Miss Manners on Spoilers

[speaks]

I've been listening to a lot of movie podcasts recently. One (The Movielicious) only generally reviews current movies while the other (FilmSack) reviews older movies, largely for nostalga value. Both shows talk a fair bit about what is a spoiler and what is ok to talk about and when its ok to spoil and the like

Comments

[arseaboutface]

With the popularity of Hulu, TV on DVD, etc. I do think one should warn for spoilers when one is talking about series until after some time after the series finale. The format I like is "Spoilers to Season [x], Episode [y].

[lemon_says]

Honestly, I think TV shows only get a week of shelf life.

[syn74x]

I'm in exact agreement with Lemon. One week on shows to catch up with your tivo'd episode. If you really want to avoid spoilers on stuff that's been out a while, simply don't go reading review sites or the like.

[pipistrella]

And seriously, people need to get over worrying about spoilers.

[chapel_of_words]

THANK YOU!

That's my opinion, and I'm the least likely one of anyone to have had time (no matter how many years) to sit down and enjoy it. But spoilers are like storytelling, you pass along the bits you find interesting, and the story continues. Even if you came in mid-stream.

Tim C.

[rslatkin]

One week is plenty. The last time I remember being really annoyed is when NPR spoiled House for me the morning after it aired.

[kingfrog]

I'm unsure on the topic of spoilers.

For example, I had no problem telling people that Dumbledore was secretly Lord Voldemort, or that Return of the Jedi featured a time-travel segment in which Luke Skywalker becomes his own father, and that Darth Vader is Princess Leia's love interest in the yet-unreleased upcoming Star Wars sequel movie.

On the other hand, revealing that Lennier is a genetically-modified Centauri spy probably shouldn't happen without using a spoiler tag in advance.

Ooops.

[chapel_of_words]

Are you talking about spoilers or fanfic? *VERY* different topics. =)

Tim C.

[kingfrog]

You mean you didn't know? I guess that means I shouldn't tell you that on Supernatural, Sam and Dean aren't actually related at all, and thus have hot homo-sex on camera next season.

Oh, wait, that WAS fan-fic. ;)

[hapersmion]

Dumbledore noooooo!

Ahem. I think that people should know better if they go to a site that does reviews of media - don't read it if you haven't seen/read it. But in less skippable, like a journal that lots of friends read, or on the radio, it's best to give a spoiler warning for a good long time.