Do you watch ALL the Bonus Features? (1 Viewer)

[Josh_HI]

I was just wondering how you guys do it with all the bonus features. Do you watch them all? Even ALL the commentaries? I was watching my simpsons season 6 set and seeing as they have commentaries on every episode that is like watching the whole set twice. Do you all watch the whole set once and then start again with all the commentaries or what? I have all 6 seasons and honestly have never heard 1 commentary (i should prolly start soon). Same thing with the muppet morsels. I wanted to watch them but I wanted to watch the regular episodes by themselves and didn't want to be distracted.So I haven't watched them with the morsels on yet.

1 good idea I have is to re-watch the set with the morsels(or) commentaries right before the next set for the show comes out but I always forget.

Just curious as to how everyone else does it.

 

[Katherine_K]

I generally watch the episode (of any series) and than the commentary right after watching the episode. I watch most featurettes, though don't bother with TV spots (the exception being the X-Files Behind the Truth spots which are really small featurettes).

I skipped the Bloodwork easter egg/feature on ER mainly because I'm a horrible little squeemish girl.

 

[Matt_Vaudrin]

IT depends on the show.

Usually I watch it straight through, then sometime later(could be a week, could be a few months), I go through and watch the commentaries.

If it's a show I see a lot on tv, like Seinfeld, I usually don't watch the ep just normal, I go straight to the commentary part.

The other special features, I watch after I finish the eps on each disk.

 

[Katherine_K]

I think one of the reasons that I listen to commentaries after each episode is because I watch on my computer and with commentaries I generally work in another window on top of the episode viewing so I'm just listening to the commentary.... and than switch if the commentary is gettign screen specific.

 

[Greg_S_H]

The last time I remember is when I watched the Brady episodes with commentary, and I did that as soon as the episode was over. I did listen to some Star Wars commentaries over wireless headphones while mowing, but I generally don't do much with extras.

 

[seanOhara]

On the Simpsons and other animated series, I skip the animatics and such, but I listen to all the commentaries. With live action shows, I watch all the special features. Generally I watch an episode then skip back to the beginning and switch audio tracks.

 

[TravisR]

For me, it all depends on how much of a fan I am of the movie/show. Generally, I watch all the special features on TV sets even the gigantic ones like The Simpsons. That's only because I'm a huge Simpsons fan but if it was a show that I enjoyed but wasn't a show that I was obsessed with, I probably wouldn't watch that many special features.

Or for Seinfeld, I watch the text commentary when I watch the episode and then the audio commentary (if applicable). Not watch the episode, then watch the episode with the text commentary, and then the audio commentary.

Some things like the LOTR DVDs, there's just too much for me to watch. I've watched the movie but could never delve into all the special features on those discs. I'm sure there's some people who've been through all the LOTR discs multiple times though

 

[Jesse Skeen]

You don't even wanna know how anal I am in regards to playing every single thing on a disc- I'll just say that right now I'm working on the FRENCH soundtracks on the Simpsons Season 5 set!

 

[Bill Williams]

Usually, what I'll do is check out the bulk of, if not all of, the extras first to see what's on there, especially with series or films I'm familiar with. Then I'll go into the main body itself, the episodes or film, and any extras along with it (audio commentaries, text commentaries, deleted scenes, branching features, etc.) I'll access along the way.

 

[Jeff#]

In the case of WISEGUY, I never saw the show in its original run in the late 1980s because there was something else I was watching at the time. So they were all new to me when I bought them! I would watch an episode in its entirety, and if that was one of the shows series star Ken Wahl did the commentary to in 2004 I would watch it again listening to him.

Then for example after finishing the first season Mel Profitt set, I would watch the video interviews with Stephen J. Cannell, Kevin Spacey, Joan Severance, etc.

With The Twilight Zone, I had seen those so many times in reruns over the years that with the Definitive Collections I would only watch my favorite episodes more than once this time around. I listen to ALL commentaries, even on episodes I didn't like such as "It's a Good Life", and I would listen To Bill Mumy talk about that and the sequel story "It's Still a Good Life" (from which a clip was included as an extra from the 2002-03 Twilight Zone series).

With feature films, however, commentaries tend to be interesting or boring depending on who is speaking and what is being discussed. Some directors can put you to sleep with overanalysis of the filmmaking process. Others have foreign accents so thick you can't always understand what they're saying. Sometimes the audio isn't that clear on the alternate commentary track. Also a lot of the featurettes / bonus features / extras on movie discs aren't particularly watchable. Overkill is NOT a good thing when it comes to films, but at the same time the extras are often barebones with a lot of TV series. And let's face it -- there really is much more that could be discussed with even one full season of TV episodes than any single film. It just never works out that way with DVD releases, because hit films are often given the royal treatment.

