The Cigarette-Smoking-Man to my Agent Mulder is annoyed at the lack of respect in the entertainment media these days for withholding spoilers. While I'm generally not obsessive about staying "spoiler-free" -- I don't actively seek out spoilers for movies, books and TV shows, but I don't automatically shy away from them, either -- he's definitely got a point. People seem to think nothing of dropping the big news in articles, such as the TIME article about the upcoming Matrix sequel that my CSM cites. And it goes a lot farther than that.
:: TV promos advertise when shows have surprise endings, completely ignoring the fact that much of the impact of a surprise ending stems not just from the surprise, but by our discovery that there's a surprise in the first place. "Don't miss the last five minutes" is always a disclaimer on NBC, as if anyone's going to watch fifty minutes of an hour-long show and then say, "Oh well, we've seen enough. Let's check ESPN."
:: When Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was still a month away from release, the soundtrack CD was issued. So Star Wars fans went out to buy the new CD, and when they glanced at the track listing, they find titles such as "Qui Gon's Noble End" and "Qui Gon's Funeral". Annoyance galore.
:: Book blurbs these days increasingly spoil a book's contents and plot points, or the book's cover art will depict a climactic event that's pretty essential.
It would be nice if we could restore at least some of the thrill of discovery to our entertainment.
The personal blog of author Kelly Sedinger, chronicling the adventures of one overalls-clad wanderer.
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