DVD Box Sets

Maybe what I really mean to say here is TV series on some kind of media that let you watch as many episodes as you want at one sitting.  For so many of us, it's a slightly guilty pleasure to curl up on the couch with some hot tea or a beer and dive into the other worlds that flicker and glow on the TV screen.  Movies are fun, but TV shows that are really good can be so much more satisfying--it's like comparing a short story to an epic novel: both have their merits, but when you want to be absorbed for a long time, you go with the novel.  The characters have plenty of room to breathe and grow and change, to make mistakes and redeem themselves, to mourn to struggle and to celebrate.  There are wrenching moments and cathartic ones.  In the best cases, TV series can inspire self-reflection and even growth.  Some I have held dear over the years (some for many seasons and others for just a few episodes--and they haven't all inspired deep thoughts) have been Doctor Who, Star Trek: The Next Generation, Dawson's Creek, M*A*S*H, A Different World, ER, Early Edition, Ugly Betty, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip, Batman the Animated Series, and recently the original British version of Skins.  And probably a fair few that are slipping my mind right now.  I love the moment when I hear the first familiar strains of the theme music and the title credits begin to roll.  I lean back, get comfortable, and get ready to be transported.

Old Monster Movies

It's the witching hour.  You're on the couch with the curtains pulled tight against the dark, windy night outside.  The lights are off and the living room is illuminated only by the gray-blue, phosphorescent flickerings on the TV screen.  If there's popcorn involved, you've hit the jackpot.  I like some new monster movies, but the old ones are much more gratifying.  They often start slowly, so slowly you forget you're waiting for some horrible creature to appear.  And just when you're relaxed, even a little bored, spooky things start happening.  Because special effects were in their infancy and budgets were low, directors back then had to imply scary things more often than showing them.  Much of fear is what's in our minds anyway, so some old movies end up being genuinely creepy without showing a single evisceration.  And the music is lush and symphonic, lending extra drama to the proceedings. On top of all that, there's the wonderfully gratifying sensation of getting away with something--probably a holdover from the days when you snuck out of bed and turned on the TV with the sound real low to watch things like this when your parents thought you were sleeping.