Maybe it's also because for the most part, I prefer TV shows with continuing characters (as well as anthologies and variety shows) to movies which explains why I have 28 different series on DVD vs. less than 70 feature films.

 

[Randall Cyrenne]

For me, it's too many DVDs, too little time to watch ALL the special features. I gave up on the Simpsons and Futurama commentaries--- just too many to get through. Seinfeld commentaries tend to be bad, so I learned to skip them. I'm watching Muppet Morsels with the episodes, because they're just so darn interesting (although they're way more distracting than they need to be!!). But, I usually don't watch Seinfeld's subtitle tracks--- not enough meat. On Farscape's Starburst discs, I watch everything--- I usually even enjoy those commentaries. With movies, I pick and choose, according to interest. I haven't checked out any of the LOTR features, although I look forward to doing so someday...

 

[RyanAn]

I used to watch a disc at a time then watch the commentary, but I quickly got bored with that. Not that the commentaries are boring or anything, but alternating episode then commentary, episode then commentary keeps each venue fresh. I watch just about every feature available, as I shelled out the money and want to get what I had paid for. The only thing I may skip are the storyboards, unless they have commentary.

Ryan

 

[Scott_F_S]

I'll watch all the special features once after watching all the episodes on the set. But I gave up long ago listening to commentaries. I found them to be generally boring and a waste of time. The exception is a Joss Whedon commentary.

 

[MishaLauenstein]

Yes, becaue I paid for them.

Although we are having to hold off on the Babylon Five extras because when we started to watch a commentary on season one, the idiot doing it decided that this would be a good place to reveal plot points of the other 4.5 seasons we haven't watched yet.

If I hadn't already bought seasons 2 through 5 this would have been enough to prevent me from buying them. Especially considering how AWFUL season one is.

"Thanks for the 500 bucks, suckers."

Oops, sorry, getting off track.

I have yet to re-watch a major extra, though, but then again, I have yet to re-watch an episode of anything since I've got so many new box sets sitting there waiting to be watched.

 

[RogerH]

It depends on the show for me if I'm a huge fan I watch and listen to all extras including commmentaries. Otherwise I just watch the video based extras.

 

[AnthonyC]

Like RogerH, it depends on the show for me. I'll almost always watch deleted scenes. And on the Survivor sets, I watch every commentary (although I'm saving one of the Outback ones to make the wait for PI a little more bearable).

With The Simpsons, the amount of extras is just too much. I enjoy the commentaries and deleted scenes, but the animatics, sketches, I couldn't care less about.

 

[Pete Battista]

I never watch all the extras... some things don't intrest me. I don't usually go through image galleries for some reason. I do like commentaries and will usually watch them as I watch the set... especially if it is with someone I am familiar with.

Then Some things I just save for the next time I am in the mood to watch the set... that way I still have something there that is new to me

 

[MarkHastings]

What I did with Seinfeld was, I would watch the show, then turn on the "Notes about nothing" when I listened to the commentary. Usually the commentaries were broing, so at least I had the text to read and got through 2 things in one shot.

With the Simpsons, I watch the show first, then listen to the commentary, but as others have mentioned, this is my favorite show, so it doesn't bother me.

The only time I'll skip a commentary, is if the movie bored me (i.e. from a blind purcahse) or the 'extras' gave me enough info to satisfy my 'behind the scenes' curiosity.

Example: with LOTR, I have all 3 EE's and the only commentary I've listened to so far is Peter Jacksons on FOTR. I couldn't imagine listening to every commentary track on every movie...but that's because the additional discs (which I watched every minute of) had SO much info in them, I felt I didn't need to listen to a commentary that basically gave me the same info.

 

[Doug_B]

I have been in the habit for the last year or so of watching the extras after the main feature, except for commentaries. As most of the DVDs I buy are for TV shows / movies that I haven't seen in a while, I want to enjoy them as if I hadn't previously seen them. One exception is with the Highlander TV series; I watched / listened to the 15-20 minute commentaries on them (usually 1 per 3 shows) right after watching the full episode.

Doug

 

[Ravi K]

I've only watched about 1/2 of the Seinfeld text commentaries.

Except for The Simpsons, I skip most TV audio commentaries.