I recently watched _Smiley's People_, a British miniseries from the early 1990s with Alec Guinness. It's excellent, but what stuck me was how incredibly slow th

I recently watched _Smiley's People_, a British miniseries from the early 1990s with Alec Guinness. It's excellent, but what stuck me was how incredibly slow the pacing is compared to modern TV. The characters spend a lot of time just doing stuff: driving, walking, sitting on the bus, drinking tea and thinking. It has long scenes that are little masterpieces of drama and rising and falling tension. I find it much more enjoyable than the frenetic pace of a modern TV. Watching the main character wandering about in the woods looking for a clue or a 15-minute dialogue scene was more engaging than anything modern I've watched recently.