Our critic picks 30 TV shows from around the globe to stream right now
Travel broadens the mind, not because you have seen the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum in the metaphorical flesh, but because it teaches us that our view of the world is limited, informed — or deformed — by the rites, customs and mythologies of wherever it is we're born, and the cultural assumptions we grow up to regard as "normal." And while there's no substitute for being there, this is nevertheless a lesson you can learn from your own American couch, through the offices of imported television.
One incidental benefit of the streaming wars — produced by the hunger for content, niche programming and platforms, and the big streamers' global presence — is that programs from around the world have become available here as never before, and in such profusion that you can fill your queue with interesting programs from now until New Year's and never hear a word of English. Many foreign-language shows are available dubbed, but the sound of a tongue is as fundamental to a culture as the taste of its food. Imagine going to Italy or Egypt and every voice you hear is dubbed in English. (Of course that app will be available soon, sadly.)
These are series that, for the most part, were made for their respective native audiences; they offer an inside, not a tourist, view, and so take you places tourists don't go. This isn't a "best" list — "" is not on it — just a collection of things I like, shows I found fun, funny, surprising, enlightening, exciting or beautiful, or that opened a window onto a
