Kevin D. Hendricks

DVD Has Changed How I Watch TV

My TV viewing habits have completely changed with the advent of DVD. I’ve never watched a lot of TV. In the past there were a handful of shows I’d actually make a point to watch, either going out of my way to be at home at the specified day and time, or I’d actually program the VCR (Joan of Arcadia on Friday night? Seriously, no wonder it only lasted two seasons).

But I can probably list those shows on one hand: The Tick (I used to tape it when it was on Saturday mornings), The Simpsons, Freaks and Geeks, Everwood (a shortlived addiction), Joan of Arcadia.

However, since DVDs have come out you don’t have to watch TV shows at a specified day and time, you don’t have to wait for each new episode to come out, and you don’t have to watch commercials. I love it.

Now with DVDs we have a whole new way of watching TV. We discover a show we like–really like–and we watch every available episode as soon as it’s available. We started it with Buffy the Vampire Slayer, borrowing the first five seasons, buying the sixth and renting the seventh. We did it with Gilmore Girls, Firefly (OK, so it’s just one season), Battlestar Galactica (OK, that one was just me), Lost, Veronica Mars, Greg the Bunny (another single season), Project Runway and probably a few others. Of course Netflix makes it a lot easier.

It makes for a new way of watching TV. While everyone else is gearing up for the new fall season, we’re gorging ourselves on all the shows from last season that are coming out on DVD (we just finished Veronica Mars, then it’s Gilmore Girls, Lost and Battlestar Galactica), watching the entire season in a couple weeks. So much for stretching out the suspense for 9 months. And so much for commercials.