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

Ron Leshem, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter and creator of the Israeli series that inspired HBO’s cultural juggernaut “Euphoria,” has stated that television is moving into 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”—argued passionately that independent producers and international storytelling hold the key to reinvigorating dramatic television. As streaming services increasingly retreat into 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 global drama risks being dismissed as little more than a cost-effective option or exotic niche rather than a artistic movement reshaping the medium.

The Case for Daring, Limit-Breaking Story Creation

Leshem’s central argument questions the widespread caution in modern television. Rather than retreating into formulaic comfort, he argues that global drama offers something the industry desperately needs: authentic originality. When networks and streaming services play it safe, greenlighting only proven templates and recognizable plots, they surrender the format’s core strength to engage and challenge. Leshem believes this moment demands the reverse strategy—creators must embrace the unconventional, venture into uncharted ground, and believe in audiences to follow them into challenging new territory. The original Israeli “Euphoria” exemplified this philosophy, delivering genuine rawness and local cultural character to a story that transcended its beginnings to become a worldwide success.

The economics of global production, Leshem stresses, truly emancipate rather than constrain creative ambition. Whilst American television persistently calls for substantial financial investment to justify green-light verdicts, international productions can achieve similar quality standards at reduced financial outlay. This financial flexibility paradoxically enables increased artistic experimentation. Production teams spanning multiple territories aren’t bound by the same commercial pressures that force American networks toward formulaic narratives. Instead, they can support original viewpoints, experimental story structures, and the kind of bold experimentation that ultimately produces the most memorable and culturally significant television.

• Global narratives opens doors to fresh settings, scenarios and story arcs
• Independent producers can deliver premium content at significantly reduced costs
• International narratives attracts audiences fatigued by formulaic television
• Cultural particularity generates authenticity that transcends geographical boundaries

Challenging the Established Model

The television industry’s present risk aversion represents a fundamental misreading of viewer demand. 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, morally complex, and culturally grounded. 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 calcified into industry convention.

Leshem’s own production company, Crossing Oceans, reflects this philosophy through its intentionally international slate. From “Paranoia” in Brazil to “Revolution,” a France Télévisions collaboration with Iranian filmmakers, his projects deliberately court artistic tension and cultural collision. These are not vanity productions designed to gather festival laurels; they’re calculated bets that audiences globally crave stories that provoke, disorient, and ultimately transform them. By embracing the unknown rather than shying away from it, Leshem argues, television can reclaim its position as the platform where real creative risk still matters.

From Israeli Foundations to Worldwide Ambitions

Ron Leshem’s progression from Israeli television to worldwide success exemplifies the transformative power of stories deeply embedded in place. His initial projects in Israeli drama marked him as a distinctive creative voice, prepared to engage with intricate ethical and cultural questions with uncompromising integrity. This foundation proved instrumental in shaping his future direction to international filmmaking. Rather than surrendering his cultural identity for expanded commercial viability, Leshem has repeatedly utilised his Israeli perspective as a creative asset, proving that profoundly rooted narratives possess global relevance. His trajectory illustrates that the most captivating worldwide programming often emerges not from diminishing cultural specificity, but from intensifying it.

The creation of Crossing Oceans, his production outfit headquartered in Los Angeles but working chiefly across international markets, represents a conscious departure from conventional studio-led frameworks. Collaborating with established creative allies Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Leshem has built a collection deliberately designed to emphasise genuine creativity over market-tested formulas. His active ventures span Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France in cooperation with Iranian filmmakers—a thematic and territorial range that would have been unimaginable in traditional television hierarchies. This global footprint isn’t merely ambitious; it’s a calculated claim that the direction of television storytelling lies in dispersed creative systems where local knowledge and global aspirations intersect.

The Euphoria Phenomenon

The original Israeli series that inspired Sam Levinson’s HBO adaptation became a cultural watershed moment, establishing definitively that international drama could achieve remarkable worldwide commercial success. Leshem’s creation resonated so profoundly with audiences worldwide that it generated multiple international versions, each adapted to reflect regional cultural nuances whilst maintaining the psychological intensity and genuine emotional resonance of the original vision. This success significantly transformed professional attitudes about international television’s commercial viability. Studios and streaming services that had traditionally overlooked non-English language drama as niche content suddenly recognised the market potential of culturally distinct narratives executed with professional quality.

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

• Original Israeli series produced multiple international adaptations across different territories
• HBO adaptation rose to network’s second most-watched series of all time
• Success demonstrated international drama could reach remarkable commercial and critical acclaim

Crossing Oceans: Establishing an International Manufacturing Network

Leshem’s production outfit, 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-focused venture that periodically expands overseas. Co-founded with long-standing creative partners Amit Cohen and Daniel Amsel, Crossing Oceans serves as a creative hub where storytellers from diverse geographical and cultural backgrounds gather to create productions with truly international scope. This structure allows Leshem to maintain artistic control whilst drawing upon the unique production environments, regional expertise, and creative talent pools that different territories offer, directly contesting the notion that quality drama must emerge from established entertainment hubs.

