Most of us have shelves filled with box sets: well-watched discs of our favourite programmes, shows we somehow missed first time round and have come to love, that unlikely impulse-buy yet to make it out of the cellophane and on to the screens. Our DVD shelves, bursting with brilliant shows, are our TV safety blankets – the things we raid when the schedules are bare but the sofa still calls.
Of course, we could just watch shows as they are broadcast. Lots of us still do. But there is something about viewing several episodes in one sitting that quickly becomes addictive – once you've started gobbling down storylines in three-episode chunks, you want to watch everything in concentrated bursts. The bingeing is part of the appeal.
But so is talking about the show afterwards. So we thought it was time to launch our new Box Set Club – in which we will discuss a different DVD every week. On Tuesday afternoons we'll kick off a conversation on a show, and then throw things over to you. We'll also let you know what we'll be watching for next week, so you can dig out the title from that pile under the television.
We won't be focusing on releases of new shows – given that they've only just been on TV, chances are they've already been reviewed and picked apart – but on those box sets that we still return to, or discover, sometimes many years after the programme first broadcast. When I review my box set purchases, for every recent show that ends up in my basket, an old favourite – or, more likely, something I missed entirely the first time round – also finds its way in there.
Our first DVD, next Tuesday, will be Our Friends in the North. Join us to discuss the drama then – and for now help us out with some of the finer details of Box Set Club. How should we sensibly approach box sets of multiple series, for instance – one at a time? A handful at a time? The whole thing as one body of work? Do we need to give you more than a week's notice of a DVD? What about spoilers? We look forward to your thoughts – and seeing you for discussion next Tuesday.
