with an depth that creates understanding rather than mere awareness. Leshem’s work consistently exploit this potential, creating narratives that push audiences to examine their own assumptions whilst acknowledging the core humanity in characters whose lives initially seem strange or perplexing.

The effectiveness of this strategy becomes especially evident in programmes tackling conflict, trauma, and social division. Series like “Valley of Tears” and “No Man’s Land” intentionally situate viewers within disputed regions and fractured communities, demanding that audiences navigate moral uncertainty without easy resolution. Rather than offering soothing accounts of triumph or redemption, these programmes present the intricate, messy reality of how individuals persist and periodically prosper within impossible circumstances. By rejecting reduction, Leshem’s work demonstrates audiences that understanding needn’t demand agreement—it requires only the openness to authentically engage with stories fundamentally different from one’s own.

What Drives a Series Break Through

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 artistic chances. Leshem argues that international drama’s greatest asset lies not in its financial limitations but in its capacity to venture into narrative territory that conservative American television increasingly avoids. When streaming companies emphasise algorithmic formulas over artistic surprise, independent producers operating across continents possess the liberty to pursue stories that truly disturb and challenge audiences. This fearlessness—the refusal to sand down rough edges for commercial viability—transforms television from mere entertainment into something far more significant: a medium capable of deepening understanding.

The international productions that achieve commercial success invariably share an steadfast commitment to their original material’s emotional and cultural authenticity. “Euphoria’s” initial Israeli adaptation succeeded not because it chased American preferences but because it proved deeply faithful to its specific milieu, ultimately proving that distinctive detail rather than broad genericness creates genuine worldwide resonance. Leshem’s present collection of projects—from “Paranoia” in Brazil to collaborations with Iranian filmmakers—demonstrates this belief that the most globally compelling storytelling develops when creators give precedence to their artistic vision’s honesty over organisational demands to homogenise. Such artistic bravery, paradoxically, functions as the means of achieving international widespread recognition.

• Authentic storytelling rooted in specific cultural contexts appeals across audiences
• Artistic risk-taking sets apart memorable television from disposable programming
• Rejecting commercial compromise frequently generates greater commercial success
• Global drama flourishes when creative direction supersedes algorithmic predictability