Netflix’s big bet on international content can change how people see the world

TV and movies are one way we understand people and places we’ve never had direct contact with – and maybe never will. — Photos: IMDB

AS a kid growing up in Italy, I remember watching the American TV series Happy Days, which chronicled the 1950s-era Midwestern adventures of the Fonz, Richie Cunningham and other local teenagers.

The show, combined with other American entertainment widely available in Italy in the 1970s and 1980s, shaped my perception of the United States long before I ever set foot in the country. Today, I call the US home, and I have developed my own understanding of its complexities. I am able to see Happy Days as a nostalgic revival of an ideal, conflict-free American small town.