Freekend: The Wire

I’ve gotten hooked on The Wire, the HBO socio-political police procedural, set in Baltimore. Various critics have called it the best show on television and my friends have called “Please hurry up and watch The Wire so you’ll know what we’re talking about.”

It was slow starting, but the last few episodes of Season One were good enough that I stayed in on Friday night to keep watching. I’ve been renting it from the Blockbuster, partly because it gives me an excuse to get a cup of coffee from Starbuckles on the way home.

But is Blockbuster the most rational way to watch all five seasons of The Wire? Well, let’s see…

From Blockbuster, each disk rental costs about $5. That’s $25 per season,  plus a $2 cup of coffee. Blockbuster is running a deal where you can have $14 unlimited rentals for seven days. That would give me time for about half a season. But the deal is risky. The Wire is pretty popular and the disk I need isn’t always in stock when I finish the previous one.

Blockbuster has an online service, but I’m too lazy to determine the cost of that option, as it comes without coffee.

If I signed up for Netflix instead, I could have two free weeks during the trial period. The cheapest plan is $8.99 a month for one DVD at a time and then next is two disks for $12.99 a month. I would have to wait a few days while the DVDs filter through the postal service. And if my luck with magazine subscriptions is any indication, I’m going to end up with more DVDs stolen by my mailman than I actually get to watch. Still, if I watch one season every two weeks, I could finish the series by the end of September. And if it’s available to be streamed online with Netflix, I wouldn’t have to wait for disks.

If I wanted to buy The Wire, it’s going for $138.99 on Amazon (with free shipping!) On iTunes the series would cost $119.40. However, I’d have to watch it on my lap-top, which usually results in my eating crackers in bed– a decision I inevitably regret by about 11:30 p.m.

The truest Freekend options? I could borrow the series from my friend Rob, but I would probably have to wait until I move to D.C. in September. I doubt he’ll want to mail it to me after he reads about the thieving mailman. I could steal it from the Internet, but it would take a lot of time and, well, I probably wouldn’t be boasting about it on my blog.

To recap:

Cost to watch all five seasons of The Wire

Traditional blockbuster: about $125 + $50 in coffee

Blockbuster online: Unclear

Netflix: $26.97-$38.97

Amazon: $138.99

iTunes: $119.40

Beg, Borrow, Steal: $0

…
It looks like Netflix is the most rational option if I want to watch the show immediately. Are there any other viewing venues I’m forgetting, Internet?

This entry was posted on Monday, July 13th, 2009 at 6:15 pm and is filed under Commoncents, Freekend, opportunity cost. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.