I’m feeling oversensitive today about people not adequately announcing spoilers. And being as I’m hideously over-caffeinated and thus not qualified to do any important work, I’m going to rant for a bit.
For cryin’ out loud, people! Not everyone has seen everything you have seen! Thanks to DVD, I might be watching something tonight for the first time that you saw three years ago and think everyone already knows about. And some of us like to keep our suspense, well, suspenseful! It’s gotten to the point where I’m afraid to look at the cover of Entertainment Weekly in case I accidentally find out something about Season 3 of Battlestar Galactica (which btw Netflix still has listed with an “unknown” release date, the slackers).
Here’s an example of how I want to see content about a show/movie/novel/amusement park ride/other artform/experience where suspense is important:
*****SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *****
This post contains a spoiler about Season 2 of the HBO series Rome.
Honest. If you haven’t seen Season 2 of Rome but you think you might one day, don’t read any further.
Keep scrolling. There’s a spoiler down there somewhere.
Seriously. I’m pissed off about the increasing lack of spoiler alerts. It’s not like it’s a new idea. On Usenet you’d have been flamed eyebrowless for stuff people feel free to post now, spoiler-wise. (You kids today, and your fancy browsers. Get off my lawn.)
*****SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *****
There’s a spoiler right below this.
Okay: Season 2 has been less enjoyable for me to watch so far not just because of the overall more somber/desperate nature of the circumstances the characters and the republic find themselves in, but because I accidentally found out a couple of months ago (while looking for some pretty general information about Indira Varma) that [here’s the spoiler!] Vorenus’ children didn’t die at the hands of Erastes Fulmen in the first episode [that was it. The spoiler, I mean.]
So I was completely deprived of the major suspense-driver for the first few episodes of the season.
Boo.
P.S. Someone ought to cast Simon Woods and Paul Bettany as brothers.