advances in technology and presentation

Comic books and animation, especially the advances of Computer Animation, gave me an answer. In comic books the art can be used to tell the story that the narration can't, and vice-verse. But there is a societal age aversion to this media in the United States, some going so far as to consider this to be a genera suitable only for children.
Animation may be considered comics with a soundtrack. But again to some it is a genera, not a medium, and not suitable for serious stories. To them I recommend what I think is one of the masterpieces of animation as art: Walt Disney's Sleeping Beauty. (oops, I invoked Walt's name, therefor it must be a child's show.)
 

Computer Animation has progressed significantly in thirty years, and more since Evans and Sutherland made flight simulators for the USAF in the 70's, and the Utah Teapot made its debut.
Tron scared some with its possibility of digital actors. Never mind that it was one of the most process intensive movies made at the time. It was the first movie to extensively show what CGI could do as a tool for the filmmaker, but it required high end super computers of the time to do it. A handful of other movies followed on until digital dinosaurs, and liquid metal machines busted blocks in the early mid-ninety's. Then came digital toys who could actually act, confirming the fears from Tron, followed by a digital goof-goof ball from Lucas, which proved that the living breathing actor has little to actually fear so long as the story is well written. Today, the digital character has taken it's proper place in the tool chest of the story teller.
 

On a broadcast scale, there have been many CGI productions. As these have advanced, we have seen digital transformers, pickles and other vegetables, and even some of the classic animated WB and HB characters. Digital Flintstones are hawking Fred's pebbles. Digital Disney characters are on the Mickey Mouse club. Tinker Bell is now more often seen as pixels, than paint. And Jedi are using the force digitally.
In a different direction that deserves note, virtually every animation studio that I am aware of has transitioned to digital medium for the majority of their work. Some Anime studios on the other side of the Pacific may still be outputting their roughs on paper, but most all of the coloring is done digitally now. Some cartoons are even using digital masks to texture the characters, looking like the character is moving along a texture. See also Pixar's short at the front of Toy Story 3.
 

Animation has advanced as a tool used by the industry significantly in the last years, even if some studios have stupidly abandoned their 2D shops, then had to rebuild them from scratch. Photo realistic, or nearly so, animation is now playing a larger roll in some movies as special effects, replacing the traditional model and set building crafts, to the detriment of some aspects of the industry. Further, so long as the stories steer clear of the 'uncanny valley' where the characters look human enough to be disconcerting , but not realistic enough to stand against live actors, the stories will have a chance to be taken at face value. One movie has fallen on its face in the 'uncanny valley' and took a studio down with it.