Category: rant

Vader is Luke’s father and thoughts on spoilers

Last week, the internet vomited a storm of hatred for anyone who posted anything indicating things that might possibly have happened in the final episode of the current series of Game of Thrones.

I don’t watch Game of Thrones and therefore I didn’t care. I do care about wrestling though. On the same day, I had been avoiding the internet until I was able to watch the latest pay per view, Money In the Bank after I’d got back from work.

Initially my thinking was: can’t all the people who are getting upset about Game of Thrones spoilers just stay off the internet for a few hours? I know some people need it for work, but the likelihood is that they are just so attached to checking their phone every 30 seconds that they can’t stay away from it.

At the end of the week, though, I changed my mind.

I found out what happens in the latest episode. I didn’t intend to as I really don’t care. I overhead two people at work discussing it and I discovered who dies. It is so easy for people to spoil things for others and blaming the victim is just as wrong here as it is anywhere else. It is symptomatic of a culture where people aren’t as considerate of others as they could be.

When I’ve been spoilered previously on wrestling sometimes it’s been my own fault because I’ve Googled something such as “How old is the Undertaker” and accidentally brought up headlines about the event I’m watching. Partly it is because of dicks. I intentionally unfollowed all wrestlers on Twitter as they are the most likely to be tweeting about an event before I see it. Then a guy from a band I posted about the result of the main event. Hence my now self-imposed social media blackout on Mondays after a pay per view.

I have also recently finished playing Season One of the excellent Walking Dead video game. Just before I did, I was in the process of recommending it to a friend and I was about to send the link to the Android app when I realised it had a massive spoiler in one of the reviews. Seriously, dude. Do you not think that someone who might want to play the game without knowing what happens might want to read a couple of reviews? I can’t even fathom the mentality of someone like that.

I get the need to talk about things you enjoy. It’s human nature, especially if you want to discuss the art you have experienced. But a bit of consideration is required.

There is also a weird culture of self-spoilering by reading TV guides which tell you who is going to die in Eastenders (or whichever other soap). I always found this confusing. Why would you want to know what’s going to happen in something before you watch it? But then I’m not the sort of person who watches soap. Just the male soap opera that is wrestling. With wrestling, I do sometimes read websites which predict results of Pay Per Views, although this is mostly because I want to see what other people think will happen as I don’t have many people to discuss wrestling with in real life as most of my friends have actually grown up.

I’m wondering if there has been a slight change in the way things have happened recently. Netflix have started releasing entire seasons of shows in one batch, and this perhaps makes people realise that not everyone is watching it at the same stage.

The new series of Orange is the New Black was released a couple of weeks ago but I’ve not seen anyone say anything about it yet. This could be because it’s got weaker since the first series, it could be because not many people have made it all the way through yet or perhaps because it is easy to understand that not everyone would be at the same stage in their viewing due to the way it has been released.

There is though the question of when is it okay to talk about something. I’ve recently been listening to Richard Herring’s Edinburgh Fringe Podcast (or as all the cool kids are calling it, RHEFP) where he was discussing how someone was annoyed at him for giving away something that happens in the 1970s TV series Colditz. The implication is that enough time has passed that if you haven’t seen it now, then you clearly don’t care enough to not get spoilered.

This goes back to the point about understanding that not everyone is at their same stage in viewing something, though. It may well be that someone has just only just discovered a show. The issue is that if we were always avoiding talking about something for fear of spoiling something for someone, then we would never be able to discuss art at all.

I think a balance needs to be struck though, and the situation where two colleagues were discussing Game of Thrones is not quite as I described it. One of them did ask the other first if they had seen the final episode. And herein lies the crux of the matter. You need to understand who you are talking to about the issue and whether and innocent bystanders are likely to get caught in the cross fire.

In a work situation, there are maybe one or two people nearby and you will probably know if any of them care enough for you to need to avoid talking about it around them. This happened in my previous job – you knew that everyone watched The Apprentice (partly because we had a sweepstake on it) so you made sure that everyone in earshot was up to date.

The problem is that the internet is international and social media is a platform that anyone can send stuff to, it is so easy to accidentally see a snippet of information that gives the game away. There is also no possible way for you to ensure that everyone reading your message is up to date with the show you are watching. In fact, it is probable that not everyone is up to date with it, and therefore the best thing to do is to be considerate and not post something that clearly gives away what is going to happen.

A number of people have learnt to be more considerate now, although you will always have people who haven’t themselves been spoilered and learnt the lesson of not telling everyone what happens. Sometimes a website will give away a spoiler and that is exceptionally mean. No websites, that’s a bad websites. I can understand reviewing an episode but not writing stories with big headlines about what happens.

