Id like to see more dramas akin to A man for All Seasons and Becket gain popularity again

I'm with you, but it seems like it's not going to happen with the major studios; maybe with Netflix, et al.

But one of the problems is that there are so many venues now and there's such a need for so much material, and this is the simple, absolute truth: it's impossible for everything (or maybe much of anything) to be as well-written as those kinds of films were when there was much more time to do it.

It's heartbreaking, really, for we now have at least one generation of audiences who don't know the difference between that kind of writing and what passes for good writing today. There's so much mediocrity out there now, it's hard to get very interested in much of anything anymore. And finding the good stuff - holy cow, that's so overwhelming it's almost not worth the effort.

In television, for example, I long for the return of the anthology series, but it's incredibly hard to write those, and expensive to make them, so I doubt that's an option in the near future.

I have dozens of screeners to watch for the awards, and most of them are so uninteresting to me - or, if I start them - so disappointing, that I just give up.

People in America watch the BBC productions and love them. But can we get things like that made here, with the same skill in writing, directing, and performance? Doesn't seem like it.

And so many of the greats (actors, directors, writers) are gone now, and with them their unique visions. And the film world is profoundly diminished by that. I remember so many of the greats, knew some personally, and even studied with a few. It just breaks my heart.

Okay, I'm shutting up now. Thanks for letting me vent.