How long spoilers

I understand why there should be more lag time when discussing a film. I saw people discussing it this morning on Twitter, in fact. So does that mean six months is the acceptable waiting period? Maybe, but maybe not. A couple of years ago I had a Twitter conversation about the ending of the original The Vanishing , which came to the U. I almost always care more about how things happen in a story than what happens.

Back in , somebody told me the ending of The Sixth Sense before I had a chance to see it, and I still enjoyed the film immensely, not as a thriller with a twist ending but as a tenderhearted supernatural character portrait about a man who died and then spent the next few months denying he was dead. Should viewers bear responsibility for protecting themselves against inadvertently learning what happened on a show they love but for whatever reason failed to watch the first time it aired?

It is unnatural to expect social-media users to protect the sensibilities and preferences of strangers in all 24 time zones for a period of hours, days, or longer. It presumes that once you get beyond California, Oregon, and Washington nobody else watches television. Another wrinkle: Sometimes the storytellers themselves are complicit in spoilers.

The Game of Thrones actor in question did an interview for a cover story in Entertainment Weekly that was tweeted immediately after the West Coast airing ended. But none of these systems are percent reliable.

But people do use Twitter for other things. However, co-workers who failed to catch up on their Westworld homework on Monday evening should be unwilling to complain about midweek spoilers in the break room. In the case of movies, let's say that you went to a midnight showing of Avengers: Endgame on Thursday, April Ten days would put you at midnight, May 5. Coincidentally or perhaps not , that day window more or less coincides with the guidelines that Avengers: Endgame directors Anthony and Joe Russo proposed.

Aware that Endgame would be a cultural event, the Russo brothers were in effect asking the same question as the British respondents, and came up with the same answer. One of the things this survey doesn't tell us is how this proposed spoiler treaty effects shows that arrive on streaming services as complete seasons.

Should we give viewers 33 hours per episode? Should we treat the entire season as a movie? Or, given the time investment required, should we be even more conservative with our spoiler-free window? Spoilers can make tempers flare, as reflected in the survey, which found that 34 percent of respondents "have fallen out with a friend, family member or colleague" for revealing a plot element of a movie or TV show.

However, please remember that spoilers are a two-way street. If you are particularly spoilerphobic, it is your responsibility to tread carefully. Assume that the thing you want to watch has already been spoiled and take the proper precautions.

Mute the title of the show on Twitter in advance. Definitely, under no circumstances, visit any sort of pop culture site between the time of broadcast and the moment you watch it. Or it will be spoiled. How long is an acceptable time to wait before discussing spoilers?

Twist and shout Avengers: Endgame.