Maybe I’m just over sensitive about this in a way. I’d like to think that I’m not overreacting but then I am the sort of person who avoids watching film trailers as I like to watch a film knowing as little about it as possible. I think though, if you’ve invested a lot of time in something – for example watching five seasons of it – you would be pretty justified in being annoyed at having it spoiled for you.

I guess what I’m trying to say is, wherever possible, try to avoid mentioning when talking about something openly a piece of information which would spoil the enjoyment of someone watching it if they knew that piece of information.

And it might be petty but if if someone does it to you, reply with “Vader is Luke’s father” and they might just change their ways.

The more I think about it, the more the ending to Dexter sucks

SPOILER ALERT: This is about the final episode of the TV show Dexter. If you don’t want to know what happened, don’t read. Although if you don’t know and read, to be honest, you’ll probably be only be as disappointed as if you’d watched it anyway.

Here is a picture of Dexter before I actually start ranting, just to give people time to read that spoiler alert.

There. Now that’s out of the way, on with the rant.
I have been into Dexter for a while. I think it was around season 3 was on TV when someone lent me a DVD of the first season and told me that I’d like it. I did and I caught up quite quickly.
It was brilliant. The idea was amazing – a forensic analyst who is a compulsive serial killer, therefore able to cover his tracks perfectly and who only kills the bad guys.
The show had a couple of brilliant season. The first one and the one with John Lithgow as the Trinity killer stand out. It also had some amazing bits in the others. 
Since it was announced that they were going to end the show a couple of years ago, I have watched the last three seasons with Bass and Natalie as companions. Since that point the writers had always known how it was going to end, according to interviews.
Since that point, we had been debating how it was going to end. In my mind, there was one of two ways it could finish:
1. Dexter is dead.
2. Dexter is imprisoned.
Any other way, then there is not a resolution. If Dexter is alive and at large, we still assume that he has the killer instinct – the dark passenger which he hasn’t actually spoken about for a few years – and therefore it is not an ending. There could still be more. Why it would end any other way, I don’t know.
The last couple of seasons leading up to this, have actually been a bit lackluster. Deb finding out about Dexter’s true nature should have been the beginning of the end. As it was, it was dragged out, she thought she was in love with him, she got a different job, she tried to confess. Some of these things were good. Some of them were dull.
Deb finding out about Dexter should have been cataclysmic. It should have sent the show on a spiral towards one of the two endings that I have suggested. 
Instead, they faffed around in season 8 by bringing in a bunch of new characters. 
Dr Vogel who was insanely annoying was supposed to have been the one that came up with Dexter’s code (that he only kills the baddies). She was weak. Buying into her being his inspiration all along was nigh on impossible.
Her son was better and ultimately a bit more like some previous villains, but he was no Trinity or Ice Truck Killer and to have him be the one that finally brought Dexter down was a rubbish way of doing it. Much better would have been to have Deb be the one responsible for his demise in one way or the other.
Zach was the best character they introduced. He was like a mini Dexter and one way of ending the show could have been to have Dexter train him and have Zach take over his legacy. But they killed him off after a few episodes.
Masouka’s daughter…. well what the hell was that point in her? She added absolutely nothing to the story. Dead weight.
Still, even with all of this faffing and the weak storyline, I could have bought the ending if it hadn’t been for the last 30 seconds. 
The ending prior to this was at least sort of consistent with the rest of the season. Dexter has become a bit more emotional, felt guilty about what he’d done to those around him, especially Deb and then he becomes the cause of the reason she will be a vegetable for the rest of her life and so decides to do what he knows and killer her and bury her at sea. He then gets caught up in a storm and you see his shipwreck. Scene.
At least that is reasonably consistent and gives us an resolution. But no. We’re not allowed one. Fade in and we see Dexter is a lumberjack. 
What?
What the Bon Jovi am I supposed to think about that? 
He is still alive. Surely he’s still a killer? Surely there’s still more I need to know about him?
THAT IS NOT AN ENDING, SHOWTIME. THAT IS A NEW BEGINNING.
In the few weeks that have passed since I watched the final episode, the anger has been festering and I have felt the need to get it out. 
It might have been made worse by the fact that I watched the final episode the day before I watched the final Breaking Bad which ended perfectly and true to the entire 5 seasons.
I should have been prepared based on the fact that the last few seasons have been a bit sub-par but I was at least hopeful for closure. Apparently I’m not allowed it. Well, screw you, Showtime! I’m not watching any more of your shows!