Owning the Show

[Listener]

In this world of TV shows appearing on DVD only weeks after the season ends, I wonder: if you own a season of a show or a TV series, how often do you go back and watch it?

The only one I've watched more than once is Firefly, but I have:

* Voyager
* Angel
* TNG (on videotape, actually, from when they first aired)
* Family Guy 1&2
* Wonderfalls

I also have several anime series which I've only watched twice:

* Lain
* Love Hina
* Nadesico
* Now & Then Here & There
* Legend of Black Heaven

Does the price of the TV seasons or series translate to a good value if you only plan to watch them once?  Do you watch them more than once just to justify owning them?  Or is owning the show more of a status symbol, as if to say "sure, I have all of Friends on DVD, and I watched them all once."

Inquiring minds.

[ClintMemo]

There is a certain pleasure in owning something and knowing you can watch it whenever you want to.  I have a whole stack of movies that I have bought that are still in the shrink wrap. The only TV series I have bought on DVD is The Venture Brothers and both seasons are still shrink wrapped. There are several shows I am thinking about buying because I either did not see them at all or only saw part of the series and want to see all of it.  #1 on my list is Firefly. 

Price makes a big difference. There are lots of shows I would buy at $25-30 a season even though I know that I would be fooling myself into thinking that I would ever actually watch them.  Other shows I would like to own, but they are just way too expensive.

[jrderego]

In this world of TV shows appearing on DVD only weeks after the season ends, I wonder: if you own a season of a show or a TV series, how often do you go back and watch it?

The only one I've watched more than once is Firefly, but I have:

* Voyager
* Angel
* TNG (on videotape, actually, from when they first aired)
* Family Guy 1&2
* Wonderfalls

I also have several anime series which I've only watched twice:

* Lain
* Love Hina
* Nadesico
* Now & Then Here & There
* Legend of Black Heaven

Does the price of the TV seasons or series translate to a good value if you only plan to watch them once?  Do you watch them more than once just to justify owning them?  Or is owning the show more of a status symbol, as if to say "sure, I have all of Friends on DVD, and I watched them all once."

Inquiring minds.

I've watched Arrested Development enough to practically memorize the episodes, same with Venture Brothers and The Prisoner. So they were good value for money. A few that I've received as part of my duties at Horrorview like Millennium, or  a whole slew of Anime titles, I've watched once usually to review, then shove them on my shelf.

Ever want to learn to hate anime? Easy, get a gig reviewing it. I used to love anime, love, love, love it... Now I can't turn it off fast enough.

[ClintMemo]

The Venture Brothers is worth having just for the scene where the Henchman is getting dressed to the tune of "Mars: The Bringer of War."

[DKT]

It's funny, I will almost never by a movie these days because of netflix.  I watch a decent amount of TV shows that way, too, but I think I actually buy more TV shows than I do movies now (which isn't say very much, I guess).

Why do I do this?  I'm not really sure.

They also make great gifts.  I think because if you know someone hasn't seen a show, you're giving them many hours of entertainment. 

I bought my wife the first season of Veronica Mars for Christmas after hearing a ton of people raving about it.  Definitely no regrets there.  (Glad I didn't buy season 2, though.)

She bought me the first season of X-Files which is very cool. 

We also own the Lost DVDs.  We're nuts for that show and there's something comforting about being able to go back and look at episodes again and revisit clues/foreshadowing that was sprinkled in waaaaaaaaay back when. 

[Mr. Tweedy]

How much does cable cost, or satelite?  Here in central IL, cable costs $55/month and up.  For that price you can probably buy all the TV shows you really want to see.  If a season of a show costs $40 on DVD, then I can buy 16 seasons for the price of basic cable.

I think buying shows is a better way to watch them than seeing them on TV.  If you buy them on iTunes, you don't even have to wait for the DVD to come out.  And let's not forget the lack of commercial breaks!

I figure TV is going to go the way of the dinasaur in the next couple years and what we now call video podcasting will be the new TV, although DVD will persist for a while.  There's a satisfaction in owning an object that owning bits on a computer doesn't quite match.

[DKT]

We just have bunny ears for our television.  The reception's not great but it's good enough on some channels (it also means we have no cable access).  But yeah, I think you're right.  The only show I watch live is Lost.  Pretty much everything else I wait to come out for on DVD and rent through netflix.  It's a lot more fun to have 4 episodes at your finger tips than have to wait a week for a new one to come out. 

[slic]

We oscillate between cable and DVDs in our household.

I have a large TV DVD collection (all of TOS, B5, BSG (new), Dark Angel, Buffy, Angel, Charmed (that's the wife's ) Monk, The 4400, Avatar, The Animated Series of Batman, Batman Beyond, Superman and Justice League and many more)  We watch alot of them because there is often nothing interesting on regular TV. 

I have two rules - 1)It cannot be on basically everyday, so I don't buy Seinfeld, Simpsons, etc (though if we go without cable again, I might pick up a couple).  2)It has to be something I'm looking for/thinking about on TV (for example, geez, there is nothing on why don't they have Arrested Development on), hence no Gilligan's Island or King of Queens

I find I watch the self contained stuff a bit more (TOS, Monk, Batman) because watching BSG or Angel there is a longer story arc.  Having said that, the few times we have gone without cable we would watch a whole series in a few weeks.

