# What's a good pace for watching a TV series on DVD? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327 "2008-05-23T04:04:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 4:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/1 "2008-05-23T04:04:47Z")
In another thread, KneadToKnow said he was planning on having a _Firefly_ marathon - watching the entire run of the show one episode right after another. My own personal preference is to space things out a little more. I usually watch one episode a day as I work my way through a series (sometimes two at a time if it’s half hour episodes). I feel that watching them too close together can ruin the pace of a series - the individual episodes were written to have some breathing room between them. ---
**Author:** ![mobo85](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b19c9b/32.png) [@mobo85](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mobo85)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 4:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/2 "2008-05-23T04:16:44Z")
When it comes to sitcoms, I usually watch two episodes back-to-back in one sitting. Usually only two a day, sometimes more. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/3 "2008-05-23T04:38:38Z")
We get ours from NetFlix, and usually do one or two hour length shows at a time. I intersperse the disks with other stuff, so it come out to four hours every 10 days or so. It takes a while, but you don’t get bored. We’re watching the old Secret Agent, and seeing the shows all in a row allows us to identify the sets they dress differently and use over and over again. ---
**Author:** ![ToeJam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/dfb087/32.png) [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/4 "2008-05-23T05:14:47Z")
Well, I’ve been catching up on House, seasons 1, 2, and am currently now on 3. The way I do it is by Discs- I pop in the disc, watch that many episodes, and then i’m done for the day. Sometimes its 4 episodes, sometimes its 5, and It’s amusing when it used to be a double sided disc (season 1) because i’d be anal enough to watch both sides in one day. ---
**Author:** ![exclamation](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/858c86/32.png) [@exclamation](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/exclamation)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/5 "2008-05-23T06:21:48Z")
I _try_ and limit myself to watching disk by disk as well, but usually I get so caught up in the storyline (even if I’ve seen it all before), that I just watch until I fall asleep. I recently rewatched all of five seasons of _Six Feet Under_ in just under a week and a half. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/6 "2008-05-23T06:56:30Z")
I watched the whole of season 7 of Scrubs in the space of 24 hours. I probably shouldn’t have done that. ---
**Author:** ![cbawlmer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/71e660/32.png) [@cbawlmer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cbawlmer)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/7 "2008-05-23T14:21:37Z")
We usually watch two or three episodes a night, more if we have the whole day. This depends on the show though. Some shows are good, but don’t necessarily have that “I’m dying to see what happens next” feeling to them, especially older, less serialized shows. ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/8 "2008-05-23T14:33:45Z")
We tend to feast or famine in my house - we Netflix, but have queues just for TV shows (one for hour/drama shows and one for half hour/comedies), so what happens is that when we’re into a show and “actively” watching it, we watch an episode, two, hell, maybe three (depends on how tired we are after work) a night until we’re done with a disc, and then we chew on our hands until we get the next one in. If we don’t watch it often enough to maintain optimum excitement, however, it will sit on the table for a month or more. (When we were really watching Rome, we’d have to run to Blockbuster to fill in for Netflix’s mail time. And then we got off our Rome kick and the last disc sat on the table for a month until we finally said, hey, you know we have more Rome?) ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/9 "2008-05-23T15:10:22Z")
I’m like **exclamation!** and **cbawlmer** … sometimes I just can’t wait to see what’s next (like _Lost_ or _The Wire_) so I’ll watch as many as I can in an evening while drifting off to sleep. I watched _Scrubs_ at a fast pace, too. I think I watched the first season and a half of _Lost_ over one Thanksgiving weekend. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/10 "2008-05-23T15:27:37Z")
I’ve always figured it was more important to pace myself with a series that has a story arc like _Lost_ - if you see the shocking cliff-hanger ending and then immediately watch the next episode it never builds up the tension and mystery that was there in the original broadcast. I’ve also found that in show like _House_ it’s possible to overdo it - character traits that can be entertaining for an hour become annoying in the second or third hour. ---
