The great unwatched

[SgtPepper]

I was looking through my very modest Blu-Ray collection and noticed that I still hadn't watched the last two original Planet of the Apes films from the collection I bought over 12 months ago. This is a very unusual phenomenon for me, but I remember a while (in fact quite a long while) ago reading a thread somewhere where people listed an extraordinary number of DVD's, VHS or Blu-Ray that they'd bought and never watched going back several years. I think there were even some home VHS recordings from the early 80's that had never been viewed.
I thought it might be an interesting topic to re-visit. I don't expect to break any records with my POA discs from late 2012. :-)

[ctraynor]

The fourth Apes one, Conquest of..., I remember liking. I'd already read the novelisation which I got for Christmas once and that was quite harrowing stuff when I was 13, the tortures and beatings and so on. I thought the last one, Battle of... didn't add anything interesting to the saga.

Anyway, to answer your question, I've had a friend's film, Knowing, on DVD for well over a year and haven't watch it yet. I'll get down to it soon. I bought Cathy Come Home and Gormenghast about seven months ago and have still only watched the making of... feature on Gormenghast. Haven't looked at all at CCH.

[Doom Patrol]

Oh dear, I'm terrible for this. I might not watch anything for years. I've got the region one DVD box set of The Key to Time I bought from Canada years and years ago and have never watched it. Likewise, most of The Avengers and Secret Agent. I've still got stuff from the Christmas before last on my DVR that I haven't watched yet either. All these things are great in theory.

[Clive]

I tend to get over excited on Amazon and pick up mutiple series of things, but only get half way through the first series.

Most recent example is 'The Rockford Files' , 5 series worth but after a year just started on the second series (with the odd main theme tune arrangement and the nasty obvious edit on the soundtrack, was wondering if this was the way it was originally ?)

[Mike S]

The semi-dented Face to Face boxset still glowers at me from the shelf.

People with thousands of cellophaned discs do my head in though. What are they buying them for? For their 'retirement', when they're 78 and half-blind?

[Clive]

People with thousands of cellophaned discs do my head in though. What are they buying them for? For their 'retirement', when they're 78 and half-blind?

Unwanted Christmas presents ? My sister seems to think I am the worlds biggest Peter Kay fan and each year I get his 'latest' DVD which is normally just a re-edit of the previous year's regurgitated effort. This year t'other sister presented me with two series of the Big Bang Theory which I can't stand either and remains in cellophane, I am hard to please...

[Richard A]

I'm quite an offender and put some of it down to the fact that I can never resist a bargain, albeit a bargain that relates to my core interests of quality British and German TV from the 50s to the 80s + old British film + European cinema + some world cinema (and a handful of 60s stylish American TV series). I buy very little in the way of TV comedy, because unlike my liking for good television drama which has stayed rooted in the past, I find my sense of humour is right up to date (though I do have a soft spot for 30s British humour - come on Network, where's that Aldwych farce boxed set?). I don't really buy for reasons of nostalgia (I had a good childhood, but I don't really try to recreate it), just an objective appreciation of the way that TV was made in the past.

One odd behaviour I've observed in myself is that I'll tend to put off viewing a 'challenging' art film until I feel in the mood, but whenever I do watch such a thing, I always get a lot out of it and wonder why I didn't watch it immediately on purchase - I don't know why I have this 'fear' of the very thing that I scour the web for bargain copies of.

I don't really mind too much about the backlog, sometimes when I walk into the spare bedroom where much of the collection resides, it's like warming my hands on the fire of all that potential enjoyment just sitting there waiting for me to catch up with it.

[David Boothroyd]

Normally I go through a series in sequence, with a few days between each episode depending on when I have spare time.

But there are some that get started and then just stop. Last night I watched the fourth episode of 'The Wilde Alliance', bought several years ago and which I never got round to at the time.

[Bodie]

I certainly plan on watching all the DVDs I've bought, and hopefully more than once. I don't watch things in the order I buy them, so something that's in the "yet to be watched" pile from last month might not rise any further because I've since got hold of something I'm more excited about seeing. I'm sure various titles bought at various times have languished because of this. Sometimes I think the problem is that we don't have a list of everything that's going to be released in our lifetimes (and when) so we can pick and choose what we stockpile.

Various things in life have slowed me down a fair bit, particularly children and my working hours, but I'd rather have time with the family and not get through all those DVDs than the other way around. I won't be worried if I go to the grave with things still wrapped in cellophane; not unless I kick the bucket while clawing open the just-arrived "Back at Last Again For Absolutely One More Time The Last Episodes of the Goodies We Haven't Released So Far". Being able to watch these splendid shows is great but it's even better because I can do it with my family. Watching "Whodunnit" again with my parents when they visit is great fun.

I still find that having a DVD reserve is a wonderful thing. It would be going a bit far to say I offer silent prayers for Network, but I don't find much of appeal in the TV guide when I look at it. That's when it's time to find out what happens next in Hadleigh.

