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Finally caved and bought the 'Mystery Science Theater 3000' Turkey Day box set
It was a little over $80, which felt like a lot for some old VHS transfers (you know, the kind with the weird tracking lines). But having the whole 'Manos: The Hands of Fate' episode on a real disc, with the commentary track, made a bad movie night with my friends absolutely perfect. Anyone have a favorite riff from that set I should show people next?
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samflores2mo ago
Exactly, it's like we're all building our own little archives now. Streaming services drop stuff all the time, and their catalogs are a mess. Owning the weird, specific stuff you actually love is the only real guarantee it won't just vanish one day. That box set isn't just some DVDs, it's a backup copy of a specific feeling, that bad movie night vibe. Makes the price feel way more worth it in the long run.
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That "backup copy of a specific feeling" line really hit me. My buddy once drove two hours to a video store going out of business just to snag a beat-up VHS of 'The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai' because he knew it would never show up on streaming. The tracking was so bad on his copy the audio would skip for seconds at a time, but he said the physical act of putting it in the VCR felt like keeping a pact with his teenage self. So yeah, I get why that box set feels worth it even at that price.
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My local library just cleared out their entire DVD section last month, which is wild. It feels like we're all buying physical media again just as the last public place for it gives up. Your Turkey Day set is a perfect example, preserving something that streaming services would never bother with.
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