I generally hold off on buying shows until the show is over and a really *****in boxed set is out. And, obviously, I have to really love the show, and plan on watching it at least a couple of times a decade. Plus I love elaborate packaging and boxed sets. I don't feel the need to ever watch Lost again, but damn if I didn't almost pick up that season 5 Dharma set just because it rocked so fricking much.
Anyway, to date, the shows I have bought are:
The Wire complete boxed set
The Shield complete boxed set
Rome 1 & 2 boxes.. because the seperate wooden boxes are better than the combined package
Deadwood complete boxed set
And that's it. Oh, I bought spartacus, because I figured the show was ****ed with Andy about to die. Stupid me. I might have a few seasons of family guy laying around somewhere from when it was consistently funny and I was stupid and bought comedies.
I mean really, for comedies, why buy them at all? The best ones are on like 50 times a week anyway. I love The Office, but do I ever need to own the Office? Probably not for 20 years. Why? Because it's on 3 different stations 4 times a day, and will be for a long, long time. Always Sunny is on enough, along with on Demand, and my tv recorder, that again.. not needed... yet. These aren't the only shows I watch, but you get the idea.
For many shows, they're on enough or pumping out new episodes to the point where.. really, how often do we need to revisit them? I guess I just don't understand the idea of spending anywhere from 12 to 24 and up hours on watching something.. and then turn around a couple months later and plan on doing it again right away. There's a ton of shows out of there. Even with my picky tastes and need to space out watching my favorites, I'm still finding plenty of stuff to watch. I mean, just off the top of my head, I need and want to watch basically all of Sons of Anarchy, Rescue Me, Thief, the second half of Nip/Tuck, the last couple seasons of Mad Men, basically all of The Sopranos, and a handful of other less successful HBO shows.
I'm tired and rambling about nothing at this point. I had a point originally. Move along~!