[brigham]

In my case it's a matter of keeping my options open. I know what archive stuff I'm likely to want to watch, and anything new I hear about on forums like this. If it's on the shelf I can watch it, if it isn't I can't. Simple as that.

It also helps people like Network keep going. I'd even pay a subscription for that.

[didi-5]

Like you brigham I can justify my large collection by saying I will have something to hand if and when I am in the mood to watch it. It's nice to be able to read about something and then go to the shelf and there it is, rather than having to source it from scratch. Also I like to support Network, BFI, Acorn etc.

[Mike S]

It's just that being found dead in a room full of still-cellophaned DVDs (as most of us will be) strikes me as the bleakest thing imaginable.

I'm sure there's some update of Time Enough At Last waiting to be written, whereupon an archive TV fan finally retires and thinks 'Right, the complete Spooner's Patch here I come!' only to find there's a massive crack across his TV.

[Bodie]

It's just that being found dead in a room full of still-cellophaned DVDs (as most of us will be) strikes me as the bleakest thing imaginable.

Only if you let that pile of DVDs be the centrepoint of your life. Generally speaking none of us know when we're going to go, so we're all bound to go with unfinished boxes of cereal in the cupboard, uncooked sausages in the fridge, theatre tickets for an upcoming show in a drawer, and a half-read novel beside the bed. You might as well get shot of everything and sit in the corner until you kark it. I'm happy to buy DVDs intending to get round to them and see how I go. So far, so good!

[longtimelurker]

I usually watch within a few months of buying everything. Unless something is pretty bad (rare), I will watch the lot. So most things on my shelves have been seen at least once. Lately though Network have not put out many enticing television sets so I'm currently in a bit of a barren period.

[penfold]

The big box glowering at me from the shelf behind me as I type is the big old Sharpe box set, bought when it was still quite expensive many years ago......In the years between I have never opened even one of the discs, yet gone through many hundreds of pounds-worth of prime Network TV releases, all the Edgar Wallaces, Ealing rarities, and so on cover to cover, as it were.....and yet....whenever I channel hop and an episode is being screened on whichever cable channel occasionally shows the series, I HAVE to watch it right to the final credits. I think I may need help........

[Brian F]

I think my big mistake is turning on the computer and going round the forums, taking up the time I could be watching the discs I have bought. If my unwatched ones were in one pile I would worry about them falling. That's the trouble with falling for temptation when there is a good bargain going.

[simon10011]

The Peter Cushing Sherlock Holmes series from 1968. I purchased Study in Scarlet and Hound of the Baskervilles back in 2004. Watched Study in Scarlet in 2004 and Boscombe Valley Mystery in 2014. Hound of the Baskervilles i have just watched 10 years after buying!!

[longtimelurker]

I could never get into The Andromeda Breakthrough, try as I might. I want to like it and have made several attempts but failed every time. So slow to get going that if it does eventually get going, I've got up and gone by that time. Rare for me to feel this way about a vintage 1960s show.

[Private Frazer]

Watch the first episode of The Andromeda Breakthrough at least until they discover 'Andre'. The sequel has a lot of enjoyable aspects, such as each episode's title being something to do with the weather and reflecting the problems faced. The stock footage of the middle east works too, but more importantly It's all worth it to be able to appreciate how the relationship ends between Andre and Fleming.

My great unwatched (although I have heard most of them) are New Who commentaries that I've put together from DVD and online sound files+DVD video on video cassettes. Having just watched my next one, which is one of the best,'The Christmas Invasion' with JG, PC + RTD I have 86 David Tennant ones to go; it's great!

[spflog1]

The fourth Apes one, Conquest of..., I remember liking. I'd already read the novelisation which I got for Christmas once and that was quite harrowing stuff when I was 13, the tortures and beatings and so on.

I had exactly the same experience with that truly disturbing Conquest… novel. My sister bought it for me as a Xmas present. I found it a far more harrowing read than A Clockwork Orange which I read around the same time and just found plain entertaining in comparison.

[MDK]

Not sure if its anything to boast about but i'd have at least 30 unwatched or partially watched box sets. There are various reasons for this - there are a few long running series that I know eventually I'll want to watch but not day after day. The Rockford Files is a good example - I'll watch one episode a week and when (say) series 2 ends I'll rest it for 6 months and then put on series 3. But knowing it will take about 5 years to watch the whole run, I'll buy all the series in advance so that I don't have to worry about it being deleted by the publishers, which can happen if you buy as you watch a long series (e.g Juliet Bravo). I've bough all 12 seasons of classic Hawaii Five 0 but have only reached Season 7, having started season 1 in 2007 and I won't reach 12 until probably 2019.

Then there are titles bought in Network sales which I haven't got round to and just one or two which I started to watch but found rather hard work, so parked them (Cork, Wilde Alliance).