I woke up today and stared at this small shelf that holds up my TV in my room and realized something: I don’t have much of a DVD collection. For someone who really does love television, I’m someone with quite the anemic DVD library. And don’t even get me started on blu-ray discs. I don’t even have a blu-ray player! I’ve wanted to get one time and time again, insisting that I would update my old library with blu-rays and it would all work out. Instead of buying myself a blu-ray player for my birthday a couple of months ago, I opted to buy an Apple TV (to supplement my Roku). I don’t even regret the decision. Most of my library lives on Netflix, as it were. Even the show I consider the best on TV today — Breaking Bad, that is — is stored on Netflix. But the problem is that it’s not really my collection is it?
Even if I were to buy and download all the seasons on iTunes or something, it’s never really physically mine (plus it sometimes comes with fewer features and bonus footage than DVDs). Besides, with a simple delete-trigger happy moment, I can lose it all.
That said, streaming offers better quality than DVDs do and at a cheaper price than blu-rays. Gosh, these 21st century problems are without a doubt so tragic. It’s why I don’t really consider a series of mine as a true favorite until I’ve bought all the DVDs. It’s like a litmus test.
Anyway, here’s what I’ve got:
The entire series of Friends. No secret here. Friends is the first show I watched that helped me find out how much I love television. So, naturally, I collected all the DVDs over the years — every birthday, every Christmas, every time I had an extra $25 to spend on a used collection at F.Y.E. They’re quite worn out and dingy, but they still do the trick. And this is a show that actually benefits from not having the blu-rays. Yes, I’m an admitted HD-addict, but the blu-ray version of Friends are actually the broadcast edits of them. That means those extra scenes (that equal about two to three minutes per episode, and up to 10 or more in the final season) are gone. I’ll stick with my full-screen, regular def for now.
The series finale of Friends. Remember how Warner Bros. put out a DVD of the Friends series finale the Tuesday after it aired? Well, since my birthday is on May 26, it coincided as a nice little extra something that I was gifted on that day.
A couple of seasons of The Simpsons. I don’t know how or why I decided to buy some Simpsons seasons, but I’m OK with it. It came in handy in high school when we were reading A Streetcar Named Desire, too, as the parody episode of the play is included in my collection.
And a few more of Family Guy. I guess if I were smarter, I could have watched the older seasons on Adult Swim or something, but back when I was way too young to watch Family Guy, I went out and bought some seasons to catch up. Plus, they just really made me laugh. It was a win-win. So I’ve got a couple of pre-cancelation seasons, and some when they came back … and that’s about it.
The Family Guy Star Wars parody. My family knows that I like television and like to collect some DVDs from time to time, but I can’t tell you what they were thinking with this one. I’m not the biggest Family Guy fan. The last time I bought a DVD was before high school, perhaps. Needless to say, I’ve yet to open the wrapper on this one. I still love them, though.
Season four of Reba. This was so random. I mean, I like Reba, but not in any fanatical way. I never expected to be gifted it. But after I was gifted it, I watched the season and realized just how hilarious it was. I still contend that Reba was quite underrated — and season four has a lot of really funny episodes. Pro tip: they’re just as hilarious in a new way in Spanish.
Season three of Seinfeld. How I have this season escapes me now, but I’m so very glad I do. I want to buy the entire series, to be quite honest. For now, I’ll have to make do with a season that has a couple of classics (they’re all classics, actually) like “The Parking Garage” and “The Nose Job” and “The Pez Dispenser.” Oh, the Pez dispenser!
Chappelle’s Show: The Lost Episodes. I think this was more of an impulse buy, as I much rather would have bought an actual season of Chappelle’s Show. The Lost Episodes was quite over-priced for just a handful of episodes and the content that is on it was, well, lost for a reason. These days, you can get the entire series for quite cheap, which would have been a much better buy. But back in the days of slow Internet, DVDs were a source of entertainment. What’re you going to do?
The entire series of Veronica Mars. And now for the second show that made me find my love for television. Sure it was a couple of years after the end of Friends. I had been watching aimlessly, awaiting another show — and here it was. I discovered Veronica Mars the summer before season three when UPN was airing reruns of the second season. And I got hooked. I can’t tell you what the first episode was, but it must have been absolutely amazing because I had pre-judged Veronica Mars by its less-than-stellar promos. I remember watching those and saying, “That show looks stupid.” God, how freaking wrong was I, guys? Very wrong. So, I went out and bought seasons one and two and watched them in record time, just before season three began.
True Blood season one. After the Vampire Diaries bug bit me, my sister kept talking about this vampire show that people were talking about … and soon, I was hearing about it, too. So in order to catch up before season two, we got the first season DVD — which, if you’re buying True Blood seasons, that’s the one to own.
The entire series of Chuck. You guys, I love Chuck. Like, I looooove Chuck. It’s my favorite television series ever. And because of that, I own all the DVDs. It’s that simple. There’s not a story behind these; I love the show so I picked up the DVDs just because I can. A few years ago, my mother got badly injured and had to be on bed rest, so I would pop in Chuck DVDs, and we watched the entire series together (after I had watched it first). It was a fun bonding experience, too. And now I’m looking for my next favorite show, fretting that I may never get to one because Chuck ruined me for all future and past shows.
Kung Pow: Enter the Fist. This is perhaps the most stupidest movie ever to be made that is absolutely hilarious and one that I undeniably love. There are few movies that I can actually rewatch, but I have to watch Kung Pow at least once a year, just for the laughs. (And, of course, I have to have a year gap in between or it will lose its hilarity.) So for $10 off Amazon, this was a great deal. I first watched Kung Pow at my cousin’s house when we had nothing to do. Now whenever we meet up, we constantly quote Kung Pow quotes back and forth. It’s humiliating and I don’t even care.
Needless to say, I’m ashamed that I don’t collect more than I do. Are you guys as bad as I am? Or is your collection massive?
Michael loves TV. You can find him at home, where he spends all of his time watching TV with his best friends couch and cable access.