The company’s current portfolio demonstrates the extent of the international reach and the diversity of storytelling approaches it champions. 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 functions as a facilitator of genuine regional storytellers 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 linking them internationally.

Working Together Between Continents

Crossing Oceans’ cross-border partnerships showcase how contemporary global drama flourishes through real creative teamwork rather than conventional studio hierarchies. The work alongside Iranian filmmakers on “Revolution” reflects this approach, offering viewpoints and narrative approaches that conventional industry approaches would typically overlook. By establishing these relationships as equal creative voices rather than external vendors, Leshem’s company creates works enhanced through multiple cultural viewpoints and cultural approaches. This partnership approach disputes conventional wisdom about which regions produce quality drama, proving that creativity develops when varied artistic perspectives work together genuinely toward mutual artistic objectives.

The simultaneous development of projects across Brazil, Australia, Europe, and France demonstrates how Crossing Oceans operates as a genuinely distributed creative enterprise. Rather than centralising decision-making in Los Angeles, the company supports local production teams and creative partners to propel work 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 collaborative partners rather than satellite offices, Crossing Oceans establishes a production model that values regional expertise whilst upholding the artistic standards and international perspective necessary for global commercial success.

Making Empathy Our Primary Focus

At the heart of Leshem’s perspective for international storytelling lies a core conviction in television’s ability to foster empathy across cultural boundaries. Rather than treating international storytelling as a business approach or budgetary convenience, he positions it as a ethical necessity—a medium through which audiences across the globe can inhabit unfamiliar perspectives and develop deeper understanding of different societies. This conceptual approach raises international storytelling beyond entertainment into something far more significant: a means of closing the psychological distances that separate nations and communities. By placing empathy at the centre as the guiding 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 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 regarding such works as cultural oddities rather than universal human narratives. Leshem’s commitment to empathy-driven storytelling directly challenges this tokenisation. His projects deliberately avoid cultural stereotyping or performative diversity, instead constructing stories that expose the shared vulnerabilities, ambitions, and ethical dilemmas that bind humanity. This approach converts audiences into genuine participants in the emotional worlds of others, nurturing the kind of cross-cultural understanding that has become ever more essential in an interconnected yet polarised world.

• Timeless human stories go beyond geographical and cultural boundaries
• Empathy-driven storytelling avoids exoticisation of international productions
• Shared emotional moments create authentic cross-cultural understanding
• Television’s strength lies in making faraway lives feel intimately close

Drama as a Tool for Understanding

Television drama, when crafted with genuine creative vision, serves as a uniquely powerful medium for building empathy. Unlike documentary formats that maintain observational distance, drama invites audiences into the subjective emotional experiences of characters whose situations may diverge substantially from their own. This immersive quality allows viewers to inhabit unfamiliar social contexts, family structures, and ethical quandaries with an closeness that generates understanding rather than superficial knowledge. Leshem’s output regularly exploit this potential, constructing narratives that force audiences to confront their own assumptions whilst recognising the essential humanity in characters whose existences initially appear strange or perplexing.

The impact of this strategy becomes especially evident in works exploring conflict, trauma, and community fragmentation. Series like “Valley of Tears” and “No Man’s Land” deliberately situate audiences within disputed regions and broken communities, demanding that audiences navigate moral ambiguity without straightforward conclusions. Rather than providing reassuring narratives of victory or salvation, these dramas present the complex, nuanced reality of how people endure and sometimes thrive within insurmountable conditions. By resisting oversimplification, Leshem’s work shows spectators that insight doesn’t necessitate agreement—it requires only the readiness to truly hear with stories profoundly distinct from one’s own.

What Makes a Series Break Through

In an era saturated with content, the difference between programmes that merely exist and those that authentically engage hinges on a readiness to take creative risks. Leshem argues that international drama’s greatest asset lies not in its production budgets but in its capacity to venture into narrative territory that cautious American television increasingly avoids. When digital services favour algorithmic formulas 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 palatability—transforms television from passive entertainment into something far more consequential: a medium equipped to expanding consciousness.

The international projects that achieve commercial success invariably exhibit an steadfast commitment to their original material’s emotional and cultural authenticity. “Euphoria’s” Israeli original version thrived not because it catered to American tastes but because it stayed deeply faithful to its particular setting, ultimately proving that distinctive detail rather than homogenised appeal generates genuine universality. Leshem’s existing portfolio of works—from “Paranoia” in Brazil to collaborations with Iranian directors—reflects this belief that the most widely captivating storytelling arises when filmmakers prioritise their artistic vision’s honesty over structural pressure to standardise. Such creative courage, paradoxically, functions as the pathway to international widespread recognition.

• Genuine storytelling grounded in specific cultural contexts resonates universally
• Creative risk-taking distinguishes compelling shows from disposable programming
• Refusing market pressures often yields stronger financial returns
• Global drama thrives when artistic vision overrides formulaic patterns