TV: What are your top 10 shows of the 2010s? Part Infinity + 1

[Fantomas]

Also, because of the reliance on limited networks, content delivery services, marketing, and ratings (with which your only choice as a show-runner is to be completely at the mercy of), show-runners rarely get an opportunity to make something truly uncompromising

This is a good way of putting it. It is difficult to offer a truly uncompromising vision in a TV format. Which is another way of saying that this medium does not support the artist's vision to the same extent as movies used to.

Another interesting phenomenon that affects both movies and TV today is globalization. Because corporations wish to make money in different countries - such as China - it has become common to see productions funded internationally. This is why we're seeing many more stories set in Asia. But imagine trying to make a film or TV show where your funding comes from people from different parts of the globe and then figuring out a way to satisfy all of those demands, and anticipating how audiences in China will react to something you're making in America.

The old cinema of auteurs - whether John Ford or Akira Kurosawa - didn't care about this. The filmmaker was in the saddle, or typically dealt with a more straight forward set of demands from a fussy producer (e.g., Hitchcock/Selznick) or the state. They compromised then, but not as much as they do now.