The Devil and Me

Let’s talk DVD TV Series for a moment.

We all know they are addictive. But what’s the drawback? They are expensive. Let’s take James’ comment about Season 4 of 24 being $65. Let’s say there are 20 episodes – that’s $3.25 an episode.

Is it worth it? To some people, yes. Why not? You don’t to wait every week to catch a new episode. That’s a definite bonus. The concept of ‘when you want to watch TV’ is a great one.

I personally find it hard to justify that much money on a TV series that I will only watch once. Maybe twice. It’s like Friends. I think it would be cool to buy the series of Friends…but will I end up popping them into the DVD player all the time to watch them? Heck no. I’m always more prone to stopping on a channel saying “Hey, it’s Friends!” instead of saying “Hey, I’m bored, let’s put on a episode of Friends!” I bought Season One of Alias because I had missed out on it…but after that, I’m done with buying the series because I caught them on TV. I would imagine that ONE DAY in the future (like 5+ years) I would like to go back and watch them all.

So here are some simple ways you can save money and catch up on your (new) favourite TV series if you haven’t already done so:

• Download them off the Internet: You don’t have to be too tech savvy to know how to download a TV show off the next. Pros: Heck, it’s free. Cons: Chances are, you’ll have to watch it on your computer monitor unless you’re tech savvy and have your computer hooked up to your TV/Projector. Sometimes the picture jitters and you have to pause and playback (this may only be on my computer for all I know), you have to wait awhile for it download (let’s say one episode of Alias takes a day to download during peak popularity. Peak meaning, if no one has it anymore (like an old episode of Thundercats) you ain’t getting it fast. Also, you don’t have the sweet menus or special features usually.
• Join Zip.ca – Joe has shown how Zip.ca does great, great things for building up a DVD collection if you have a DVD burner. For a modest monthly fee, you can receive six DVDs at a time and when you are done, you mail them back (free) and then they send you six more. This may be their ultra-good package…there may be smaller ones out there, but Joe loves it and he always tells me about how he has quite a few TV series on DVD right now due to his sweet DVD burner. In fact, I have borrowed his Stargate Series, although my DVD player sucks and it jitters all the time when trying to watch them. This is the fault of my player, not his DVDs. Pros: Heck, depending on if you can watch/burn more DVDs than it costs to rent them in a month, you come out on top. Cons: I would assume the hassle of mailing back is a con (although a small one), as well the whole burning process if you were going to make a copy. Small cons though. Very minor.
• Rent them – Good old Blockbuster lets you rent movies. And TV shows. I don’t know much about this? Pros: Cheap! Cons: How long do they allow you to keep a disc?
• Borrow them – You know…there are a LOT of people out there that have TV series already on DVD, so why not hit them up for some goodness? Up for borrowing from this guy is Alias Season One, as well as the first two seasons of SeaLab: 2021. I’m finished watching them, and all they do is sit there and gather dust. I believe Alias was recently on loan for the past year to various people. Just ask around and you never know how many people have Lost: Season One on DVD for you to borrow.