Simple question. Do you want to know everything beforehand about what you’re about to watch/read? If so, why?
Personally I prefer to remain blissfully ignorant about whichever media I’m about to watch/read. Sure I’ll look at some reviews to see if people are saying it sucks or not, but as for every plot development or twist I want to experience them as they develop. For me, knowing them in advance ruins much of the story telling.
I hate being spoiled. For me, a very large part of the thrill of reading a book or watching a movie or television show is NOT knowing how it’s going to turn out.
Does anyone really like being spoiled? I thought some people just didn’t mind.
My problem with spoilers is that they often are the only thing that make the movie worth watching. If, for example, Fight Club had never been on at a party I went to, I never would have watched it, since some guys fighting and one guy trying to stop a douchebag are not themselves compelling.
There are a lot of people who actively seek out spoilers.
Mrs. Jophiel actively seeks out spoilers. Watching Mad Men with her was a constant exercise in (mock) shaking my fist and saying “You better not tell me anything!”
I’m not sure why she does so; I guess she just likes knowing what’s going to be going on.
I can’t understand for the life of me why people like spoilers, but the media seem obsessed with spreading them around. I saw one on the BBC news front page the other day, which has since been picked up by other sites, and become completely unavoidable. How is this supposed to enhance our viewing pleasure exactly?
I have no problem with reading spoilers (as part of an interesting discussion, for instance) and I don’t particularly enjoy surprises in general.
Having said that, I can’t say I care for people who think it’s funny to deliberately ruin surprises for others (e.g. some dude who walks out of “The Empire Strikes Back” shouting “Darth Vader is Luke’s father!!”).
I’m a bad, bad spoiler ho :o I flip to the ends of books to see what happened to character X, read the spoilers on TV Tropes, and search for the details on movies and TV shows before I watch them.
ETA I just saw Bakhesh and hogarth’s posts and agree that ruining it for everyone is no good. When I find my spoilers, I keep 'em to myself.
Ok, but why? If you already know the entire plot of the movie beforehand, why even bother seeing it?
It’s hard to explain. I usually find enough to get a Cliff’s Notes version of the plot and characters, then when I see the actual movie I kind of have more of an appreciation for how the actors bring the characters to life and how the plot points are made to fit together. I find that I pick up on the little bits of foreshadowing and other nuances I’d likely miss if I was just trying to keep track of the story.
It’s why I like shows like “Columbo” where you know whodunnit in the beginning, and the plot revolves around figuring out how.
I also reread books, even mysteries and thrillers, because there are always details I missed the first time around.
I like reading enough about a movie to know if it’s going to be good and that’s it. I prefer not to even know what it’s going to be about. If at all possible I like going into the movie without even knowing the genre (or at least the particulars of it). This is, of course, much easier when watching movies that are 40 or 50 years old rather then movies that just came out on DVD.
It depends on the show or book. I like to know the whole plot of some shows in advance, so every week I scour the spoiler sites. Watching the show afterward is still entertaining, in the same way watching the same episode of a show more than once can be entertaining.
I usually stay spoiler free with books, but sometimes I do skip ahead a few chapters to see if things happened the way I thought they would.
Strange that you should use that movie as an example, it was the movie that convinced me that the less you know about what you’re about to see/read/play the better (I was at a loose end and called into the cinema on a whim). Spoilerless is how something is meant to be experienced, the creators have went to a lot of effort to craft it so why ruin it for yourself by knowing whats going to happen in advance?
Of course the problem with trying to avoid all trailers or advance publicity is its hard to know whats worth watching and what isn’t!
And people who like spoilers are denying themselves the “Ah ha!” moment of self-satisfaction when you work out whats going on, or the enjoyment of being genuinely surprised when you don’t.
I hate for a reviewer even to tell me that the movie has a “twist.” Invariably, if I know going into a movie that there’s a twist, I can see the twist coming. That ruined The Usual Suspects for me. Better to go in a blank slate.
I’m also one who doesn’t care about spoilers, and sometimes will actively seek them out. Knowing the plot does not detract from my enjoyment of the movie. A rollercoaster is still fun, even though you know where the twists and turns are and how it’s going to end. I feel the same way about plot lines. It’s one of the least important parts of enjoying a story (for me.)
I find myself trying to walk a bit of a tight rope between trying to find out more about the show or movie and trying to to be too spoiled. For instance, my wife and I just watched the first season of the Wire and I wanted to know more about the characters, so I would read a bit about them on Wikipedia, but I don’t want to be spoiled on some of the stuff that’s coming up, so I have to be careful. I end up getting some of the spoilers. I know someone’s going to die in season 2 (I’d hate to spoile who though…). Unfortuantley, many of the character pages on the Internet have a lot of “Charater did this, then character did that” style summations.
Can’t abide spoilers, but like Jophiel have to deal with a spouse who looooves them. It’s made for some interesting television watching experiences, to be sure, although she’s usually careful not to let anything slip. She did accidentally spoil the big ending to “Game of Thrones” for me, though. 
I totally get that, actually, but that’s something I save for the re-watching.
In my mind, a good movie or TV series offers two distinct experiences. There’s the first time you see it, when you can let the suspense, clues, plot twists, and red herrings wash over you and really allow yourself to be drawn into the world and the story. And then there’s the second, third, fourth, etc viewings, which is when I personally start focusing on the nuances in the actors’ performances, or in the composition of the score, or the visual flourishes of the director and DP, etc.
To me, subsequent viewings all share the commonality that, no matter what, you are spoiled, in that you’ve already seen the movie or show and thus know what’s going to happen. That first viewing is the only one that’s truly, fundamentally different. And therefore, in my mind, I ask: why deny yourself the chance to be surprised by the story in the way the writers/ directors/ actors intended, rather than going through the pale imitation of that sensation that words on a recap website provide? You’re only ever going to get one chance, ever, to experience that particular story this way.
To me, “spoilers” really do what the name suggests: they spoil that precious first-time viewing experience. And it’s something that, once gone, can never be re-attained. I’ve often wished I could go back and really experience “Buffy” or “Lord of the Rings” for the first time again, because while my rewatchings of those things have given me new insight and appreciation for them, they’ve never been quite as magical as watching them for the very first time, unsure of my expectations and with no idea what is to come.
Reading spoilers is like picking scabs for me. I do it compusively and usually regret it.
Sometimes they just sort of “find” me, usually through my mother. For example, a couple of years ago…
“So have you been watching Dexter?”
“Yeah, I’m…”
“Wasn’t that awful when the Trinity killer murdered Rita?!?”
“…DVRing the whole thing, haven’t had time to watch it yet…”
I don’t really care one way or the other. The journey is the reward, in my book.
There’s a rollercoaster at Six Flags Over Texas (and I’m sure similar ones elsewhere) that is completely indoors in a gigantic hangar-like building and it is pitch black inside. You can’t see what’s coming at all, and riding it is a different experience than a regular outside rollercoaster, especially the first time. It is very thrilling to be hurtling along and have no idea whether you are about to suddenly drop or climb or veer sideways or what. There is a definite thrill factor–an added value–that comes from not knowing what is about to happen. If they turned the lights on inside, it might still be fun to ride, but it wouldn’t be as fun. There’d be something missing from the experience. People who spoil themselves may still enjoy a story, but they are definitely missing out on part of the experience.
True, a well-written book or movie should still be enjoyable even after you know what is going to happen, but you’re not getting the ***same ***experience as you would if you were unspoiled.
I agree totally with everything Tanbarkie said.