aelfgyfu_mead (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
aelfgyfu_mead) wrote2013-03-02 10:59 am
aelfgyfu_mead) wrote2013-03-02 10:59 am
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A bit about spoilers
I have a couple of friends who have said about spoilers that even an episode reaction is a spoiler. I didn't understand this, but I have tried to respect it.* Now I understand.
We can't all watch on the same schedule. Those of us in the US may get a UK episode later the same day or months later. Those in the UK may get a US episode later the same day or months later. And those of us with busy lives—which is everyone, right?—may have to wait to see something because they're working, or they watch with family members and have to wait until everyone's available, or there just enough hours in the day.
When I say I understand, it's because the back half of the latest Downton Abbey was heavily spoiled for me, but I am in the enviable(?) position of being able to explain without being angry at any one. This really is no one person's fault (except for the last straw in TV Guide). No one should feel bad, even if you posted something about DA. But now I can explain in detail how even a brief episode reaction can spoil someone else terribly.
Read further only if you have either already seen the most recent season of Downton Abbey or don't intend to watch. Serious spoilers.
This may be more detail than anyone needs or wants. Consider it Anatomy of a Spoiler, or A Study in Spoilers.
So! In the fall, I read a Parade magazine interview with Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley. He was asked if it was true that he had other good job prospects and would be leaving the show this season. He answered, "I could tell you, but then Mrs. Patmore would have to cook you." So I figured he was leaving, but not necessarily this season. (I'd heard a rumor that another cast member would be leaving this season, and it turned out to be false.) I remembered that I'd heard that a certain someone would be leaving another tv show an entire season before that actor left, and I spent the whole season in an agony of expectation that at any moment something horrible would happen to a character of whom I'm terribly fond, and it was all wasted emotion.†
So I told myself not to worry terribly. That worked great until a certain point. I think no fewer that five friends posted about DA anything from "Oh, no!" to "I am wrecked!" They didn't all post the same day, and some didn't specify the episode, so I wasn't sure which episode it was, but I knew somebody died. I figured it was either Matthew or the character played by the cast member I'm not naming.
I got my DVD set by making a gift to my local PBS station and claiming the set as a premium (which I won't do again, because they gave it a market value of $50! Who paid $50 for that thing? Anybody? Bueller?). I then watched on the PBS schedule because a) I got the set three days after the season premiere had aired on PBS and b) Small Child got interested, and once a week was all we could manage.
So Sybil died, and I was wrecked, and I thought, "Oh, okay—that's it. At least I know what the bad thing is." Except that at least one other person who seemed to be watching on a different schedule then posted what a horrible way to end the season, and then I expected something terrible to happen either in the last regular episode or the Christmas special.
We survived the end of the regular season only while I waited at any moment for Matthew to die. He could have a heart attack. Robert could kill him in a fit of pique. He could be poisoned by people getting distracted in the kitchen.
The straw that broke the camel's back (wait—am I a camel?) was when TV Guide's blurb for the Christmas special included the phrase "Matthew is still driving around in that rickety car." Oh, you're fracking kidding me, right? That car never looked "rickety" to me. So then I knew that Matthew would die, and I knew how, and I was very relieved when he took the train. I wondered if he'd borrow a car in Scotland. I thought he'd borrow a car to get Mary back to the hospital in Downton. I was glad when he didn't. As soon as the plan for him to drive to and from the hospital was announced, I knew.
I spent multiple episodes waiting for Matthew to die. I could hardly enjoy Bates getting his freedom because I was waiting for Matthew to die. I felt terrible for poor Tom Branson, not only because he'd lost his wife but because I kept thinking that he would lose his closest ally in the family at any moment. Yes, this is a silly and self-defeating way of watching television, but I really couldn't handle the spoiler. I think now that I'd have been better off looking up when it happened so that at least I could enjoy everything up to the last two minutes of the season.
Thus I will hide even my episode reactions under a cut (although I understand that certain journal styles are sometimes revealing what's behind a cut, and I sincerely apologize if that happens to any readers from any of my posts, including this one). I've realized that if I post that I liked an episode of, say, White Collar, people who know what I like on WC will know what an episode probably did and didn't contain; if I post that I didn't like an episode, they're going to have some darned good guesses about why.
Again, no blame and no guilt for anyone. Except TV Guide, which acted like everyone had already seen an episode that hadn't yet aired in this country. (Okay, maybe only my family and my parents hadn't seen it yet. Still.) I'm just adding my plea to keep even emotional reactions under a cut.
And I know I'm doomed as soon as Sherlock starts up again in the UK, but we do what we can, right?
* I know I goof up—I once sent an email (when I still used email to tell people I had written a new fic) that contained a spoiler for an episode of SGA in my description for the story. Someone pointed it out to me and I revised the description on my website, but of course anyone who got that first email already knew what had happened in the episode.
