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May 21, 2009
Sick of spoilers
simon, originally uploaded by marey_jingle.
I've pretty much had it with people who don't want the ending to American Idol/Grey's Anatomy/The Bachelor spoiled. I get it - you Tivo'ed it, and you want to watch it later. However, the internet and the general media does not need to shut down because you want to wait to find out what happened.
As far as I am concerned, there should be no more than a 12 to 18 hour waiting period on spoilers. At that point, it's fair game. It's simple, really - if you record something to watch later, most everybody is going to know what happened.
This holds true especially for reality shows and sporting events. Both are broadcast live, with the result basically occurring in real time. I never understood how someone could record a sporting event, and then try to watch it later. Every time I've done it, I've gone on to look up the result before wasting my time watching. (Chances are, my team lost.) The same thing with reality shows - it's extremely hard for me to hold off on finding something out, if I know a way to learn it.
The same sort of thing goes with a scripted show - yes, you want to watch it later, but at the same time you can't expect everyone who saw it not to talk about it. It was on TV. You had an appointment, and you missed it. Again, 12 to 18 hours to find out.
Note this does not apply to movies. Movies are completely different. They are self-contained entities, operating outside the normal time continuum.
I'll never forget when "I Love The 90's" spoiled the ending of "Fight Club," without even bothering to warn me. That was not cool. Admittedly, I had fifteen years to see Fight Club, and hadn't yet, but it still stung. I was hoping that when I actually did watch it, I'd have forgotten the twist ending. Yeah right. Thanks VH1, you're great!
entry no. 1377
Posted at May 21, 2009 10:35 PM