Around the world with TV: Breaking down the rise of international television

Whether it’s the innate darkness that informs the backdrop of Squid Game or the alternating sensations of community and loneliness in Young Royals, international television is both enjoyable and insightful. Its rise over the past few years is refreshing, especially with restrictions such as the Covid-19 pandemic making travel near-impossible for a couple of years. More importantly, international TV offers insights into how genre, culture, and storytelling style can be shaped across the world. In this article, I’ll explore some international television shows, and how they can make for a rewarding TV-viewing experience. Hopefully, you’ll feel inclined to try some – there’s something for every genre!

Different flavours of humour

Most of us are aware of how different humour can feel in American and British sitcoms. In a US sitcom like Community, humour revolves around episodic hijinks, references, characterisation, and, on occasion, body language and physical comedy. Peep Show, a UK sitcom, however, offers humour through not just characterisation and plot, but also through mundane, yet hilarious circumstances and offbeat moments.

Viewing shows with diverse storytelling structures is inherently beneficial

Thus, humour isn’t just about genre but is also clearly informed by how it can change across different countries and their cultures. American humour is, for example, more typically seen as slapstick and observational in style, whereas British humour is perceived to be dry and, on occasion, absurdist and surreal.

If you’re a fan of sitcoms and like trying both American and British versions of this format, it may be time to try an Australian sitcom soon! These marry the classic American episodic structure with the dry humour and compelling characterisation associated with British comedies.

The show Please Like Me explores the life of a queer Australian creative industries student, as he realises his sexuality. Parallelly, the show also discusses themes of mental health, as the protagonist’s mother struggles with bipolar disorder and depression. Australian sitcoms are especially masterful at blending comedic storylines with more serious and realistic circumstances and doing so with an impressive elegance.

Storytelling can vastly differ from place to place, and carry with it, pieces of its country’s culture

Fisk, another Australian sitcom, revolving around a recently divorced lawyer, who lost her mother, offers a similar interplay between belly-aching laughter and sobering moments of seriousness. I also find that both Fisk and Please Like Me can balance humour and characterisation very well. While characters often make mistakes, sometimes for the sake of comedy, their development still carries on in tandem, so the viewer can connect with and root for the protagonist.

Explorations of romance

Romance, in international TV, proves to be an extremely interesting genre, sharing how themes of love and companionship change according to country. Young Royals, for example, is a popular example of a queer coming-of-age romance set in Sweden. With romance, however, the show presents realistic obstacles, including economic disparities and characters who come from starkly different backgrounds. Young Royals also feature neurodivergent characters and mental health in a tasteful manner, covering important aspects of high school life and the coming-of-age experience.

Turkish dramas, like Her Yerde Sen (translated: Everywhere I Go), tend to uncover romance arcs at a slow-burn pace – episodes regularly cross the two-hour mark, and moments of subtle physical touch, such as handholding and hugging, are given more emphasis over intimacy scenes. Part of this is surely informed by cultural values, but the pacing also makes space for secondary romances and friendships. What particularly sets Turkish romance dramas apart is their emphasis on male and female friendships, which subvert the prevalence of love triangles and conflicts that stem from romantic competition.

That feeling of a wholesome connection stays with the viewer, regardless of setting and country

Thrillers, suspense and darkness

In the context of Korean dramas and thrillers, Squid Game and All of Us Are Dead have gained rapid popularity over the last few years. Squid Game, especially, has been regarded for its take on the ‘survival-game’ structure, in the context of a society overrun by income inequality and corruption. A refreshing feature of Korean dramas is indeed the backdrop of corruption and power structures that pervade the protagonist’s world.

K-drama thrillers set in high school settings, for example, look at the impact of bullying and an extremely competitive education system on growing characters. Examples of such shows include Weak Hero and Study Group, both of which investigate violence, power imbalance, and dismantling hierarchy. The inclusion of politically relevant themes adds a sense of realism, allowing the story to exist outside of a fictionalised vacuum.

European thrillers, on the other hand, are an insightful study in world-building. The Belgian mini-series Tabula Rasa uncovers the life of a woman with amnesia, who tries to recollect the events that led up to her being admitted to a psychiatric ward. Tabula Rasa makes excellent use of thriller conventions, such as repetition of motifs – both visual and auditory – plot twists, and callbacks to craft an immersive, yet disturbing universe. This is also seen in the German thriller Dark, which uncovers time travel in a dystopian discovery of destiny and fate.

It also helps the viewer learn about the culture and politics of where the drama originates from

International dramas and thrillers also impart unique storytelling conventions – while an American or British television show may be sparing with voiceovers and flashbacks, the same doesn’t apply to a French, Japanese, or Turkish show. What may be seen as abrupt in an American thriller, then, may work seamlessly in a Japanese anime. Viewing shows with diverse storytelling structures is inherently beneficial because storytelling can vastly differ from place to place and carry with it pieces of its country’s culture and heritage.

Young Royals and Squid Game both include heartwarming friendships and moments of communal camaraderie – characters coming together during hardships – whether it’s right before certain death or after painful heartbreak. Female characters in Turkish dramas discuss their failed romantic relationships over cocktails, drunkenly rambling on a ship that sails smoothly over the Bosphorus. That feeling of a wholesome connection stays with the viewer, regardless of setting and country – innately universal.

In the end, international television takes one through distinctive explorations of genre, unique humour, and vibrant storytelling styles, but it also helps the viewer learn about the culture and politics of where the drama originates from. Travelling isn’t cheap, after all, and as it turns out, doing it through television might be a surprisingly effective alternative.