The Movie Man: When Streaming Gets Complicated, Maybe It’s Time to Return to DVDs

Occasionally, a message pops up in my family’s group chat:

“Who has the HBO Max account? What’s the username and password?”

I do. I take a break from my current task and search through my passwords for HBO. Once I’ve found it, I send it along and then return to what I was originally focused on.

But then another message appears: “The password isn’t valid.”

Damn. I try to reset it, but soon I’m dealing with verification prompts. After a tense two- or three-minute ordeal, I finally get a smiley emoji or an exuberant thank-you message in appreciation.

This is an all-too-familiar ordeal. With streaming services available like Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max and Apple TV, entertainment has become more frustrating than enjoyable. When streaming first began with Netflix more than 15 years ago, we were excited to know we could easily watch our favorite movies and shows without any trouble. But Netflix did not have everything, and that’s where other services stepped in to offer us more (for an additional subscription) and we handed over the money without thinking. Then more services were created with original content that offered no alternative to watching unless we handed over an additional $10 to $20. And soon beloved shows like The Office or Parks and Recreation were taken off Netflix by NBC and placed on its own streaming platform, Peacock. 

Now it has become a game of musical chairs as we struggle to remember which streaming service offers which show/movie and we dread our credit card bills when we remember how many subscriptions we signed up for. It has been great to have access to anything at any moment. But now it has become exhausting and we experience frustration when we simply want to be entertained.

This is before we even get to sports. The NFL has already been showing Thursday night games on Amazon Prime and has relatively recently started showing games on Netflix. For sports that are not as popular as football, we rely on local sports networks to watch our favorite teams. These channels usually come with cable, but how many of us use YouTube TV or simply use five separate streaming services? The solution: local networks NESN and YES offer their own streaming services (for a dramatically higher price: NESN 360 is $31 monthly). But occasionally NESN and YES broadcasters get the weekend off. Traditionally ESPN or Fox take the reins, but now this includes Apple TV or Peacock.

But the biggest hurdle to overcome sometimes isn’t even which streaming service provides our favorite content: it’s dependence on the internet. After a power outage (caused by inclement weather or any other electrical failure) your entertainment is on hold until you solve the matter. This can be especially frustrating if you have children who can’t watch their favorite shows.

So what is the solution to this issue? Physical media. We seem to have forgotten the era of DVD and Blu-ray. When someone is craving Friday Night Lights and is disappointed to find out it’s not available on their subscriptions, they don’t need to take out their credit card for a new monthly subscription that they will eventually question. Instead, the credit card should go toward the one-time purchase of a DVD box set. This can be through a retailer like Best Buy or Amazon. And it does not even have to be a brand-new DVD, it can be used. Finding DVDs while thrift shopping has become a trend in recent years. I remember building my own movie collection in college through trips to Boston’s legendary Newbury Comics franchises.

I believe that a movie collection should be on full display like a library on our bookshelves for guests to admire. Just as a collection of books (classic and contemporary) can captivate the attention of our guests, so too can our collection of movies and shows. DVDs certainly do not produce the smell of character that an old book has, but placing the theatrical editions and extended edition of The Lord of the Rings alongside a box set of J.R.R. Tolkien’s books tells us that our host has a proper and thorough appreciation of a masterpiece of 20th-century literature. Perhaps the host is a fan of iconic action movies or comedies. Perhaps the guest is an appreciator of the most sophisticated films of all time but also has a love for Adam Sandler movies (no disrespect to Happy Gilmore, Billy Madison, or Bobby Boucher; those movies have their own merit in audience appreciation).

By subscribing to more streaming services, we demonstrate that we are slaves to consumerism, desperate to throw money at the business side of entertainment just so we can enjoy ourselves. Let us not become dependent on corporate strategy. Let us take control of movie nights or TV binge-watching sessions without the fear of a missing password, bad internet or a subscription fee that we have forgotten about. Let us make this less complicated. Buy DVDs and build your collection to avoid this all-too-familiar frustration, but also so your guests can get a better understanding of you and your preferred entertainment.

About the Author: Having lived in Old Lyme and Lyme since the age of three, Kevin Ganey has a lifelong passion for cinema that goes beyond simply watching films. He is the creator of CityOfCinema.com, a site devoted to movie analysis, and co-hosts the Moviehouse Mystics podcast with Koda Uhl, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and YouTube.