Homeland, a show that people sometimes forget is itself based on an Israeli TV series, is currently being adapted for several different international markets because hey, it worked for Everybody Loves Raymond. First, there’s a telenovela version which, like Breaking Bad spinoff Metástasis, will probably be over before us non-Spanish-speaking dummies realize it was on at all. (It will also presumably rival, if not surpass, its inspiration in the dramatic-crying department.)
But this is only one of several series based on Israel’s Prisoners of War, which in turn formed the basis for Homeland—others have been developed for Russia, Turkey, and South Korea, all of which have their own set of regional terrorist threats to worry about. As Alon Shtruzman, the executive responsible for negotiating different international versions of the series, tells The Hollywood Reporter, “It can work in any country with a conflict. And every country, except maybe Switzerland or Holland, is in a fight with someone.” In other words, humor may be specific, but paranoia is universal.