It's very different in Canada where soap spoilers, whether for Coronation Street or the American soaps, are not plastered all over the magazines and tabloids in general. It's a lot easier to avoid the spoilers living here if you want to. Yes, they're on the internet but if you know not to go to UK fan sites and boards, and know which Canadian Corrie sites have spoilers, then you can still be surprised.
I keep a sister to this blog for Canadian fans, The Bluenose Corrie Blog, reposting many of the same articles from here for when our storylines match them. We're about 2 weeks behind now, a great improvement over the days when we were almost 10 months behind! I don't post spoilers. I may link to some of this blog's spoiler posts with a warning and use just the character name and very occasionally have mentioned spoilers but always with a warning.
Read more about the Canadian experience over here. I'm a spoiler junkie but I try to be sensitive to those that aren't unless they beg.
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4 comments:
I wasn't sure whether I should comment on this post or the original post. However, being in Canada, perhaps this is the most apt.
When we were months behind the U.K. it was easy for me to read a spoiler, and forget all about it. After all, most of what I was reading wasn't going to happen for nine months and I was unlikely to pinpoint a scene and think, "this is leading up to a fight" or "this is leading up to a death" moments before it happened on my screen.
While we were catching up to where we are now, at times it felt like I was watching an awful lot in the 40-odd minutes a day, that sometimes the shocks or surprises didn't hit home as hard as they should. U.K. viewers saw the tram crash and aftermath play out over a full week; due to our catch-up episodes at the time we saw the episodes over a few less days.
Now that Canada have been two weeks behind the U.K. for several months, my spoiler habits haven't changed much. I'm still looking online after 6PM local time on a Monday night to read the upcoming sypnosises for the week, even though it's likely to be three weeks before I see the episodes. I'm probably less likely to forget that something is going to be happening quite soon, although sometimes things don't sink in quite as much.
I agree Tvor, that it can be easier to avoid spoilers over here. I've still to see most of the last season of House, but I caught the final episode. Due to not reading anything about episodes or cast changes, I didn't know who was who or why some characters were where they were. I had no inclination of trawling the Internet to read about episodes that I still had to see. Sometimes though when you know that there are spoilers online for shows that you enjoy (Doctor Who) it can almost be second nature to see something and click. (Somehow I'm better at avoiding spoilers for that show than Corrie, perhaps because we're viewing it the same day).
I think while the spoilers are more "this is what is likely to happen; this is what is possibly going to be said" (I should really make note of what a character is quoted to say one day and look out for it to see how much is true!) rather than a verbatim report of a scene that's going to play out or - gasp, horror, include video - I'll quite happily read them and hope that my forgetful brain will forget this!
At the end of the day though, every viewer is different, and they all have their own avenues of being spoiled if they so wish. Some of them may not even realise they're doing so! For those who really wish to be surprised every day they sit down to watch an episode, I think they'd be more inclined to ensure that they avoid spoilers at all costs. After all, if we all know where we can go to get spoiled, we'd be more likely to avoid them if we didn't want to be spoiled, wouldn't we?
Very insightful thoughts, Rachel.
I've been watching soaps a good many years and I can spot trends and standard plots a mile away. It's no spoiler to know that if you know a character is leaving, they could be killed off by a serial killer/disaster/accident, or they will turn out to have committed a crime and go to jail. Otherwise, criminals are usualy always spare parts, people that "almost" die, won't, and there are many other plot devices you learn to spot without reading one spoiler at all.
I still find that even with a spoiler, watching how it is actually played out is still good and can still surprise me. Re the tram crash, with Sally holding Molly's hand, and then finding out about Kevin's affair and baby Jack, It was not spoiled ahead of time and I didn't see that coming. I knew that would all come out but didn't know how. That was a jaw dropping moment! Knowing that Ashley was going to die was one thing, but seeing that he was a hero and helped save Peter's and Nick's life was not known ahead of time and was a nice way for him, the eternal nice guy, to go.
So spoilers aren't always such a spoiler.
I admit... I come here to read the spoilers & news about the cast because we just don't get the coverage over here
Rebecca
I never used to check the spoilers, but when my Mom became ill last year, I would check and tell her what was coming up. My daughter would bring in her phone each night so Mom could stay current ( at $30.00 a day wec ould no longer afford the tv rental).Believe it or not, this really brought Mom some peace of mind, and she passed away knowing that her family, including her tv family, were going to be okay. I still stay ahead,and think "Okay, Mom, this one's for you."
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