sg77.org

Spoiler Alert: The Daily Mail is awful

Friday, 14 April 2023

There are TV shows that I watch on my own. There are TV shows my partner watches without me. But there are some TV shows we watch together. One of those shows is Succession. Succession, for the uninitiated, follows Logan Roy (not so subtly based on Rupert Murdoch) and his family as they battle for control of Roy's media empire and fortune. Every character is awful, they have no redeeming qualities and the whole thing is ridiculous and incredibly entertaining.

In the UK, I believe Succession airs on a Monday evening. I say believe because I'm not 100% sure. We never see it as it's broadcast, instead watching it on catch up, later in the week at a point which suits us both - it's normally on a Wednesday or Thursday evening. And apparently that gap is long enough to allow a major plot point to be spoiled by a national 'newspaper'.

The Daily Mail - a right wing, sensationalist newspaper which is so corrupt it's been banned as a source on Wikipedia - decided that a spoiler for that week's episode should be posted on the upper third of the front page of Wednesday's copy. Had it been on the inside pages, I'd never have known and wouldn't care. But because it's on the front page, it's kind of hard to avoid if you watch the round up of the following day's front pages on the news, glance through the BBC papers section or just walk into a shop selling newspapers.

There are certain things I watch which I know will be spoiled by websites. I tend to ignore my RSS reader, and the geekier side of the web until I'm caught up on The Mandalorian, Andor or whichever Marvel series is currently running. But I didn't expect to have to ignore the BBC News website or not walk into any shops which sell newspapers.

In the grand scheme of things, this is nothing. I understand that. In fact, the main story on that day's copy is worth far more condemnation than the spoiling of a TV show. But it's the malicious deliberateness of this which is angering me. It isn't news. It's not going to sell more copies of the newspaper. It's just there to ruin something which people enjoy.

And that just about sums up that "newspaper" entirely. If you want to see why I'm annoyed, you can click here to view an image of the front page. But please, be warned, it will spoil the episode of Succession which aired around the 9th / 10th / 11th April depending where in the world you are.