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Spoiler or no spoiler? It’s a tangled etiquette

Knowing how a story ends can sometimes increase our enjoyment of it – but not for everyone

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We shouldn't kill the suspense, but spoilers apparently do not ruin the enjoyment of stories, they actually increase it, says the writer.

We shouldn't kill the suspense, but spoilers apparently do not ruin the enjoyment of stories, they actually increase it, says the writer.

PHOTO ILLUSTRATION: PEXELS

Jemima Kelly

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I couldn’t go into the office last Tuesday. The finale of what I consider to be the greatest TV show of the last decade, Succession, had aired the previous day, and I hadn’t yet watched it. The risk of hearing spoilers from my colleagues was unacceptably high.

So I embarked on a comprehensive spoiler-shielding programme: I stayed at home, muted a particularly telly-focused WhatsApp group, and avoided social media. Or I tried to, anyway.

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