How enjoyable is a great Movie or TV Box Set when flying?

Long haul flights are a great opportunity to catch up on movies and television. Recent release movies are the big plus for me but lately there is a growing trend to offer a box set on the entertainment system.

In essence this is a series or collection of programmes that you can happily binge watch if you wish. This means that if you love a show or movie series you can watch all of them as you fly to your destination.

The Movie Box Set

The term box set is really incorrect as it would best be called a collection or series or something else. However box set in the DVD age came to mean these things in one catch all term which is why it continues to be used even now when there is no box.

My first encounter with this phenomenon when flying is on board Qatar Airways. Their Oryx One entertainment system contains the entire set of Star Wars movies for example.

Recently Qatar Airways have added an Alfred Hitchcock collection to their system. This meant that I enjoyed movies such as Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Strangers On A Train which I had not yet seen.

Qatar Airways also feature all the Lord of the Rings movies plus all or most of the Fast and the Furious movies as well. Really good to see!

The Television Box Set

This one is usually more difficult as popular and long running television shows have a large number of episodes. What is common to see is a number of episodes from a show included on the system. In the example below, British Airways offer five episodes of long running comedy Are You Being Served?

Other series seem to have between three and five episodes available which does make sense. It is the rare person who will sit on a 12 hour flight and watch non stop back to back episodes of the same show and there are space constraints after all.

Overall Thoughts

Until the day when connectivity at 41,000 feet reaches the speed of what is available on the ground, airline entertainment selections will remain with us. The trend of offering a box set of some description is a good one as you are not restricted to just one of something.

It is a really good distraction on a very long flight, especially before settling in for a nap. Thank you for reading and if you have any comments or questions, please leave them below.

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Featured still from Mr. & Mrs. Smith (1941), directed by Alfred Hitchcock, distributed by RKO Radio Pictures.