In 2001, as I was commencing the final year of my Bachelor’s degree, a friend handed me her copy of Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, thinking I would enjoy it. It was a good read, so I borrowed the second book. That was good too, but I have to admit, its main appeal for me was that it was a nice easy break from Thomas Pynchon and Freud. That same weekend, I read the third and fourth book. It was Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire that hooked me. As luck would have it, that was the year the first movie came out.
By the third movie there was no doubt that the entire series would be made, unlike Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy, which never quite overcame the poor showing of its first movie, for me it also never made it past the first book. At this time, I knew I would be marrying a Yank and moving across the globe at some point. Not much point in buying the Region 2 DVD when it came out. By the time I moved in 2003, I had made my decision. I would wait for the box set. My mother in law bought the movies as they came out, so I could get a Potter fix that way if necessary, but I would wait for the inevitable box set in all its glory.
Well the wait is paying off this week. On Thursday at midnight, Friday 11.11.11, the final installment of the Harry Potter movies will be released on DVD and Blu Ray, alongside a $100 box set in the format of your choice, reduced to around $50 in most places this week. I’m still trying to decide if I want to go to my local store at midnight or not.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not a Potter fanatic. I can see the successes and failures of the series in both of its mediums. I can probably list a dozen movies I would choose to watch before reaching for this set. But this has been an eight year wait for me, and that alone excites me. I never wait for the box set, I’m the impulse buyer in the family. It was with gritted teeth that I resisted each release of The Lord of the Rings, because my husband wanted the box set and inevitable extras. I foresee a Harry Potter marathon over Thanksgiving weekend, in which much tea will be drunk and many crocheted hats made. I also see death and gloom, but only because I like Sybil Trelawny!
As box sets have become the norm over the years, I have begun to regret previous purchases. I like my Region 2 box set of The West Wing, it takes up little space. My Gilmore Girlscollection is almost an entire shelf, whereas the box set is quite petite. Space saving is the name of the game these days, especially with thirteen Little Enstein DVDs on the shelf. I doubt I will ever be a full convert to online streaming, much as my IT husband, I am a hardware kind of girl. But after an eight year wait for Potter, I think I have a better chance of becoming a box set girl in the future. Unless of course GleeSeason Two appears for $15 like the first season did, who can resist that price?
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, it takes up little space. My Gilmore Girls
collection is almost an entire shelf, whereas the box set is quite petite. Space saving is the name of the game these days, especially with thirteen Little Enstein DVDs on the shelf. I doubt I will ever be a full convert to online streaming, much as my IT husband, I am a hardware kind of girl. But after an eight year wait for Potter, I think I have a better chance of becoming a box set girl in the future. Unless of course Glee
Season Two appears for $15 like the first season did, who can resist that price?
