Owning all of a series despite bad later/earlier seasons? (1 Viewer)

[HubbaBubbaKid]

one other big factor for me is that i sometimes resell a series , and i’ve learned its much easier to do when its the complete series vs just a few seasons

 

[bmasters9]

Then there's the whole "spending hundreds of dollars to collected all 10 seasons of Smallville and then wonder why the hell I went to the trouble" syndrome. I never watch it.

It's the same way with me on The Man From U.N.C.L.E.-- that 1964-68 NBC spy series is awfully boring to me, yet I still have it on DVD, the whole of it.

 

[Bryan^H]

I bought the complete series of Star Trek TNG when it was released on DVD. Watching it complete I realized I never needed to see season 7 again. So when it was released on Blu-Ray, I skipped it. I'm still baffled that a series with so much promise, and endless story ideas was so lackluster in what should have been the best season.

 

[MartinP.]

I’m probably the other way around - I’m more likely to collect entries in a movie series I didn’t care for than I am TV seasons. For better or worse, if I’m gonna watch Superman, I’ll end up watching Superman III soon enough each time, even though I’m disappointed every single time.

What about Superman IV: The Quest for Peace?

I remember a reviewer calling it "Superman IV: The Quest for More Money."

 

[Josh Steinberg]

What about Superman IV: The Quest for Peace?

I remember a reviewer calling it "Superman IV: The Quest for More Money."

Oh yeah, every time too. That might have been the first Superman movie I ever saw, WPIX in NY used to play it a ton when I was a kid so it has a special place in my heart even if it is objectively terrible.

 

[ScottRE]

I’m probably the other way around - I’m more likely to collect entries in a movie series I didn’t care for than I am TV seasons. For better or worse, if I’m gonna watch Superman, I’ll end up watching Superman III soon enough each time, even though I’m disappointed every single time.

I just skip to the Evil Superman portions of the film.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Ultimately I’m a sucker for any Christopher Reeve Superman appearance regardless of quality.

 

[ScottRE]

Ultimately I’m a sucker for any Christopher Reeve Superman appearance regardless of quality.

Same! Even Superman IV. Besides, it's only 90 minutes and the cast is ridiculously good for a film of that kind.

 

[Darby67]

I confess, I am completist when it comes to tv series and I have bought them both ways: as individual season releases (i.e. The Wild Wild West) and the inevitable complete series release after the individual season releases have finished (i.e. Mannix). Of course, the obvious risk of individual season releases is the possibility of stalling...(ahem), The Defenders...(cough), Burke's Law...(sigh) Alfred Hitchcock Presents....but I digress.

While I try to be selective about the tv shows I purchase on physical media, I have also bought numerous blind buys which I wound up loving. So, in a nutshell, I'm a sucker: if all episodes of a series I want or a series that has been highly touted by a fellow HTFer are available on physical media, rest assured I will, by hook or by crook, buy all them, the good the bad, and the ugly!

Be seeing you...in debtor's prison!

 

[bmasters9]

While I try to be selective about the tv shows I purchase on physical media, I have also bought numerous blind buys which I wound up loving.

You and me both-- some of those all-in-one DVDs which I've purchased lately (that's mostly the format it's been, is all-in-ones) have been worth every penny (most, however, have not).

The truth is, when I see one that I think looks good, I put in the money for it; sometimes, it pays off, like in the case of not just The Streets of San Francisco, but a couple of Westerns, and a couple of classic comedies, among others; sometimes it doesn't.

 

[BobO'Link]

Haven't we done this topic before?

No matter... for me it depends on the series. Generally I'm 100% a completist and want the entire run of a TV or film series. In spite of that, there are several for which a few seasons are enough.

Happy Days - First 4 are enough - likely too much as "The Fonzie Effect" had already begun to take over the series. In all honesty, the first 2 are really enough.

