[sublinear]

> Perhaps it's just me, but modern documentaries are rather dumbed down?

I hear this often and believed it myself for a while, but I cannot find much evidence for it. It's just the presentation style that people are nostalgic for.

These old documentaries are quite dumbed down as well (and sometimes wrong!). If you were to just read the literal text you'd think it was an excerpt from a children's book. The next time you come across an old video you feel this way about turn on the captions, mute the audio, and block out the rest of the screen except that tiny rectangle at the bottom.

I agree there was pride in the work that shines through, but don't be fooled into thinking it's any "better".

[OhMeadhbh]

I think the number of good documentaries has remained constant as the total number of documentaries has risen. So sure, the percentage of documentaries that are good has fallen as we are innundated with crap, but as previous posters have noted, there are still several good productions every year.