Nostalgia is dumb. Why bother looking back when there are new and exciting experiences happening right in front of you? So don't buy TV shows on DVD. Also, throw out your wedding album, trash that high school yearbook, and tape over those old home movies (but not with TV shows). My esteemed colleague believes there are far too few minutes on this Earth to "waste" it re-watching TV on DVD. I respectfully disagree. Yes, every fall I have a minor panic attack when I think about all the new shows coming on and the precious amount of time I have to watch all that I want. But just because there's a new crop of shows doesn't mean you have to turn your back on the favorites of yesteryear.

The first show I actively collected on DVD was Stargate SG-1, because it was not only my favorite show, but I honestly believe it changed my life. At the beginning of their eighth season, I embarked on a trip to a convention. My first convention, my first trip out of state (and out of the country). It was really my first time away from home in a new environment where I wasn't my parents' kid or my brother's brother. I was just me, with nothing but myself to rely on, and it was immensely freeing. What going to college must have felt like to smart people. While there, I took a brief side-trip to a small island that sparked an idea, which grew into a story, which became my first published novel.

Stargate SG-1 REALLY meant something to me. The characters and the stories were like old friends, and some days I just long to revisit them. It doesn't matter that I can quote lines, it doesn't matter that I know exactly how Sam Carter is going to save the day or that I know Daniel Jackson really is going to die this time (no matter how briefly). What matters is revisiting that world and seeing the characters you fell in love with. Watching one episode can remind you of the years you spent carving out an hour of your Friday night to take another trip through the Stargate.

We don't have perfect recall. Like my colleague says, there are so many new shows coming out that eventually even my quotable knowledge of Stargate begins to fade. I'll forget a favorite joke. I'll be fuzzy on the details. So maybe I'll go back and find an episode that isn't quite so clear in my mind and I'll take a refresher course, and it's almost like watching it again for the first time. An episode that I wasn't completely in love with the first time takes on a whole new life on DVD.

When you're watching a show you love week-to-week, you're a slave to the schedule. If a bad episode comes along, or if it just focuses on a character that's not your favorite, then that's your fix for the week, like it or lump it. But on DVD, that episode is just one of twenty or so. You give it a bit more leeway. And maybe, just maybe, you'll realize that you didn't give it a real chance.

The main argument against TV on DVD seems to be "You've already seen this, what's the point?" But it's not rational, it's love. It's comfort food. Sure, the upcoming show Person of Interest looks exciting, but so did Undercovers. Sometimes you want to watch a show where you know the good guys win and have fantastic snark while doing it. Favorite TV shows are like a comfy sweatshirt. It just makes you feel good to have it back. You know how the Leverage team will pull off their con, but that doesn't make it any less exciting to watch them put it together. In some ways, it's even better because you are actually in on the con this time around. You can see all the little traps and pitfalls that you (and the bad guy) overlooked the first time.

Which brings me to my next point: spoilers don't spoil. There was recently a new study that revealed people enjoy a story more when they know how it will end. When you're watching something for the first time, carte blanche, you're anxious. Knowing how it will all turn out relaxes you and allows you to fully enjoy the ride. I may not fully support that theory for first-time viewings, (spoil me for Sanctuary and you die, simple as that) but it definitely holds up for repeat viewings. You can relax and get into the story, and that's why people buy TV shows on DVD. It's why people buy books, for the inevitable re-read where they can focus on the story a bit more. The first time through, you're building the house. The second time through, you get to appreciate all the small touches and accents. And these days, with shows becoming more friendly to season-long arcs, you can watch it all from the beginning and pick up the clues you missed the first time around. Shows like Lost almost demand rewatching the entire series every now and again.

And the best thing about buying TV shows on DVD is converting friends. Maybe one of my friends never saw Better Off Ted just because of crappy scheduling or bad advertising (I watched the darn show, and even I'm not sure what day it aired). But I saw it, and I loved it, and I bought the DVD set as soon as I could. And maybe one of your friends sees the set on your shelf, or maybe they realize you're watching a show that barely limped through two seasons before getting axed, and they decide to give it a shot. And now it's shiny and new to them.

I'm not saying run out and buy every season of every show you like. I love The Office but its on cable way more than enough for you to get your fix. But what about shows that aren't being repeated? I used to love The Invisible Man on Sci-Fi, but it's never shown. I recently got the DVDs and I'm falling in love with it all over again. Ten years on, I've forgotten a good chunk of what happened on that show. That's why I'm so eager for a Terriers release. That show will never be reaired in syndication, and I'm worried one day it won't even be found on the interwebs. Sometimes shows just disappear, and DVDs are a safeguard, promising you'll always be able to find that one episode of that one show you truly loved even if no one else even remembers it.

Sometimes when you buy a TV show on DVD, the episodes are almost like a bonus feature. Maybe you're really buying the commentary, or the behind-the-scenes footage. Maybe the actors and writers went to the trouble of making original webisodes that you can see for the first time in all their glory.

And leaving one of the most important points for last... making a TV show is expensive. Watching on the interwebs for free is fine, but it does nothing for the cast and crew, and it gives the studio very little incentive to keep the show around. When I really love a show, I have no problem shelling out forty or fifty dollars so I can have the show I love while at the same time giving them a little money to keep the show on the air. If you think DVD sales don't matter, watch the latest new episode of Family Guy or Futurama and get back to me.

I'm not including the benefits of watching on DVD versus watching live -- no insanely irritating bugs in the corner (I don't WANT to watch Ghost Hunters International, so stop covering up a quarter of the show I DO want to see with those pop-ups), no commercials -- because that's not the issue. The issue is shelling out your hard-earned money for a show you've already watched.

I take pride in the fact that I've seen every episode of Stargate SG-1 at least five times. I can quote Aldo Raine's full speech from his first scene of Inglourious Basterds ("My name is Lieutenant Aldo Raine, and I'm putting together a special team and I need me eight soldiers. Eight. Jewish. Am'rican soldiers.").

Sam Carter (Amanda Tapping) in "Death Knell" (07.16)

New is great. New is exciting. What's old to one person may be new to someone else. I'm just getting into the original UK version of Life on Mars, and I'm doing it on DVD. But just because something is new doesn't make it inherently better than something you've already seen. I'll take the pilot of Lost over any single episode of Undercovers. We revisit the things we love. We refresh our memories of characters, stories, quotes because sometimes life is long. Life is busy. And we need to turn the page back and think, "Oh, yeah, that's why I love Sam Carter."

No one can buy every single show they like on DVD, it's just not feasible. But the shows you love, the shows that in five years you may have an itch to see one more time... those are the shows that are worth paying a little money just so you'll always have it.

Shh, shh, hold on... this is my favorite part.

-- Geonn Cannon

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