Exploring international dramas reveals how one’s taste in storytelling is completely defined by a bias toward American films and television shows. One cannot deny the global over-dependence of American pop culture and media, especially when understanding non-American societies, often leading to misrepresentation. To tackle this, one can start by watching non-American dramas to understand the authentic representation of a particular culture. Several non-American dramas have experimented with genres and telling compelling stories close to home.
These dramas give a peek into a country’s regional politics, its cultural enemies, and how it deals with its history. It challenges the audience’s pre-conceived ideas of characterization, politics, genre aesthetic, and humor that have been mainly defined by American storytelling. From political thrillers to a time-traveling police drama, these non-American Dramas push one out of their comfort zone.
10 Tehran
The Emmy Award-winning Tehran is a spy thriller from Israel, released in 2020. The series revolves around Tamar Rabinyan, a Mossad hacker-agent who assumes a false identity of a Muslim employee of an electric company and infiltrates Tehran to destroy its nuclear reactor. Unfortunately, her boss tries to harass her and gets killed, which fails her mission. Tamar goes into hiding and later discovers her familial roots in Iran. She visits her aunt and allies with pro-democracy activists from Iran. However, she comes under the radar of the head of the Revolutionary Guards and needs to protect her life and her loved ones.
The languages spoken in the series are Hebrew, Persian and English and was directed by Daniel Syrkin. The series is critically acclaimed and is set to produce its third season with Hugh Laurie in the cast. Tehran is the first series to win the International Emmy Award and was released internationally on Apple TV+.
9 Borgen
Borgen, the Danish political drama, stars Sidse Babett Knudsen as Prime Minister Birgitte Nyborg. The series is a feminist take on female politicians scrutinized by the public and the Danish government. In Borgen, a minor centrist politician, Birgitte, wins the shocking election to become Denmark’s first female prime minister. This results in a socio-political shift in the country as Birgitte makes personal sacrifices to make space for women in the government.
The series also shows the interdependent relationship between politics and media, with Søren Malling and Benedikte Hansen playing journalists who play an important role in the series. Borgen in Denmark is the informal name of the Christiansborg Palace, where the three branches of the government reside: the Parliament, The Prime Minister’s Office, and the Supreme Court. The series is lauded for its realism, and the political parties represented in the series are inspired by the real-life parties in the country. The series is internationally acclaimed and is watched by an audience worldwide, mainly in the United States, Canada, Mexico, South Korea, Japan, and most European countries.
8 Peaky Blinders
Peaky Blinders is one of the most popular crime dramas created by Steven Knight. The series is a period drama set in Birmingham which shows the exploits of the gang Peaky Blinders after the First World War. The gang is loosely based on the real-life crime group of the same name that were active from the late 1880s to the early 1990s. The leader of the gang is Thomas Shelby, played by Cillian Murphy, who is a war veteran and has big ambitions as a criminal. The series follows Shelby’s courtship with an ex-undercover agent, Grace Burgess, his clash with policeman Chester Campbell, drafted from Belfast and later his complicated relationship with the Jewish gang leader, Alfie Solomons, played by Tom Hardy. Murphy’s portrayal of Shelby has been critically acclaimed, winning the Irish Film & Television Award and the National Television Award for his performance.
7 Delhi Crime
Delhi Crime is a fictionalized take on the case of the Delhi gang rape that shook the world in 2012. The series is written and directed by Richie Mehta and stars Shefali Shah as DCP Vartika Chaturvedi, who leads the men of the Delhi Police Department in investigating a horrifying crime in Delhi. The critically-acclaimed series looks at the lives of the involved policemen and how their mental health is affected by the hazards accompanying their job.
Apart from chronicling the details of the case, the show sheds light on the status of a woman in the country and the societal deprivation that creates rapists and criminals in India. The story does not sensationalize the crime and is vocal against politicizing violence against women in the country, adding to the hard-hitting social commentary of the series. Delhi Crime became the first Indian series to receive the award for Outstanding Drama Series at the International Emmy Awards.
