I thought DVDs preserved shows better than streaming—then I rewatched Friday Night Lights
One of the strongest arguments for buying physical media in a digital world is the unwritten rule that “the disc is always the true version.” It’s long been the case that buying DVDs or Blu-rays allows access to original edits or missing episodes that aren’t available on any streaming service. However, for one of my favorite shows, streaming has now become the version that’s more faithful to the original.
In many cases, DVDs are the only way to access original versions
Good luck streaming the version where Han shot first
All things must change, and that’s even true of movies and TV shows. As anyone who grew up watching the original Star Wars movies knows, the movies have changed a lot over the years. For reasons that remain unclear, George Lucas has constantly tinkered with the edits, adding glaringly poor CGI effects that look worse than the 1970s in-camera effects and removing actors from scenes and replacing them with different actors.
One of the most egregious edits is retconning the scene in which Han Solo kills Greedo. In the original movie, Han shoots and kills Greedo before Greedo can fire, but later edits have seen Han dodge a laser bolt fired by Greedo before shooting back. The versions currently available to watch on Disney+ now have Greedo shouting “Maclunkey!” before he and Han both shoot almost simultaneously.
Sometimes entire episodes are pulled from streaming services if they’re considered problematic, as has happened to It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. When changes are made to the original versions of shows and movies, streaming usually defaults to the newer edits, so if you want to watch original cuts or missing episodes, physical media may be your only (legal) way to access them.
You can buy IASIP DVDs that include most of the removed episodes, and you can still find the 2006 limited edition DVDs of the original Star Wars trilogy on eBay, which include both the 2004 Special Edition with many of the unwanted edits and also the original theatrical version sourced from a 1993 LaserDisc master, so you can still see Han shoot first or see Anakin played by Sebastian Shaw rather than Hayden Christensen.
It’s still usually the same version as streaming
While physical media is often the only way to find the original or complete versions of shows and movies, it’s not always the solution. In many cases, the versions published on DVD have already been edited, so that they don’t match the originals. Sometimes, shows or movies don’t even get a full DVD release.
A perfect example is the coming-of-age comedy-drama The Wonder Years. The show featured some incredible music, not least Joe Cocker’s iconic version of the Beatles classic With a Little Help From My Friends, which was used as the original theme music. Due to rights issues, the early DVD releases were only compilations containing a handful of episodes, while the versions available on streaming services such as Netflix replaced the theme music and many of the best songs.
It wasn’t until 2014, when StarVista Entertainment attempted to restore the original soundtrack, that it was possible to watch anything close to the original versions. Even now, there are still around 14 songs from the original soundtrack that don’t appear on the StarVista releases.
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Friday Night Lights currently breaks the mold
You can now stream better versions than the DVDs
Even if you can’t find the original versions on physical media, it’s still always seemed like buying a show or movie on DVD would at worst give you the same version available on streaming services and, at best, a much superior version.
Recently, however, my opinion has changed. One of my favorite shows of all time is Friday Night Lights, a show following the fortunes of a Texan high school football team. It shouldn’t be good, but it really, really is.
Just like The Wonder Years, when the show first aired, it had an iconic soundtrack featuring some great songs. By the time it was released on DVD, rights issues meant that many of those songs were swapped for generic alternatives, and these same watered-down versions were the only versions available on streaming.
That has now changed. Paramount+ is streaming Friday Night Lights, and eagle-eared viewers noticed that some of the original music is back. According to viewers who have compared the versions, the original music appears to be restored throughout seasons three, four, and five, while the first two seasons still use the replacement music.
It means that right now, the streaming version of FNL is better than any version you can buy on physical media. The only way to watch three full seasons with some of the original songs restored is by streaming them.
FNL is a rare example where streaming wins
While a win for streaming, it’s still the case that physical media is usually the better option if you want to watch the original versions of shows and movies. Some DVD releases are the same edited versions as streaming offers, but there are plenty of cases where the DVD versions are superior.
Even in the case of Friday Night Lights, there’s no telling how long these versions will be available on streaming services. At any time, the show could move to another service, the restored episodes could be replaced with the DVD versions, or it could be pulled from the catalog completely. With physical media, once you own the DVD, no one can take it away from you.
For now, however, fans get to watch some episodes of FNL with at least some of the original music restored. In a world of platform decay, it’s a rare case of something getting better, not worse.
Physical media may be on the way out
With Sony announcing that the company is going to stop producing physical copies of PlayStation video games, it may be the case that other forms of physical media will also become scarcer. Once it’s gone, we’ll be stuck with accepting the versions that streaming services choose to offer us, which can’t be a good thing.
