College students are often known for their love of movies. In most college towns, where classes start at noon and midnight is treated as midday, the local video-renting establishments are constantly busy seven days a week.

However, as the demand for DVDs continue to grow, the latest endeavor of entertainment companies has been releasing TV series into multi-disc DVD sets. These TV series have skyrocketed in popularity, quickly making video stores the Mecca of college students everywhere. Instead of a normal two-hour movie, students are easily putting six hours at a time into a single season of a TV show.

The local Blockbuster Video, at 1305 Neil Street, has remodeled its store to include a section solely designated to television series. Marco Casillas, a Blockbuster employee and junior in Engineering, says the demand for TV series is beginning to outpace normal movie rentals, especially in the summer, when students have more time.

“Students will rent seasons at a time, 24 hours worth of TV, and be back two days later for the next season,” Casillas said. “It’s becoming a lifestyle around campus.”

This lengthy entertainment undertaking has become just another procrastination technique University students are using to put off homework, skip classes and even forego summertime work obligations.

“I missed a whole week of classes last semester just so I could watch the entire second season of 24,” said Jenna Bell, junior in Education.

Students say the main attractions brought by these TV series are their addictiveness mixed with incredible convenience.

“It’s hard to watch normal TV now because the commercials are so annoying and you have to wait weeks to see what happens next in the plot,” said Joe Zhu, sophomore in engineering.

In a society of fast food and even faster internet connections, the convenience brought by commercial-free and back-to-back episodes offers students immediate results that they have grown accustomed to without having to wait a week or two in between episodes.

“I’d much rather wait until the whole season comes out on DVD rather then trying to track it over eight months,” Zhu said.

The market for TV series on DVD is expanding by the minute as popularity and profits continue to grow, and has allowed entertainment companies to release not only current shows, but seasons of old, classic and even cancelled shows.

Some of the most popular TV series among University students have been The O.C., Sex and the City, Friends, Seinfeld, Family Guy and Sopranos, just to name a few.

Especially during the summer, when network shows are on hiatus and students have minimal academic responsibilities, TV series on DVD have replaced aimless channel surfing.

“TV series are perfect for college students because they are addictive enough to easily take up 10 hours of my day,” said Todd Kantarek, junior in engineering. “However, on the same note, watching only one episode can be a nice 45-minute break between classes when there isn’t time for a whole movie or even a nap.”