Daily Ick: Your Spoiler Warning Gave It Away

In this invented scene, someone settles onto the sofa to watch a mystery. The opening credits are still rolling when their phone lights up with a message from the group chat. A friend has taken great care to warn everyone about spoilers for the scene where the detective’s sister turns up.

Until that moment, the detective did not appear to have a sister.

The warning has done the work of the spoiler, with the added courtesy of announcing itself first.

The little sign that gives the game away

Today’s tiny ick is putting the surprise inside the warning. A plain heads-up about the latest episode is useful. A heads-up about the unexpected wedding, the returning character or the apparently significant greenhouse leaves the reader with a little less mystery than they had before.

Sometimes the detail sounds so harmless to the person who has finished watching that they don’t realise it’s a clue. They know who was in the greenhouse. The person on the sofa was still enjoying a world in which a greenhouse was a place to keep tomatoes.

Now, every time the camera passes a window, someone is looking for condensation.

There’s a special awkwardness in trying to object without making things worse. Pointing out the spoiler confirms its importance. Asking everybody to stop talking about the greenhouse means the greenhouse has now become a subject of considerable interest.

A fair hearing for the warning

The person who sent it was trying to help. They may have wanted to make sure the others knew which part of the conversation to skip, or they may have forgotten how much the show had revealed by the opening credits. It’s easy to lose track of what another person doesn’t know.

And some people are quite happy to know what’s coming. The little ick is giving the clue to someone who hasn’t had a chance to choose.

A warning can do its job with the title and an episode number. The rest can wait until the right people are ready to compare notes. The greenhouse will still be there, looking suspiciously well watered.

Our subjective verdict: a mild digital etiquette ick, with full credit for the kind intention. Keep the surprise out of the signpost and let the tomatoes have one more evening of plausible innocence.

Ick or innocent? Does a too-specific spoiler warning spoil the fun for you, or does it just give you something extra to look for?