DVD Decisions

"Yo! Will you be going to the Games Cafe anytime this week?"
"Oh hey! What's up?"
"Just figurin', could you help get me the Battlestar Galactica series?"
"Ahhh..."
"Unless you don't want your copy anymore...."
"I'm holding on to mine, thanks."
"Well dad wants to watch, so I'm looking to get him a set."

And with that, Andy found himself paying a visit to his local friendly disctributor in Toon Doctor's Mail Park to grab seasons 2 and 3 of Battlestar Galactica, as requested by Corey.

Sure, he could have just passed his copy of Battlestar Galactica over to Corey first, then buy new ones again later but he wanted to see if there was any new stuff the disctributor may have gotten. It has been quite a while since his last visit anyway.

Andy knows he's a bit fickle when it comes to buying stuff from his disctributor. On the one hand, there were many shows and titles that Andy was interested in watching, but given Andy's usually-packed schedule he does not have much time to sit down for a movie. Juggling his timetable meant that something else would be facing some down time so that Andy could allocate a bit of TV time.

The first thing Andy does when he steps into the store is to grab Battlestar Galactica off the shelves and place them on the counter for the disctributor so that they could pack that ready. Then it was time for Andy to prowl the store for anything else.

It may not be a big store, just your average shoplot, but there's a lot of material to cover.

There's the folder of latest shows released. This folder Andy flips through quickly and, unless it was a show he knows he is not going to be able to watch on the big screen or is dying to catch he passes it by, thinking to wait for a copy that is closer to the original content like featurettes and commentries and deleted scenes - stuff that's usually missing when a copy first comes out.

Once done with latest shows, he flips through every folder of shows - all arranged alphabetically. He's looking ofr shows to add to The List - a list of shows that he is interesting in buying, but no urgency to get them just yet. Shows on The List would be bought when Andy decides to splurge and shop in bulk - he gets one free show for every five that he buys.

Nope. There was nothing new to add to The List.

Not finding anything new of interest, he heads on to the next section - discs with multiple shows on a disc. Here he looks through for shows that aren't commonly popular - somehow the disctributor had decided to lump together shows from BBC or documentaries or even the odd television serials together with the multi-show DVDs. He was hoping to find the Miss Marple tv series in that pile, but no luck this time.

Well, there's always next time.

Back to the shelves of popular tv series. Oh look, a classy box set of Sex And The City with all seasons from one to sex six. Hmmm, he would never finish that anytime soon. The L Word. House - he liked House, watched a few episodes at the beginning when it was showing on telly, but never being able to follow it weekly he's stopped watching. Heroes - he ought to remember to get the rest of the episodes from his friend who downloaded the new seasons. Star Trek - whoa look at the number of seasons! No way he was going to try and start watching back an old series like that.

Hmmm. He has been browsing for an hour already, and it was getting late. Since he is already getting a couple of seasons of Battlestar Galactica, he wonders if the disctributor would sweeten the deal.

"Hi, so, how much will the stuff I want cost?"
"Oh, these ah? Let's see...a hundred and twenty."
"Hmmm...got any better deals?"
"Ahhhhh boss for this tv series the prices are already fixed prices one. Cannot give cheaper already."

Unfazed, Andy heads back to the shelves of tv serials and picks out Monty Phyton's Flying Circus.

"Throw this in?"
"Errr one hundred and eighty. This one six discs, sorry ya boss still cannot give cheaper. Tell you what, you add this set I give you one free D9 movie ok?"
"Nah, it's ok. I'll just take the Battlestar Galactica for now."
"Anything else for you, boss? 'Special' movies maybe?"

The disctributor nodded his head towards the little room under the staircase as he said this. Andy had noticed the room before, in his previous visits. Sometimes the room was open and lit, sometimes it was shut. Initially Andy figured it to be a broom cupboard but it turns out that the disctributor stored stuff in there for less-than-innocent minds.

"Nah, it's okay. I'm also tired already, thanks."
Not to mention I could ask for them from friends who'd already downloaded them for free online if I was interested, he thought.

And with that he paid up and left.