How to Watch Your Favorite Comfort Show Without an Overpriced Subscription

We all have songs that are our guilty pleasures, and the same is true for TV shows. For me, it's the show Friday Night Lights . The five seasons about the trials and tribulations of a Texas high school football team are cheesy and predictable, but just really comforting to watch. If you're tired of paying a premium to watch your favorite comfort show on a streaming service, then the good news is that there are alternatives.

Pay for Digital Access

One of the simplest ways to watch your favorite comfort show without paying for a subscription is to purchase access to the digital box sets of the show. You can purchase box sets from places like Apple TV or Prime Video, and watch the show whenever you want through the relevant app. Since you've paid for the content, you can watch the show without the need for a subscription.

For example, the complete box set of all five seasons of Friday Night Lights is currently $49.99 on Apple TV . The show is now streaming on Prime Video in the US , but in the UK, you can purchase the complete box set for £29.99, which is roughly $40. An Amazon Prime subscription is $14.99 per month with all the perks, or there's a standalone Prime Video subscription for $8.99.

If you don't want to see ads while you watch your comfort show, however, then you'll need to pay an additional $2.99 per month . For the same ad-free experience you get with the box set, it means the price of the complete box set of five seasons is a little more than it costs to subscribe to Amazon Prime for just two months.

There are pros and cons to buying digital box sets. The benefit is that you can watch your comfort show without a subscription, even if the show is removed from all streaming services. Once you've purchased the show, you can watch it as many times as you like without paying anything more.

However, digital access is not always permanent . You're not buying the content itself; you're buying a license to stream or download it, and that license can be revoked. If the company loses distribution rights, you could lose access to the content you paid for, although it's a reasonably rare occurrence. However, it is possible that even though you've paid for a digital box set, there may come a time in the future when you are no longer able to watch it.

The prices of digital box sets can be discounted from time to time. It's worth keeping an eye on prices to see if you can grab a great deal.

Buy a Physical Box Set

If you're worried about buying a digital box set because you can't be certain that you'll be able to watch it in the future, then a physical box set is worth considering . Once you've bought a show on DVD or Blu-ray, you own it in perpetuity; there's never going to come a time when you're no longer allowed to watch it, unless your significant other gets sick of your man crush on Tim Riggins.

You can usually find good deals on used box sets on sites such as eBay or Facebook Marketplace. If the discs are in good condition, there's little difference from buying them new. For example, the complete box set of Friday Night Lights is currently available for $35 on eBay, and for as little as $18 on DVD. You can also get lucky at thrift stores where you may be able to find your comfort show for even less.

One potential issue with physical media is that, as new formats are introduced, old ones become obsolete. If you have a collection of VHS cassettes, for example, and your VCR dies, you're going to be hard pushed to buy a new one, as they stopped making them in 2016. While DVDs and Blu-rays can be ripped , it's much more challenging to do so with a VHS cassette, as you require dedicated equipment, and the same may become true of current physical media in the future.

Digitize Your Collection and Play It Locally

One benefit of ripping your DVDs or Blu-rays is that once you have them digitized, they're reasonably immune to the march of technology. If the file format you've ripped them in stops being supported by your media player of choice, the chances are that you'll be able to use some software to convert them to a different format. Or, you know, just open them in VLC , which seems to be able to play every type of file format known to man.

Another benefit of digitizing your collection is that you can then play it locally. Streaming services are great until your internet goes down, at which point they become completely useless, unless you have the exact shows you want to watch downloaded to a device. With digital media, you can stream the content on your local network or even play it directly from a hard drive or USB stick, even when the internet is down.

Borrow the Show From Your Library

Another often overlooked way to watch your favorite comfort show is to borrow it from your local library. Many libraries will lend DVDs, and some also have Blu-rays. The best part is that some libraries will allow you to borrow DVDs or Blu-rays completely for free or for a nominal fee.

The benefits of borrowing from your library are obvious; you can watch the show for free or very little cost. However, there are some downsides. Your library may not have a copy of your favorite comfort show, or it may not have it in a format that you can use. If they do have a copy, you won't be able to guarantee that it will be available to borrow when you want to watch it. It also means that you can't just put on your comfort show on a whim; you need to plan ahead a little.

Check Free Streaming Services

Thankfully, not every streaming service has a subscription fee. There are some free streaming services out there, and if you're lucky, your comfort show may be found on one of these services, allowing you to watch it without a subscription.

Services such as Tubi, Pluto TV, and The Roku Channel all offer on-demand TV shows and movies, with some also offering free live channels. If you're fortunate enough to find your comfort show on one of these services, then you can watch the show to your heart's content without having to pay for a subscription.

There are, of course, some downsides to using free streaming services. Not every free streaming service is available in every country, and since you're not paying a subscription fee, these companies need to make money in other ways. That means that you're usually subjected to frequent interruptions for ads.

The libraries of these free streaming services are also limited or of a lesser quality than paid streaming services. You may find a few great shows and movies interspersed with a lot of junk. The streaming quality may also not be as good as paid streaming services.

That said, it's worth checking out free streaming services. You may find that some of the content you want to watch can be found for free.

Take Advantage of Free Trials

If you're desperate to watch your comfort show, and you know that it's on a streaming service that you don't have a subscription for, you may be able to take advantage of the free trials that many streaming services offer. For example, a seven-day trial might give you enough time to binge an entire season of a show without paying a cent.

If I wanted to watch Friday Night Lights , for example, and I didn't have a Prime membership already, I could sign up for a 30-day free trial of Prime and get access to all the perks, including Prime Video. It would give me 30 days to watch the five seasons of Friday Night Lights currently available on Prime Video, completely for free.

Many streaming services offer free trial periods ranging from seven days to a month. However, not every streaming service gives free trials; popular services such as Netflix and Disney+ don't offer trials directly, although you may be able to get free access through purchases of other products or services.

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Like most tech services, streaming was once excellent and is now hideous. With so many different streaming services, each clinging to its own set of shows and movies, it's impossible to have access to all the content you want to watch without subscribing to multiple different services, with costs quickly mounting up.

The good news is that a paid streaming subscription isn't the only option. Whether you prefer buying physical media or making the most of free trials, there are alternative ways to watch your favorite shows. As they say in Friday Night Lights , "Clear eyes, full hearts, can't lose."