How many times do you watch a TV series you have bought on DVD/Blu-ray? (1 Viewer)

[bmasters9]

Could it be that some local stuffed shirt was aghast that they regularly showed "out of date" B & W movies.

A very likely possibility-- B/Ws don't go very well with many of today's youth and adults (whether shows or movies), so that's very likely why the movies you love disappeared in the blink of an eye.

 

[Sam Favate]

serious question: have you watched the monkees since the recordable media started? like have you seen it in the last few years?

Yes. I bought the DVDs (as mentioned in my post) when they came out, and I watched them in order. I watched Head on DVD too.

The Monkees isn’t great television, like Gilligan’s Island (a show I also have on DVD), but that isn’t the point. I still enjoy them both and I can see what 8-year-old me liked about them. The point is that having a show I loved taken away turned me on to the idea of owning it, even if physical media (or cable television) wasn’t a thing yet.

 

[BobO'Link]

serious question: have you watched the monkees since the recordable media started? like have you seen it in the last few years?

Yes. I bought the DVDs (as mentioned in my post) when they came out, and I watched them in order. I watched Head on DVD too.

The Monkees isn’t great television, like Gilligan’s Island (a show I also have on DVD), but that isn’t the point. I still enjoy them both and I can see what 8-year-old me liked about them. The point is that having a show I loved taken away turned me on to the idea of owning it, even if physical media (or cable television) wasn’t a thing yet.

Same here. I was 10 when the series first aired and loved it. Still do. I purchased the DVDs (those horrid record box package things), then the better (but still not that good) digipak versions and finally the BR release (which, again, is in absolutely some of the worst packaging I own). I watched the DVDs at least a half dozen times and have watched the BR set twice since purchasing it. Like Sam says, it's not "great" TV but is quite entertaining and, IMHO, better than lots of what passes for "comedy" these days. I've also seen Head a couple of times - it's "Just OK" but kind of grows on you.

I dreamed of owning copies of my favorite shows since at least the mid 60s when shows I liked started being cancelled or just ended - some never, or very infrequently, to return. That's why I have a huge library of TV series. Most are shows I've watched and enjoyed over the decades. Others are new finds. Some have been watched once and are unlikely to ever be watched again. Others have been watched dozens of times. All are there so I don't have to worry about some streaming service or "broadcaster" dropping them.

 

[Douglas Bailey]

I usually watch the series straight through once, then keep it for reference (so I can go back and rewatch a specific episode or a specific scene when the mood takes me).

 

[GeorgeJA]

I usually watch the series straight through once, then keep it for reference (so I can go back and rewatch a specific episode or a specific scene when the mood takes me).

This is what I do too. If I do revisit individual episodes, then I don't feel it's a waste of money.

 

[Wvtvguy]

I just go through each series very slowly. I occasionally I get into a show and watch multiple episodes in a week. I just did that with the original Hawaii 5-0. I watched probably 4 episodes in a week. Thats rare though. I picked up Hill Street Blues not long ago. That’s a show I never watched. I really started to enjoy it so I watch one episode a week, usually on Thursday. I never binge anything. Like tonight I watched an episode of Kojak. I hadn’t watched it in months.

I don’t think I’ve completed a single series. I just jump around too much. It works for me though.

 

[jayembee]

Hello all.
I have a problem.
I want to buy some TV series on blu-ray, but the thing is I usually watch them only once, so I don't think it's worth it.
I have some series like Star Trek the original series, Batman, Twilight zone, and I have watched them all once.
I can't watch individual episodes, even if the storylines are autonomous. If I watch TV series, I want to watch the complete series from beginning to end.
So, I was curious, how do you handle this situation?
Do you watch them only once and then sell the DVDs/Blu-rays?
Do you keep them?
Do you watch them more than once, complete?
Do you usually watch individual episodes every now and then?

I look at my film and TV show collection the same way I look at my book collection. The point isn't necessarily to watch them over and over a lot. The point is to have them to hand so that if I have a hankering to watch something again, I can simply take it off the shelf and watch it. I some cases, it's a matter of a particular episode of something coming to mind, and that gets me in the mood to watch just that episode.

Over time, I've had less and less of a desire to buy every film or series I have a modicum of interest in. I have too many interests competing for my discretionary dollars. So I tend now to only get things that I feel I Really Have To Have. I suspect that some of the things that I now think fall into that category I won't think fall into that category a few years down that road, but that's the way life works.

 

[jayembee]

My issue is not cost.

My main issue is the time/effort in ripping something I only end up watching once or twice, and whatever becoming clutter collecting dust on my bookshelves or n storage.

My personal free time is more "valuable" to me, than ripping multiple bluray discs I'll likely never watch a second or third time.

That's pretty much my attitude. I don't have enough time to do everything I want to do, so I have no interest in adding another task that will take up time I could be spending on something else I'd rather be doing.

 

[jayembee]

(On a tangent).

