AIBU to find old TV far more watchable than today?

[ShakyBake]

Am I unreasonable to find anything I've watched that was made in the last 20+ unwatchable?

Let me explain;

As soon as I start anything recently made I find it to not be believable, it seems clear the people are acting - I can't get drawn in. Aside from that I find any modern story bleak and not easy watching at all.

Contrast that to the something like the Catherine Cookson drams or the Granada productions of the 90's (+ dramas such as London's Burning), I can easily lose myself watching that. It's the same with movies with me too, after the 1990's I have very few favourite films whereas before I have loads.

Same with the Soaps - I can instantly be drawn into those 'classic coronation street / EastEnders ' repeats but recent episodes , no chance.

Is this an age or nostalgia thing do you think. I'm genuinely interested if anyone else thinks the same way as me.

I can't stand the modern habit of naturalistic voices, as I can't hear what on earth anyone is saying.
I prefer the older stuff when they had to talk clearly for the microphone to pick it up as I shouldn't need subtitles to understand English.

I also don't want to see any nudity, hear foul language, have identity politics shoved down my throat, see historical characters reimagined as something they were not, or see any sex scenes.

We are currently working through Laurel and Hardys back catalogue on our movie nights.
My son picked them and we've been really enjoying them.

Agree with everything you say even down to L&H

I am currently massivley into Play for Today. It was made before I was born. I love the way the often start out mundane and by the end you have been on such an emotional journey. Alan Bennet plays, the original Talking Heads are fantastic. They tell a story in one episode, not drag it out over 6, which ever since "The Killing" seems the thing to do as a "slow burn". I hate it, I want to be able to watch one episode of something and not have to invest huge amounts of time to watch it. They knew how to tell a story back then.

I find some stuff made in the 1970s-1990s actually peak bad language, nudity and violence along with horrible misogyny. I can find some older programmes and films much more disturbing than anything made now. Unless you are going back to the heavy censorship times of the 1950s I wouldn't rely on old programmes to be so clean cut.

I do like listening to old plays and book dramatisations on BBC Sounds. Some things my parents would have listened to when they were young. It doesn't mean I don't like any contemporary stuff though. Some people seem very old before their time.

British comedies - so much funnier. OFAH, Dad’s Army, Porridge, Are You Being Served?, Allo Allo. Obviously you need to understand that some of the content WAS acceptable back in the day.

A lot of recent dramas have mumblegate. Actors now speak in everyday tone, rather than projecting their voice. Plus sound is produced in a cinema style. Plus if characters are upset, the actors voices get lost.

if producers stop mixing the sound cinema style, we won’t have mumblegate watch with subtitles

Yes, spreading things over 6 episodes is not always a good idea - first episode great, second not so exciting ,third a filler, fourth and fifth some weird twist to prepare for a second series, sixth a slightly hanging denouement.
I’ve been reading books published in 50s/60s - less goes on but characters more filled out.
Have watched the lonesome Dove boxed set series recently which first came out in 1989 - cowboy series based on Larry McMurty books.

I have been watching the Pitt and whilst I like it I don't know what the fuss is about. I watched an episode of ER to contrast it and it was as I recalled, very good. It got me wondering why the Pitt was held is such high regard.

Remember Hill Street Blues.

Anyway I think one of the challenges is there are way too many things being made now and the gems get lost.

Neither YABU or YANBU. It's your taste.
I find older programmes, even ones that i loved at the time, like the Morcambe and Wise show or the Barchester Chronicles, dull.
At the moment we are watching Breaking Bad, an episode a night (4 episodes until the end) and i think it's fantastic.
Yes, there's a shed load of dross around now. And there's a lot more than in the past, because there are more channels to fill. But the good stuff is fantastic. We loved The Gold, and i'm looking forward to Legends.
And i say that as a poster in their late 60s.

I found The Pitt refreshing because the characters were more 3 dimensional.. Flawed characters that weren't all bad, weren't all good... Just people. It made me realise that a lot of other more recent programmes got a bit simple where you have cartoonish baddies and Saintly goodies. I think that's what takes me out of it. I think it takes a lot of good writing and acting to make flawed characters that you can still sympathise with, still acknowledging that they make unwise decisions. Like in House that I've been watching since it appeared on Netflix.

I think there's been a tendancy in recent years to look at a character and say "this character represents all people like them" so programme makers worried about putting certain demographics into certain character roles (Davros from Dr Who representing people in wheelchairs for example). I think that stuff might have peaked though and is dampening back again. Just because a character is female or of a certain race doesn't mean there's some underlying message being conveyed about everyone of that group. It's just one character.

I’ve watched lots of modern dramas which I’ve enjoyed at the time, only to find 2 weeks later that I’ve completely forgotten what they were about. Obviously there are some good things on now (LoD, the Night Manager, Rivals to name but 3). I think the fact that we have so much to choose from these days means that good tv feels much rarer. In the 70s-90s the proportion of good tv was probably higher.

Thank you for all replies, it is nice to know many share my thoughts and observations. Thank you