So, I have received far more comments AGAINST spoilers than for them. Knowing my friends (mostly purists) and their views on art of any kind (highly intelligent), I had a feeling that the baser ways to enjoy art (spoilers) might hit them the wrong way.
I realized that I failed to explain, or defend, my position on spoilers. Now, this is not to say that I disagree with those who choose to remain spoiler-free. I actually TOTALLY understand their point of view. It is the same reason that I try to see incredibly hyped-up movies the day they come out or not at all.
**Case in point- I have never seen The English Patient. (However, after seeing Cold Mountain, I'm not sure that I'd want to, save for the fact that hot hot Naveen Andrews of Lost stars in it.) It was too hyped, I knew too much about it, and the plot was plastered all over the place.
However, my enjoyment of spoilers comes in the actual drawing out of the enjoyment of the show in question. For days before and beyond the one hour (41 minutes) of television, I can enjoy it. I can discuss the plot points on my boards, I can find out deeper meaning behind certain books and clues otherwise lost on me, and I can drive Nick CRAZY by saying- "Look at the milk carton!," "Do you know who that is?" or "Yeah, don't get too attached to her." Priceless, I tell you!
Like Suzanne with reading the last few pages of a book first, I normally enjoy things more if I know where they're going. It has something to do with control, as do most things in my life, I'm sure.
**Case in point- City of Angels, I'm sure, was a great film. I loved the premise, I like Nick Cage and Meg Ryan, I thought it was beautiful. But, alas, I HATED this film. To this day, I cannot watch it. This is due ONLY to the last 10 minutes of the film. I won't "spoil" it for those who haven't seen it, but had that not happened, I would have loved it.
I understand that there are some who cannot see my point, and view spoilers as tainting my TV-watching experience, but it couldn't be farther from the truth for me. They merely enhance it- and if there was a support group for spoiler-heads, I'm don't think I would join. Thanks, though!
4 comments:
I don't really have anything against spoilers, so much as I just don't care. I think I'm like Karl in that I just wait for shows to come out on DVD now, so I don't even know what the spoilers were for the shows. I can hardly even bring myself to watch TV shows that are not on DVD these days. If I had TIVO, I don't think I would ever watch live TV.
This would be a great in-person conversation, don't you think? I can see us all sitting around with wine glasses in our hands, talking about the artistic and ethical implications of viewing or not viewing spoilers, and going off into tangents on such things as the finer points of Buffy the Vampire Slayer (yes, Jessie, me too), and coming away relishing the fact that there are other people in this world like us, in that we don't consider such topics a complete waste of time, like the non-creative types probably would.
In all fairness, I must point out that I do not in fact watch live TV. We don't have cable and a solid foot of brick on all sides of the apartment(No insulation, just more brick, I love 1920's brownstones) makes getting a signal off the air laughable. As such I don't really know how I would feel about spoilers if I had to wait a week or more for every TV Show, in stead watching a whole season in a week.
Amen to TV on DVD and TIVO- I swear, just not being bombarded with ads every two seconds is worth every penny. Alas, we do not have Tivo, but our VCR gets a great work-out every week!
And we own more shows on DVD than I care to admit...
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