6 The Bridge
The Bridge is a Nordic crime drama joint production between Sweden’s Sveriges Television and the Danish Broadcasting Corporation. The series starts with a murder in the middle of the Oresund Bridge that connects Copenhagen in Denmark and Malmo in Sweden. This forces the police from both countries to team up and investigate the case. The series focuses on the conflicting temperament between the departments, especially between the lead homicide detectives of both countries, Saga Noren and Martin Rohde.
The Bridge is known for its noir-style cinematography and the chemistry between Saga and Noren, inspiring several versions of the show to collaborate with bordering countries, including the United Kingdom and France, the USA and Mexico, Estonia and Russia, Malaysia and Singapore and many more. The series won two Golden Nymph Awards in 2012, with Kim Bodnia winning Best Actor in Drama Series for his portrayal of Martin.
5 Made in Heaven
Made in Heaven is an Indian drama series exposing the double standards of the big fat Indian wedding. The series was one of the first shows to be greenlit by Amazon Prime Video in 2019, as the Indian audience navigated towards streaming platforms for the first time. Due to the subscriber-based model, streaming platforms are known to explore more challenging themes in their stories than television in India. Made in Heaven was one of the first series to take advantage of this and incorporated themes of dowry, harassment, arranged marriages and virginity tests in its story that remain open secrets amongst the wealthy in India.
The series shows two wedding planners based in Delhi hustling behind these issues as they struggle to deliver a successful event. It depicts Indian weddings as a performative sham in contrast to the popular depiction of Indian weddings as a celebration of traditions which was applauded by critics and audiences.
4 Fleabag
The one-woman show and breakthrough series Fleabag is a witty character study of a problematic British woman referred to as Fleabag in the show. The series was created by Phoebe Waller-Bridge and was first performed as a one-woman show at the Edinburg Fringe Festival. The character of the series retains its essence as she tumbles and falls in every little to big decision in her life. The series is divisive in representing an extremely unlikeable character as a protagonist attracted to chaos and dysfunction. Her decisions make her and her close ones suffer, sometimes leading to indefensible consequences.
What stands out is the series’ maturity in sensitively diagnosing the character’s loneliness and mismanaged guilt, multiplying her problems. The series challenged the popular representation of feminist characters with Waller-Bridge’s interpretation of a woman less symbolic of empowerment and more human as a character.
3 Fauda
Fauda is inspired by the real-life experiences of Lior Raz and Avi Issacharoff in the Israel Defense Forces. The two later developed the series. The story follows a retired commander in the Mista’arvim unit named Doron, played by Raz. He returns to duty after an enemy declared dead plans on attending his brother’s wedding. Doron assembles his team and schemes to go undercover at the wedding. Unfortunately, their cover is blown, leading to a massive manhunt to kill the target.
The show was an instant success, winning six awards at the Israeli Academy Awards, and was also listed as one of the best international shows by The New York Times in 2017.
2 The Returned
The Returned is a French supernatural drama series based on the French film, They Came Back. The series is set on a small mountain that witnesses unusual events of dead people coming back to life. These include an accident victim, a suicidal bridegroom, a small boy murdered by burglars, and a serial killer. The residents are traumatized by these ghosts, who are unaware of their death. Things get more awry as power outages happen frequently, the water level in the reservoir is lowered, animals are killed, and strange marks are seen on the living and dead bodies.
The unsettling series was applauded for its screenplay and won the Best Drama Series at the International Emmy Award.
1 Life on Mars
Life on Mars combines the genres of mystery, supernatural, science fiction, time travel, and period drama in telling the compelling story of a police officer named Sam Tyler, who time travels to 1970s Manchester. The title of the series is inspired by the song of the same name by David Bowie. The show’s soundtrack uses several popular songs from the 1970s to represent the era’s zeitgeist. The series has the quintessential British wit and does not ease on telling a gripping police drama as Sam solves crimes while coping with the mysterious change in his life. It won two International Emmy Awards for Best Drama Series and has been adapted in several countries, including the USA, Spain, Russia, South Korea, and the Czech Republic.