In a stance likely to provoke strong reactions, a journalist has mounted a passionate defence of deliberately seeking out spoilers before watching films and television series. Jason Okundaye, an assistant opinion editor at the Guardian, declares that his enjoyment is often heightened by knowing key plot points in advance, a practice many would consider sacrilegious.
The Spoiler Advocate's Methodology
Okundaye describes a consistent routine: before watching a film, he will frequently open Wikipedia to digest the entire plot synopsis. For television series, he has been known to jump to the final episode, watch the concluding minutes, and then start the show from the beginning. He performed this exact ritual with the final season of Top Boy when it landed on Netflix in the autumn of 2023.
His public admission of this habit on social media, from a now-deleted X account, drew a spectrum of bewildered and outraged replies, including a response from the official Top Boy Netflix account. While some might label such behaviour as impatient or philistine, Okundaye suggests it actually relieves a sense of burden, removing the anxiety of uncertainty about a narrative's payoff, especially in an era of overwhelming content choice.
Historical Precedent and Different Pleasures
Far from diminishing entertainment, Okundaye argues that foreknowledge offers a distinct form of pleasure. It allows the viewer to feel ahead of the characters, to spot foreshadowing, and to appreciate the craftsmanship of the journey rather than just the destination. He draws a parallel to ancient Greek theatre, where audiences often knew the tragic fates awaiting characters like Oedipus in Sophocles’s Oedipus Rex from the outset; the drama lay in watching the inevitable unfold.
He cites the example of watching the 1999 teen film Cruel Intentions for the first time recently, already knowing the climax where Sarah Michelle Gellar's character, Kathryn Merteuil, is publicly exposed. This prior knowledge did not spoil the experience; instead, it allowed him to more fully savour the build-up and her eventual downfall.
Respecting Others and Theatrical Sanctity
Crucially, Okundaye makes a clear distinction between his personal habits and imposing spoilers on others. He labels casually posting major plot twists on social media as "a bizarrely selfish practice" and would never engage in it. Furthermore, he adheres to a code of conduct for the cinema, where he respects the sanctity of the theatrical experience and refrains from googling plots on his phone.
He muses that the streaming age, where content is consumed on personal devices, may have fundamentally altered viewing habits, making such second-screen spoiler research almost inevitable. His controversial hill-to-die-on position ultimately challenges the primacy of surprise, suggesting that if a story's power relies solely on a twist, its quality may be fleeting, whereas great writing endures regardless.
