After spending years reassuring myself that I don’t need physical copies of movies because of streaming, DVDs have officially reentered my life.
Walmart...Thrift stores, flea markets, the library, and even my local mall’s FYE have also become places I frequent to get my hands on oft-ignored discs.
It makes sense to subscribe to all these services if you’re into the exclusive content on each one and have the patience to sift through their massive libraries. However, all I’ve been watching lately is the junk on Discovery Plus, simply because I’m too tired to find anything else — especially when the extremely specific shows and movies I want to watch keep switching services or just aren’t available. One of the most devastating examples of this was when both The Office and Parks and Recreation moved from Netflix to Peacock, disrupting the casual binge-watching sessions that I would default to when I was done with work.
Within the past year, nearly every streaming service has raised its prices, including Netflix, Disney Plus, Hulu, Paramount Plus, Discovery Plus, and Apple TV Plus.
I’m not saying DVDs are flawless: there’s a reason no one wants them anymore!
Despite this, it’s still nice to have something that you physically own and don’t even need an internet connection to use. So when Best Buy confirmed it would stop selling DVDs this year and rumors emerged that Walmart would do the same, I was pretty disappointed. I can’t imagine Walmart without its bin of DVDs, nor can I even see Best Buy without its already-shrunken selection of movies.
It’s 2024, and I’m not ready to say goodbye to DVDs — in fact, I’m just getting started.
Great article from Emma.
Personally, I've been doing the same. Just a few weekends ago, I got something like 8-10 DVDs for ~$25 at my local thrift store. That haul included 3 seasons of The Sopranos.
With streaming services taking back control of their content and putting it on their own platforms, I don't want to have to keep signing up for a new service just to watch the shows and movies I enjoy. Also, that's assuming you can find the content to begin with (i.e. Westworld).
Parks and Recreation, The Office, and Breaking Bad were some of the first shows I started collecting and have slowly been building up my collection. To save on space, I've ditched the cases and have the DVDs organized in a CD case. I've not only limited myself to DVDs but have also started collecting CDs as well.
Whenever I want variety, I just use one of the free streaming services like:
Yes, there are ads but at least I'm not paying for it and I know that's part of the deal. There are a ton of good older (and sometimes original) TV shows and movies on those platforms to keep me entertained. The most recent ones being Stargate and Vampire's Kiss.