The Love Boat - Really only a half of the 2nd season for a particular episode. Still... I purchased the "Fat Pack" with the first 3 seasons solely because I got it for about the same price as that half season set.

All In the Family - I never really cared much for this one and have S1 solely to have it represented in my collection.

Flipper - 1 is enough. I watched it and, just like when I saw it during the original airings, found it to be very, very, repetitive.

Laverne and Shirley - This one tanked when they moved it to California in S6 so the first 5 is plenty (actually 1 is enough for me but, like with The Love Boat, I got the "fat pack" of S1-5 for roughly the price of a single season).

Home Improvement - I have the first 5 and feel this will be enough as I recall it having more and more "dramedy" episodes in the later seasons.

Roseanne - 2's enough of this one for me. I always found her to be rather abrasive but enjoyed it the first couple of seasons in spite of that so...

Welcome Back Kotter - 1's enough here. I even felt that way when it originally aired but watched it anyway (nothing else on syndrome).

There are a few others - roughly 20 - where I've purchased 1-4 seasons as it's enough for me. BUT - there are roughly 450 series where I own all the seasons. A few because purchasing them all was as inexpensive as just a couple but most because I like the series enough to own it all. And there are around 20 for which I own the complete series in both DVD and BR.

It's rare that I don't own all of the movies of a movie franchise even if I don't care for some entries.

 

[bmasters9]

Haven't we done this topic before?

We probably did-- I also didn't look through all the back threads, so I was unaware of this one or any similar ones; good question.

 

[BobO'Link]

We probably did-- I also didn't look through all the back threads, so I was unaware of this one or any similar ones; good question.

Yeah... I didn't care enough to look so...

It's fun to run through the logic of your purchases every so often.

 

[Jack P]

I think in the earlier days of TV on DVD there was a tendency to buy a lot of titles we got simply because our choices of what to buy were more limited. That was why I sampled season 1 of "X-Files" and quickly became bored out of my mind at its repetitive formula. But had more of the classic shows I loved that I had to wait an extra 6-7 years to see come out been available I never would have even sampled "X-Files".

 

[MatthewA]

I stuck it out to the end through some shows that took huge nosedives in quality because they eventually ended. Others didn't really end in the dramatic sense of the word, they just stopped. For example: Good Times ended since they got a proper finale intended to wrap things up but The Jeffersons stopped since their last episode was scarcely different from a regular one.

Other shows I gave up on before they ended because the bad newer episodes were getting so bad they were hurting the reputation of the good earlier ones. Both The Simpsons and Family Guy fall into this category, and I'm not sure Disney's changes will make things better, so I'd rather remember them as they were.

 

[BobO'Link]

I forgot about Family Guy before your comment, Matthew. That's another I stopped collecting as I feel the series just wasn't quite as good after that initial run - when Fox brought it back after DVD sales took off. It's OK but feels like it's kind of a "Hey! Look what we did *this* time!" in a self aware sense instead of being truly "edgy." I purchased a few seasons after its return but it just didn't feel the same so stopped.

I also failed to talk about Star Trek overall. I'm not a fan of TNG but purchased the seasons on DVD, used at bargain basement prices, when I'd collected all the other series simply due to that completist mentality. While I was watching those DVDs the UK region free BR set came up at a price *lower* than what I'd paid for the series on DVD so I upgraded (plus it was the remastered versions and is an incredible improvement). Even though I'm not a huge fan of The Animated Series (but I *do* like it better than TNG) I purchased it on DVD and then BR due to very low prices. After watching part of the first season of Discovery I gave upon it but purchased the first 2 seasons on disc due to comments in the threads on HTF that S1 ended well and S2 was much, much, better. After watching them I have no intention of continuing with that series (absolutely disliked both seasons) *BUT* would likely purchase more *if* the price is right. In the end... like it or not... I'm something of a Star Trek whore and will purchase it because it's Star Trek. After all, I own both DVD and BR of the "Kelvin" universe movies and don't care for them at all. I rank both Discovery and the "Kelvin" movies at the very bottom of the Trek productions, a location once reserved for all things TNG. Should DS9 and/or Voyager ever make their way to BR I will absolutely upgrade them.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Family Guy is another one where I got into the show while it was off the air and bought the DVDs because it was the only way to see it, and then when it got un-canceled, it was suddenly everywhere in syndication and then streaming came along soon enough so that they were suddenly always available on at least one of the things I subscribe to. It just became another show where I didn’t need to rewatch them a ton and it wasn’t hard to find so not having later episodes on disc isn’t a barrier to me seeing them if the mood strikes.