† See how careful I'm being? I haven't even named the show or given the gender of the actor! It only took two tries to get it right. (I did get it right this time, didn't I?)
We can't all watch on the same schedule. Those of us in the US may get a UK episode later the same day or months later. Those in the UK may get a US episode later the same day or months later. And those of us with busy lives—which is everyone, right?—may have to wait to see something because they're working, or they watch with family members and have to wait until everyone's available, or there just enough hours in the day.
When I say I understand, it's because the back half of the latest Downton Abbey was heavily spoiled for me, but I am in the enviable(?) position of being able to explain without being angry at any one. This really is no one person's fault (except for the last straw in TV Guide). No one should feel bad, even if you posted something about DA. But now I can explain in detail how even a brief episode reaction can spoil someone else terribly.
Read further only if you have either already seen the most recent season of Downton Abbey or don't intend to watch. Serious spoilers.
This may be more detail than anyone needs or wants. Consider it Anatomy of a Spoiler, or A Study in Spoilers.
So! In the fall, I read a Parade magazine interview with Dan Stevens, who played Matthew Crawley. He was asked if it was true that he had other good job prospects and would be leaving the show this season. He answered, "I could tell you, but then Mrs. Patmore would have to cook you." So I figured he was leaving, but not necessarily this season. (I'd heard a rumor that another cast member would be leaving this season, and it turned out to be false.) I remembered that I'd heard that a certain someone would be leaving another tv show an entire season before that actor left, and I spent the whole season in an agony of expectation that at any moment something horrible would happen to a character of whom I'm terribly fond, and it was all wasted emotion.†
So I told myself not to worry terribly. That worked great until a certain point. I think no fewer that five friends posted about DA anything from "Oh, no!" to "I am wrecked!" They didn't all post the same day, and some didn't specify the episode, so I wasn't sure which episode it was, but I knew somebody died. I figured it was either Matthew or the character played by the cast member I'm not naming.
I got my DVD set by making a gift to my local PBS station and claiming the set as a premium (which I won't do again, because they gave it a market value of $50! Who paid $50 for that thing? Anybody? Bueller?). I then watched on the PBS schedule because a) I got the set three days after the season premiere had aired on PBS and b) Small Child got interested, and once a week was all we could manage.
So Sybil died, and I was wrecked, and I thought, "Oh, okay—that's it. At least I know what the bad thing is." Except that at least one other person who seemed to be watching on a different schedule then posted what a horrible way to end the season, and then I expected something terrible to happen either in the last regular episode or the Christmas special.
We survived the end of the regular season only while I waited at any moment for Matthew to die. He could have a heart attack. Robert could kill him in a fit of pique. He could be poisoned by people getting distracted in the kitchen.
The straw that broke the camel's back (wait—am I a camel?) was when TV Guide's blurb for the Christmas special included the phrase "Matthew is still driving around in that rickety car." Oh, you're fracking kidding me, right? That car never looked "rickety" to me. So then I knew that Matthew would die, and I knew how, and I was very relieved when he took the train. I wondered if he'd borrow a car in Scotland. I thought he'd borrow a car to get Mary back to the hospital in Downton. I was glad when he didn't. As soon as the plan for him to drive to and from the hospital was announced, I knew.
I spent multiple episodes waiting for Matthew to die. I could hardly enjoy Bates getting his freedom because I was waiting for Matthew to die. I felt terrible for poor Tom Branson, not only because he'd lost his wife but because I kept thinking that he would lose his closest ally in the family at any moment. Yes, this is a silly and self-defeating way of watching television, but I really couldn't handle the spoiler. I think now that I'd have been better off looking up when it happened so that at least I could enjoy everything up to the last two minutes of the season.
Thus I will hide even my episode reactions under a cut (although I understand that certain journal styles are sometimes revealing what's behind a cut, and I sincerely apologize if that happens to any readers from any of my posts, including this one). I've realized that if I post that I liked an episode of, say, White Collar, people who know what I like on WC will know what an episode probably did and didn't contain; if I post that I didn't like an episode, they're going to have some darned good guesses about why.
Again, no blame and no guilt for anyone. Except TV Guide, which acted like everyone had already seen an episode that hadn't yet aired in this country. (Okay, maybe only my family and my parents hadn't seen it yet. Still.) I'm just adding my plea to keep even emotional reactions under a cut.
And I know I'm doomed as soon as Sherlock starts up again in the UK, but we do what we can, right?
* I know I goof up—I once sent an email (when I still used email to tell people I had written a new fic) that contained a spoiler for an episode of SGA in my description for the story. Someone pointed it out to me and I revised the description on my website, but of course anyone who got that first email already knew what had happened in the episode.
† See how careful I'm being? I haven't even named the show or given the gender of the actor! It only took two tries to get it right. (I did get it right this time, didn't I?)