--- description: The vast catalog of foreign-language shows now available in the U.S. might be the single best side effect of the streaming revolution. title: Thank Streaming: America Finally Loves Foreign-Language TV image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt49023e6f32906038/698a16a1096a9479ff6a910c/Losing_Alice_Photo_010301.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) ## Entertainment Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close * [Television](/tag/television/) ## Television Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close # The Best Result of the Streaming Boom? America Finally Loves Foreign-Language TV  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic Jan 22, 2021 11:07 PM CUT  Ayelet Zurer (left) and Lihi Kornowski in 'Losing Alice' Ayelet Zurer (left) and Lihi Kornowski in 'Losing Alice'Apple  by [Judy Berman](/author/judy-berman/)  ## Judy Berman Update your preferences in [Account Settings](/account/preferences/) Close TV Critic Jan 22, 2021 11:07 PM CUT Are marriage thrillers over? If, like so many other HBO subscribers, you watched David E. Kelley’s plodding, [egregiously anticlimactic](https://time.com/5916352/the-undoing-finale/ "undefined") _Big Little Lies_ follow-up [_The Undoing_](https://time.com/5902435/undoing-review-hbo/ "undefined")—or [Netflix’s unnecessary _Rebecca_ ](https://time.com/5901894/rebecca-review-netflix/ "undefined")remake, for that matter—you could be forgiven for assuming that the subgenre Gillian Flynn’s [_Gone Girl_ ](https://time.com/3426149/books-like-gone-girl/ "undefined")revitalized nearly a decade ago had run out of ideas. Still, you’d be wrong. This week marks the premiere of my favorite variation on the theme in years: _Losing Alice_, a sultry, cinematic, psychologically rich drama that unfolds between a middle-aged filmmaker, her actor husband and a seemingly unstable young writer who wants them to bring her first screenplay to life. Built around [_Daredevil_ ](https://time.com/4247667/daredevil-netflix-season-2-review/ "undefined")alum Ayelet Zurer’s magnificently layered turn as the title character, the eight-part auteur project from creator, director and writer Sigal Avin is the kind of twisty, fast-paced mystery that will inevitably be described as _addictive_. And it is. But that undersells Avin’s achievement. _Losing Alice_, which comes to Apple TV+ on Jan. 22, avoids the crutches of second-rate thrillers like _The Undoing_: unbelievable coincidences, characters whose inner lives are black boxes, cliffhangers that appear out of nowhere at the end of one episode only to be dispatched within the first few minutes of the next. Instead, Avin patiently investigates the nature of relationships between husbands and wives, parents and children, women of different generations, older men and younger women—and, in a stunning finale, between life and art. Although it’s a shame the show hasn’t attracted more advance attention in the U.S., it’s also worth celebrating that Americans will have a chance to see it at all. Presented in Hebrew with English subtitles, _Losing Alice_ comes to Apple’s streaming service from Israel—and is thus the kind of title that, as recently as a decade ago, struggled to find a home on stateside television. While generations of Americans have had access to British period dramas on PBS, Canadian teen soaps on cable and other Anglophone imports, networks shied away from subtitled fare. Our canon reflects that oversight: everything on [TIME’s ](https://time.com/collection/all-time-100-tv-shows/ "undefined")[own top-100 shows list](https://time.com/collection/all-time-100-tv-shows/ "undefined"), published in 2007, is in English. But streaming has quickly remade the TV landscape. And if those changes haven’t all been positive, the vast catalog of foreign-language shows now available in the U.S. via mainstream streaming platforms might be the single best side effect of the paradigm shift.  