I also really really really love the lack of commercials, and the lack of those freakin' annoying popup things in the bottom of the screen annoucing other shows - those seem to get bigger and bigger and last longer every week!!

And Mr. Tweedy is right, when we were cableless, we would treat ourselves to a box set (or two) a month to grow our collection and keep it fresh.  It's how the collection got so big in the first place.

I do also have friends who do the netflix thing, and they like it alot.  I'm not sure why we don't, other than we do have a few staples (TOS, Charmed, Buffy) that we throw in when we just want some background noise.

Movies is a different beast - we have quite a few, but few that we've watched more than once.  I think the time commitment is too much, and other than a few smash favs (Galaxy Quest, Matrix, Star Wars), most aren't good enough to watch the whole thing.  I do have some that I have bought real cheap, to watch key parts - for example the opening sequence of Gladiator - I've seen it enough times that it is worth the 12 bucks I paid for it.

[Listener]

I know downloading TV shows can be technically illegal, so for the record, I don't condone doing it.

That being said, a friend of mine downloads all the TV he wants to see off newsgroups.  For $15 per month he gets something like 10 gigs of downloads, and he likes it better than BitTorrent because he doesn't have to wait for seeders to seed files.  (Though the upside to BT is that it's free.)  Right now, I pay $99.44 for "basic" cable -- local channels plus about 50 others like SciFi, Spike, Animal Planet, et al... you know, the usual suspects -- and also high-speed cable internet.  That price has only gone up about $10 over the past 10 years (for me), so for now I still consider it a not-terrible deal.

Of course, if I were to try that I'd have to spend a lot of time d/ling stuff given that next season my wife and I plan to watch 12 shows, and she'll be adding another four or five that are just hers, plus she also watches a soap opera and Montel Williams, neither of which are likely to be available at the rate she wants them.  Plus, she's not what one would call a forward thinker when it comes to technology or politics.  When all the other intelligensia have left America in 20 or 30 years, I'll still be sitting here, trying to convince her we have to leave because the country's gone to pot, and she'll be trying to pacify me.

Let me just wrench myself back on topic here.

Does anyone "know" anyone who's getting their weekly prime time TV shows with BitTorrent or newsgroups?  Or, for the most part, are we all still in the "get it from the cable/satellite company" crowd?

[Bdoomed]

The only tv show I own is the 4 disc box set of Invader Zim (best show EVER)
i used to watch it a LOT, now i watch it off and on, i love that show!  I have the 3 discs of seasons 1 and (half i think of) 2, plus the extras disk.  again, i love that show!

downloading...
ive downloaded a few episodes of heroes and 24 if i missed them (before i had DVR, and once for heroes because DVR didnt record it for no reason)
and i download some movies i havnt seen that are rated R, so i dont have to drag my mom into blockbuster (she has a bad back)
i torrent them, watch them, and delete them.  no harm done in my opinion.
the only movies ive kept after downloading are Fight Club, The 300, and Half Baked (so funny)

[wakela]

I have a bad feeling about torrenting movies, TV, and music for that matter.  I don't see how it's not steeling.

Since I live overseas, I usually buy a season of something when I go back to the States.  24, Babylon 5, Arrested Development, King of the Hill, Prison Break, Lost, Firefly, BSG...I think that's most of them.  We usually inhale a series a fast as possible.  My wife is not very patient.  It's a joy watching them without commercials, and I don't see how people can function having to wait a week to find out what happens to Jack Bauer.  Of course, I'm still waiting to find out what happens in season 3 of BSG. 

I used to buy movies, but I realized that I almost never watch them.  The weird thing is that if I stumbled across the Exorcist while channel surfing I would kill the afternoon to watch it, but my special edition DVD is still in the shrink wrap.  What's up with this?  Likewise, I almost never watch one of the TV shows more than once.  I may watch an episode again with the  commentaries on, but these are pretty hit or miss. 

[wakela]

off-topic amusing anecdote:
I've never been able to get my wife into Star Trek.  She's Japanese and speaks English well, but is frustrated with the tachyon beams this and the soliton waves that.  I always tell her that it's nonsense, and that she doesn't have to understand it, nobody understands it.  It often doesn't even make sense.  Finally we got season one of Voyager in Japan.  It's in English with Japanese subtitles.  "Oh, I get it now.  It's just technical nonsense."  <sigh>

After the first episode of Voyager she said, "Huh.  I'm surprised they didn't make it back to Earth.  Are they going to on the next episode?"

Maybe, dear, just maybe. 

[Bdoomed]

ive found myself laughing at Star Trek many times.  They'll be goin on and on about some weird piece of made up technology and ill start laughing.  its pretty rediculous, they can make anything up and it totally makes sense!  i just find it very amusing.

[SFEley]

I've never been able to get my wife into Star Trek.  She's Japanese and speaks English well, but is frustrated with the tachyon beams this and the soliton waves that.  [...]

Cool story!

I'd love to know what she makes of Firefly.  Jargon-free, just a lot of swearing in Chinese.