**Author:** ![Thudlow\_Boink](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thudlow_boink/32/320_2.png) [@Thudlow\_Boink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Thudlow_Boink)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/11 "2008-05-23T15:32:08Z")
I tend to watch TV shows on DVD the way I would if they were on the air: one episode every week or two. That way I can make the show “last” (especially important for shows like _Firefly_ that have a limited number of episodes), and watch other shows in between. I’m afraid I’d get tired of a show if I watched the same show for hours on end; I like variety. ---
**Author:** ![Cluricaun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bb73d2/32.png) [@Cluricaun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cluricaun)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/12 "2008-05-23T15:34:27Z")
I’ve never watched a series on DVD before, mainly because I did it to catch up on the first season of the Sopranos and I didn’t eat or bathe for a weekend because I couldn’t stop. People speak highly of The Office, so I’ve thought about doing that, but I’d probably lose my job. ---
**Author:** ![Hockey\_Monkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a183cd/32.png) [@Hockey\_Monkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hockey_Monkey)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/13 "2008-05-23T16:53:52Z")
I watched season one of Dexter in 2 days. I watched season 2 in about the same time frame. I watched Are You Being Served 4 episodes at a time. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/14 "2008-05-24T00:21:23Z")
[QUOTE=Little Nemo] character traits that can be entertaining for an hour become annoying in the second or third hour. [/QUOTE] They stopped broadcasting _Monk_ here in Australia (since ages ago), so I am considering getting the DVDs. But I fear that I will suffer from the same thing as you did with _House_. Too much quirky OCD can get irritating very quickly. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/15 "2008-05-24T04:51:57Z")
[QUOTE=GuanoLad] They stopped broadcasting _Monk_ here in Australia (since ages ago), so I am considering getting the DVDs. But I fear that I will suffer from the same thing as you did with _House_. Too much quirky OCD can get irritating very quickly. [/QUOTE] I didn’t have this problem with _House_ but I definitely did with _Monk_. I think _Monk_ centers too closely on his quirks while House still has a good “mystery” behind it. I don’t think I could watch season 3 of _Lost_ all at once. One and two were awesome because we kept getting introduced to new characters. But then when everyone started dying off and the cast got smaller, I just had too much Jack and Kate and Sawyer. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 7:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/16 "2008-05-24T07:04:14Z")
[QUOTE=Hockey Monkey] I watched season one of Dexter in 2 days. I watched season 2 in about the same time frame. [/QUOTE] I didn’t watch it quite that fast. Maybe about two weeks for both seasons. I intended to watch one episode a night, but usually wound up watching one, getting hooked, and just having to watch one more until I was too tired to stay up any later. Technically, I wasn’t watching on DVD, though. Showtime had all the episodes of the entire series up on thier OnDemand section. I wish HBO would follow that decision. I haven’t seen many of their shows, and I’d like to check out a few of them, but whenever I go to HBO’s OnDemand, they’re usually just showing a few eps of random series, and when I check they’re usually in the middle of series, not from the beginning. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [May 24, 2008, 1:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/17 "2008-05-24T13:49:45Z")
It depends on the length of the episodes. We watched _Star Trek: Next Gen_ Seasons 1-7 and\* DS9 \*Seasons 1-7 over the course of about 6 months, with an average of one episode a day. (There were obvious gaps, plus on weekends we were likely to watch up to 3 eps a day, but I just mean in general) Last night, we watched 6 Straight Episodes of _Arrested Development_, with a 2 hour break in the middle. More than three episodes in a row is really pushing it. Usually it’s 1-2 per day for shorter episodes. ---
**Author:** ![KneadToKnow](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kneadtoknow/32/3999_2.png) [@KneadToKnow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KneadToKnow)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2008, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/18 "2008-05-25T13:31:53Z")
It’s worth noting that as founder of the _24 Club_, I’ve been doing this sort of thing for some time now. I’m still actively debating what I’m going to do about the next season of _24_, because I honestly don’t think I can watch that show any other way after 6 years straight of marathonning. _Firefly_ will only be the second completely new show I’ve ever watched this way, though. With _The Simpsons_, the _Star Trek_s, _Family Guy_, _King of the Hill_, and various other series I buy season sets of, I tend to be of the watch a couple at a time persuasion. But for the most part, those are things I’m watching _again_ rather than discovering anew. ---
**Author:** ![cactus\_waltz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@cactus\_waltz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cactus_waltz)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2008, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-a-good-pace-for-watching-a-tv-series-on-dvd/450327/19 "2008-05-25T13:54:58Z")
If I have a whole DVD set with something I like, I find it pretty difficult to stop watching once I start.