I completely forgot until this post that I had early season DVDs of The Shield and other serialized shows where I needed to buy the discs in order to catch up to new broadcast episodes, but once I did, I stopped buying. I think I forgot because I sold incomplete series I had like that years ago, especially when I had a DVD and the full series was now available on Blu. I knew if I revised the show I’d go for the higher quality anyway so there was just no reason to hold on to them anymore.

 

[Jake Lipson]

I bought the first several seasons of Grey's Anatomy. I still watch the show weekly and, while it has had its ups and downs over the years, I still like more of it than I don't like. But my desire to revisit previous episodes has gone down over the years. The show is currently in season 17, which is a whole lot longer than almost anybody would have expected it to last back when I was buying the early seasons. So I stopped buying new ones a while back. As far as I know, Disney still puts out DVDs for it, but I haven't felt like I needed to own the later years. At this point, I'm committed to watching the show at least in its first run until they decide to wind things up, but it got to a point where I'm not going to do a chronological rewatch of 17 years worth of episodes, so I let go of collecting the rest. Grey's now has a second spinoff Station 19 and characters intermingle between the two shows on a regular basis. Station 19 has never received a physical release as far as I know, so I wouldn't be able to get the "full story" on a physical format without it anyway.

Before the advent of streaming, it used to be that if you wanted to catch up or rewatch on a show before the new season started, you had to buy the DVDs. So I used to buy more season sets. Now, I'll still do it for something I really want to own, but I'm less gung-ho about owning everything that I like. The most recent complete series box set that I bought was The Good Place last year and I was delighted to get it because it is one of my all time favorite series. But now I buy less TV shows than I used to before streaming existed. I'm a big physical media collector and believe in it, but especially with shows that have gone for several seasons, part of the question is how often I'm going to want to rewatch the whole thing versus how much I would have to pay to get a complete set. If I just want to rewatch a particular episode for some reason, it's usually easy enough to find that streaming somewhere.

For movies, it depends on how badly I think the disappointing installment is. I bought Spider-Man 3 after Spider-Man 2 even though it's not as good because there are elements of it that I liked. I liked The Amazing Spider-Man well enough to get it, did not buy The Amazing Spider-Man 2 because it really crapped the bed and I know I wouldn't want to rewatch it. ASM2 remains the only Spider-Man film which is completely absent from my disc collection and that's fine.

 

[Bryan^H]

Serialized shows now matter how good or bad they turn out to be always get completed. Being part of an ongoing story carries a lot of weight over shows that hit the reset button from episode to episode. But I question why I make these purchases even though I know how the series ends, and really have no desire to watch them again.

I can't believe I bought the final season of Dexter.

 

[albert_m2]

For a vintage series there was *no* way I was going to buy the last two seasons of "Moonlighting". To me, that series is over with its S3 Christmas episode.

I have not bought "Gunsmoke" past S12 because I prefer the half-hour format of S1 to S6, but even if I summoned the strength to get more seasons I don't ever want to see the last season without Amanda Blake's Kitty. As far as I'm concerned, she never left Dodge!

Yeah, I only bought the first three seasons of Moonlighting. I had thought about revisiting the last two later on, but it went out of print and that show seems to be forgotten.

It's too bad as the first three seasons have some great episodes that hold on rewatch.