My flatmate and I had a special Monday morning ritual during the spring of 2019. We would set our alarms for 6am, draw the blinds in our little London flat and watch Game of Thrones. She was a subeditor charged with proofing episode recaps, I was running a social media team. Ingesting an hour of mud, blood and dragons before our first coffees was the safest way to avoid spoilers.
Now that I live in Australia, where big US shows tend to air in the middle of workdays, there are no worms to be caught by early birds.
So, like many Australian Succession viewers – at least those of us who didn’t have Easter Monday off work – I knew about the massive plot development in last night’s episode hours before hearing the title score’s dissonant opening chords.
Next Monday, many more Australians will suffer the same fate. But is it inevitable? After seeking out the advice of three people who’ve successfully avoided Succession spoilers (through a mixture of tech savvy and common sense) the answer is: kind of. As Cnet’s Daniel Van Boom says: “The options are quite rough, that’s to be sure.”
Strategy one: self-control
The old-fashioned kind. “The first one is obvious: don’t Google the show,” Van Boom cautions. He has inadvertently spoiled himself a number of times while trying to figure out air times. I tell him I had the ending of John Wick IV ruined by a Google auto-prompt (my search was unrelated to John Wick). Apparently, there are no silver bullets for that. “There’s spoilers at every turn.”
Van Boom also cautions against entertainment websites: “Don’t go to Variety or the Hollywood Reporter … the top story is going to be a spoiler.
“But really the killer is going to be social media … just get off it. It’s a wild west in terms of protecting yourself. You’re leaving it up to others and people are not known for their good etiquette on the internet.”
All this time and y’all STILL haven’t learnt not to log into Twitter DOT com to avoid seeing spoilers??? Baby that’s on YOU pic.twitter.com/cL9zWAUhfl
— Meech (@MediumSizeMeech) April 10, 2023
Strategy two: self-control
The new, technologically facilitated kind. If looking at social media or the news is not part of your day job, you can always install time management apps and browser extensions like AppBlock (Android, iOS and Chrome, free with paid premium tiers), Freedom (Android, iOS, Windows and Mac, free with paid premium tiers) or – yes – Self Control (Mac only, free) which will block you from impulse browsing.
Van Boom calls this a “radical move”, but a good move nonetheless.
“Unfortunately in our time zone, you have to give a little to get a little.” He says he’s generally in favour of people forcing themselves off social media for four or five hours, “and particularly for this”.
Strategy three: filter it out
If you’re professionally obliged to use the internet, you’ll need to take a more granular approach to skirting spoilers.
Michael, who works as a software developer and data specialist, has this one figured out. His family gather weekly for a Succession viewing party – “it’s a family show” – and the vagaries of coordinating between five adults means screenings sometime happen several days after the show has aired. He uses a Firefox browser extension called Spoiler Protection 2.0 (also available for Chrome) which allows you to block certain keywords while you browse.
Michael also suggests telling YouTube not to spoil you via thumbnails, by using Google’s “don’t recommend channel” feedback tool.
Van Boom says Twitter is quite good for dodging spoilers. In the privacy and safety settings, you can mute certain particular hashtags and words – “Succession”, let’s say, or “Roy” – from your feed.
But the rest of social media is a minefield. Facebook does not offer muted keyword options. On Instagram, you can mute words on suggested posts but not posts from people you already follow. Van Boom says his cousin successfully avoided Game of Thrones spoilers for years, only to have the ending ruined by Snoop Dogg during an Instagram live broadcast.
On TikTok you can filter out specific video keywords and hashtags in content preferences settings, but this won’t stop untagged spoilers from making it to your For You page.
Van Boom also suggests turning off push notifications from news websites (especially critical for sports spoilers) and temporarily unsubscribing from any “potentially sensitive” email newsletters.
Of course, none of these measures will prevent you from being spoiled offline, but at least if that happens, it’ll be someone else’s fault.
Strategy four: stop caring
ABC Shepparton breakfast show host and former tech reporter, Nic Healey, advocates for a more philosophical approach. “I feel like the whole fear around spoilers peaked a few years ago … But it’s been really intriguing watching Succession. It’s not about your traditional spoilers, it’s that people are on the edge of their seat.”
He says streaming has changed things since Game of Thrones, when Australians would illegally torrent a show they were already paying for, just to watch it a few hours earlier.
“If you watch a show like Succession, it’s not ruining the show. It’s not ruining the craft … If a show can be ruined by a single piece of information, have a think about whether it’s a good show after all.
“Pre Game of Thrones, no one was agitated about hearing what would happen on an episode of The Wire, because we just watched it whenever we damn well felt like.
“Bank up a few episodes. Don’t be a slave to the release schedules … It’s been a while since we’ve had a show that’s been this much of a phenomenon. We can still chart a shining path forward.”
Van Boom endorses this strategy too. He knows what happened on Succession yesterday, but he hasn’t started watching the show yet. “And by the time I watch it, I will have forgotten.”
