With these tv shows i have on dvd should i concentrate on 1 at a time or several at once?

[forde]

i have many tv boxsets and i want to know what would be better watch 1 at a time until ive finished them all before i start another show or focus on several shows at once eg watch an episode of each? the shows are Spooks, Criminal Minds, Law And Order us version, X files, smallville, friends, carnivale, lost,

[wardell]

You do have a lot of box sets....but where to start....
I'm sorry, but IDK what spooks ot carnivale are, I'm guessing British shows so they're obviously better than most US shows.
I am a huge Criminal Minds fan, and like X-Files, Law and Order and Friends, you don't need to have seen episode 1 to understand episode 10. Smallville and LOST however are more serial in structure so you do need to see the beginning to understand the middle and end better.
LOST was and is HUGE in the USA, I would watch Lost from beginning to end then go for something totally different like Friends. You'll definitely see the difference and might not want to sit and waste time with Friends.
You've got weeks worth of TV to watch...I hope you have a comfy chair!

[eadweald71]

Other than a few random episodes that have through stories, Law & Order is safe to have as a background show.

Lost you basically want to run from start to finish without stopping for much else. It takes FOREVER.

Friends should probably be watched a season at a time.

X files should be a season at a time if not all at once. It's not heavily serialized, but the through story each season and even overall is important and it's easier to follow if you watch it all at once.

Smallville's later seasons were more serialized with a big bad storyline per season. I stopped watching sometime after Clark gets out of High School. The early seasons had a through story, but it didn't really culminate until the last few episodes, so you won't miss much if you don't burn through it quickly.