Editor’s Desk: And Just Like That, spoilers ruined my weekend

Enough with the spoilers. What is it about the age of information overload? Spoilers are like the internet’s version of a spiteful frenemy who can’t stand your happiness and has to let slip a secret that ruins your mood and your day, all wrapped up in the plastic excuse of “sorry, not sorry”. My plans last weekend involved watching the first two episodes of the Sex and the City reboot, And Just Like That. The episodes dropped on Thursday. I was going to watch them on Saturday. Two days — that was all I had to wait. I thought ‘no problem, I won’t go looking for spoilers, it’ll be fine to wait a measly 48 hours’. That naivety lasted less than two hours and it wasn’t my fault. I couldn’t escape the spoiler of a major character’s death. It was plastered everywhere. Save for going full on digital detox, it couldn’t be avoided. These weren’t stories that I had to click past spoiler warnings to read. They were on homepages, on social media feeds, newspaper headlines, I even got notifications about them on my phone. Even in general conversation, some people couldn’t keep the big dramatic twist to themselves. It didn’t ruin the experience entirely — catching up with Carrie and co was a nostalgic trip down memory lane and it’s nice to see the lives of women over 50 taking centre stage for once — but knowing what’s coming ruins the fun, the surprise and dilutes the emotion. And this was far from the first time I had fallen victim to “spoilerdom.” It seems you can’t escape a big twist in a movie or TV show or book unless you devour it straight away. What happened to the art of anticipation? It seems it evaporated while no one was watching. I say bring it back, at least a little bit of it. It’s just not the same knowing what’s coming. So I say, ease up on the spoilers. At least give it a few days before being willing to spoil the party for others. But if it turns into weeks or months of not watching something and then you start complaining about spoilers, that’s on you. But I grant you, it’s hard to keep up in the age of streaming.