Pearl Thusi as Queen Sono Netflix The reasons for this rapid influx are many. Traditional TV providers, from free, over-the-air broadcasters to cable companies, served geographically or linguistically distinct national audiences. (And when pay-TV creators like HBO and MTV went global, it was through discrete overseas spin-off channels.) Streaming, by contrast, was built to scale. Netflix, whose [first exclusive offering](https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/how-lilyhammer-changed-the-tv-world-203682/ "undefined"), in 2012, was the bilingual Norwegian import [_Lilyhammer_](https://techland.time.com/2012/02/15/hulu-and-netflix-begin-forays-into-original-programming/ "undefined"), is currently available in more than 190 countries. Now, in addition to licensing shows and movies in dozens of languages, it produces and co-produces them all over the world; last year, Netflix launched its first African original, the multilingual [_Queen Sono_](https://time.com/5792339/queen-sono-netflix-africa/ "undefined"). Multinational conglomerates like AT&T subsidiary HBO Max have stocked the digital shelves of their newly launched streaming services with programming from international sister stations. Peacock has shows from corporate parent Comcast’s Spanish-language property Telemundo. And during the pandemic, [foreign-language programming has helped to fill a gap](https://www.wsj.com/articles/what-netflixs-lists-of-top-foreign-movies-and-tv-series-say-about-american-taste-11607562001 "undefined") caused by production shutdowns. So far, the internationalization of TV has been a resounding success. Netflix [announced](https://deadline.com/2021/01/lupin-netflix-biggest-french-series-70-million-tops-bridgerton-queens-gambit-1234676032/ "undefined") in January that _Lupin_—a propulsive new crime drama that reimagines the classic French “gentleman thief” as a Senegalese immigrant (Omar Sy) plotting to avenge his late father—had cracked the U.S. top 10 and was on track to reach more viewers than last year’s English-language hits [_Bridgerton_](https://time.com/5922654/bridgerton-review-netflix-shonda-rhimes/ "undefined") and [_The Queen’s Gambit_](https://time.com/5901699/queens-gambit-review-netflix/ "undefined"). And as part of the long-tail economy that is Peak TV, hundreds of shows from abroad have won over Americans who’ve dropped cable and now stuff their streaming queues with romantic [Korean dramas](https://time.com/5835519/best-korean-dramas-netflix/ "undefined") or chilly Nordic thrillers or kinetic [Japanese anime.](https://time.com/5924501/best-anime-netflix/ "undefined")  Omar Sy in 'Lupin' Emmanuel Guimier/Netflix What has made Americans—who are notorious for failing to learn second languages, as well as for avoiding foreign films and literature in translation—embrace this stuff? For one thing, with [megacorps like Disney](https://time.com/5920421/disney-plus-netflix/ "undefined") pouring funds into an IP-heavy TV development strategy borrowed from their movie studios, foreign-language television is starting to feel like as much of a refuge as foreign-language cinema has long been from brainless, big-budget Hollywood spectacles. Lest we get too proud of our newfound sophistication, the shift also reflects Netflix and some other services’ [choice](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/netflix-s-global-reach-sparks-dubbing-revolution-public-demands-it-1229761 "undefined") to invest in dubbing rather than ask viewers to read subtitles—a business-savvy but artistically bankrupt decision that robs audiences of the original actors’ voices. Still, even dubbed versions have something. International scripted series aren’t documentaries, of course. But they do reflect the norms of other cultures; they capture how people halfway around the world talk about politics and family and work and love. Netflix’s Weimar period piece _Babylon Berlin_ and the Cold War thriller [_Deutschland 83_](https://time.com/3920575/review-deutschland-83-sundance/ "undefined"), streaming on Hulu, are excellent German dramas that shed light on how that country has processed its dark 20th century. _Gomorrah_, a gritty Neapolitan gangster saga whose fixation on broken systems recalls _The Wire_ (and whose third season just arrived on HBO Max), offers a window into the Italian criminal justice system. Shows made in places where white people aren’t in the majority can subtly shift a Western viewer’s perspective on race. On top of the inherent benefits that come with enjoying good art, immersing ourselves in stories from faraway lands can illuminate the blind spots in our own perspectives. In a country obsessed with TV—where provincialism too often metastasizes into nationalism, and especially at a time when international travel is virtually impossible—the best thing our screens can do is open us up to the world beyond them. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5932641/foreign-language-streaming-tv/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5932641/foreign-language-streaming-tv/"},"headline":"The Best Result of the Streaming Boom? 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