TV on DVD

               Finally, finally, finally!  It seemed like it took forever, but I finally received the first disc of Murdoch Mysteries: Season 6.  I don’t have any idea what took it so long.  First it wasn’t available at all, which drove me crazy because I knew it was in stores.  Then it was available but stuck on very long wait.  I started to think it would never arrive in my mailbox.  Now it has and I am very happy.  DVD is the only option I have for watching Murdoch Mysteries.  I don’t have any channel that airs the shows, and besides, I want to be sure I am watching everything in order.  That cannot be guaranteed with reruns.  Sometimes channels jump around to different seasons when airing the reruns or have the show in syndication.  This can get confusing when there are complicated storylines that stretch for entire seasons or more.  I started getting NCIS on DVD for this very reason.  The channel that airs NCIS in syndication constantly jumps around and I always feel I am missing something.  In come the DVDs and I can fully follow what is going on.  Trust me, with NCIS there is rarely an episode that can be missed.

                Another great thing about watching TV shows on DVD is that for some shows it is better I watch the show a chunk at a time.  There are some series that would drive me crazy if I tried to watch all season long.  Take Bones for example.  Temperance Brennan (Emily Deschanel) constantly aggravates me.  So does Seeley Booth (David Boreanaz).  They are the two main characters of the show and very often I want to shove them off the screen.  However, I love nearly all the other characters (there are a couple I could really do without).  I want to know about their lives and what is going on with them.  Plus the mysteries are very interesting.  I find it fascinating watching everyone’s different expertise come together to solve the crime.  These are the reasons why I continue to watch the series when I could so easily stop.  But it is better for me to watch on DVD because I watch a few episodes at a time and then I take a break until the next disc moves up the list.  This long break between exposures is what I need to keep enjoying the elements of the show I do like without them getting overtaken by the parts I don’t.

                Watching in chunks also helps me get caught up on shows a lot faster.  When I first began watching Supernatural the series was far beyond season one.  I had never seen an episode before and I didn’t want to start in the middle.  After so many seasons there would have been far too much back story I would have missed.  Besides, I don’t like starting things in the middle.  While I am not completely caught up yet, watching four episodes at a time, which is what is usually on each disc, has helped me catch up a lot faster than waiting for a marathon or trying to figure everything out myself.  An additional advantage is I get to watch Jensen Ackles as Dean Winchester for three hours instead of just one.  I don’t have any problem with that.

                As with Murdoch Mysteries, there are some shows I would probably never see if they were not released on DVD.  I certainly would not have seen The Tudors because I don’t have the channel it was aired on.  Others are from overseas.  Midsomer Murders is occasionally aired on PBS, but other than if I would happen across it, I would never have gotten the opportunity to discover DCI Tom Barnaby (John Nettles) and Sgt. Gavin Troy (Daniel Casey) without the DVDs.  Other shows were on long ago and I didn’t experience them then.  When Twin Peaks first aired it was not exactly on my radar.  After a spoof of it on Psych I became intrigued.  I decided to give the show a try.  So far I’ve only seen one episode, and that was quite awhile ago.  It was really strange and I ended up shoving the other discs down the list.  But now, with the DVDs still available, I’ve decided to give the show another try.  We’ll see what happens.  I may find it just as, if not more, strange as the first time I tried to watch it.                             

                Whoever thought of putting TV shows on DVD better have gotten a raise because it is a fantastic idea. With so many good TV shows, new and old, I am able to experience any that catch my interest because of the DVDs. I also get to watch them in my own time instead of being locked into certain time periods. Plus many of the discs have special features on them and I am able to see behind the scenes. In some ways this can be more interesting than the show itself. With so many options of TV on DVD to watch, I’m excited to see what I will discover next.