I have noticed in observing my father and other relatives who were long retired, they had large collections of vinyl records, cds, vhs tapes, dvds, etc ...

Though since retiring, I noticed they were spending their entire day watching 24 hours news channels like CNN, BBC, DW, etc ... and rarely ever watching/listening to anything from their large discs/tape collections. (They don't even watch tv sports anymore, which they used to do a lot back in the day).

I thought it seemed kinda odd accumulating a large tape/disc media collection over a lifetime, and not listening/watching any of it when they have all that free time in the world.

It's one of the Great Mysteries of the Universe that when you retire, you find you have less time to do the fun stuff than you did when you were working full time.

 

[bmasters9]

I occasionally I get into a show and watch multiple episodes in a week.

That's what I did with the original Stack Untouchables that was on ABC-- once it started getting good, I semi-binged it (not sitting for hours and watching, but seeing several episodes spread throughout a day). Eventually I completed it, and it's one of those that are staples for me.

 

[jcroy]

Over time, I've had less and less of a desire to buy every film or series I have a modicum of interest in. I have too many interests competing for my discretionary dollars. So I tend now to only get things that I feel I Really Have To Have. I suspect that some of the things that I now think fall into that category I won't think fall into that category a few years down that road, but that's the way life works.

The definitive niche where this happened for me, is sci-fi tv shows on bluray over the 2010s decade. In practice, I have much higher standards for sci-fi tv shows/movies than other niches. For example, I didn't bother buying the Dark Matter blurays after the show was cancelled on a cliffhanger.

When I first started buying a lot of dvds/blurays in 2011, I was very much buying up almost every sci-fi tv show and movie I was able to find in local dump bins. Prior to 2011, I had very little to no interest in dvd/bluray. After about four years or so of doing this, I came to the realization that a lot of sci-fi stuff was largely crap.

What made this very clear to me, were the syfy shows Falling Skies, Helix, Defiance, and The Killjoys in 2015-2016. Season 2 of Helix and Season 3 of Defiance were very underwhelming bordering on outright crap. Season 1 of Killjoys was decent, while everything turned to crap in season 2. I was thinking about buying the Helix season 2, Defiance season 3 and Killjoys season 1 blurays, until I watched the first several episodes of Killjoys season 2 in the original broadcasts, just to find out they were kinda crappy. At that point, I didn't care anymore about even "completing" sci-fi tv series I already have. I turned down the Falling Skies complete series bluray set, after watching most of the episodes in reruns and finding it kinda boring after the first season.


Back in the day, I never did a lot of dumpbin scavenging of sci-fi books. Nowadays I'm more inclined to read the original books The Expanse was based on, than watching the blurays or reruns.

 

[Wiseguy]

When I decide to buy the complete series I plan to watch it through at least twice with a certain time passed
between runs which could be anywhere from five to ten years. (Don't like to watch a series too often). The only
"random" episodes I may watch are to commemorate the series premiere by watching an episode on that date.
I've pretty much purchased all the series I would be interested in unless an unreleased series is finally
released (unlikely). I've been lucky in that all the series I have collected have been completed
[mostly CBS/Paramount DVDs] (even if I have to purchase a foreign release [Universal series]).

For multi-season dramas I have complete on DVD, I watch one hour a week, (I don't skip episodes
nor do I binge), more as it was originally scheduled except I don't take a summer break and I watch two-parters on
one watch (regardless of whether it was originally shown as a two-parter or double-length broadcast).
Holiday episodes (if any) are usually skipped and watched at the appropriate time during the series' DVD run.
Episodes are usually watched in some order, either production order (if known) or broadcast order. Future runs may
be watched in a different order.

Episode runs are often (but not always) watched on the day the series was primarily seen on: Ironside on Thursday,
Twilight Zone on Friday, Perry Mason on Saturday, etc.
There are always exceptions but the above is how I usually watch DVD series.

Some series have presented some variations:

Perry Mason: I would read the original novel and then watch the adaptation.
For those who think the novel would be a "spoiler" for the episode that's not always the case with how a novel would have
to be simplified for TV; indeed, there are some cases where the defendant or murderer is different from those in the novel
(and in at least one case the two characters were swapped in the TV version! It would usually take me about three weeks to
finish a novel and would watch an adaption every three weeks with episodes not adapted from novels for the other two
weeks. Needless to say, the episodes were not watched in any order due to the availability of the novel in question.

Alfred Hitchcock: Since I prefer the half-hours to the hours I would alternate between half-hour (2/week) and hour episodes
(1/week). Then I don't wind up with just hour episodes left to watch at the end of the run. During the first run, I included
the 80 reboot episodes on VHS (remakes watched with the originals) but will skip them for the second run.

The Twilight Zone: I alternate whole seasons from week to week watching an hour from the first season one
week then an hour from each succeeding season. This mixes the lesser-quality episodes with the better ones throughout
the viewing run. Giving it a more random feeling, I watch it according to the production number shown at the end
regardless of what that number actually means.