Top 10 Shows Everyone Spoiled

While fans of science fiction tend to be fairly restrained with spoilers generally speaking, a show inevitably lands in spoiler territory when it becomes massively popular, and as you’ll see this isn’t the only piece of genre fiction courtesy of HBO that appears on this list. Devoted and casual fans alike seemingly couldn’t help but spill the beans about the many major surprises and shocking reveals in this western inspired sci-fi. It’s a shame really, because for those of us who got to learn about them on-screen as intended, it made for seriously great television.

Unlike traditional networks, which release episodes once per week, Netflix releases the entire season at once, meaning that everyone can watch at their own pace. What that also means is that some people will watch an entire season as soon as it’s released, putting everyone that hasn’t instantly binged in danger of spoilers. So those that choose not to aggressively binge watch all thirteen episodes per season of the drama set in the women’s prison run the risk having pivotal plot points spoiled for them - including the usually all-important finale.

This political thriller features; twists, turns, mysteries, betrayals, death, romantic entanglements, and political intrigue - and all of those things draw spoilers like flies. Each season is packed with unexpected events, and unfortunately a number of devoted viewers for the well written show have tended to have loose lips surrounding those events. Even some cast members have given bits of information out about upcoming plotlines, especially as interest swelled during the show’s presidential election storyline, which coincided with the actual election taking place at the same time in the U.S.

Unlike the other shows on this list, “The Bachelor,” “Bachelorette,” and “Bachelor in Paradise,” are reality TV, rather than scripted comedy or drama. As such, they tend to get treated more like a sporting event than anything else. With eliminations built into the end of every episode, each one has massive spoiler potential and a short shelf life. Missing a rose ceremony by even a couple hours practically guarantees a spoiler, as the booted contestant will feature on late night and morning talk shows. Even if you skip the talk shows, their promos are sure to tell you exactly who went home.

No TV show benefited more from being produced in the age of social media than “Pretty Little Liars,” racking up an unparalleled two-hundred and fifty six million engagements on social media in its seventh and final season alone. Those social media posts, driven by the mysteries and relationship drama, made the show a juggernaut with young adults. However, the constant tweets about the happenings of the show were a double-edged sword for many, as the same overwhelming amount of tweets that bolstered its popularity consistently spoiled the show. Most notably was how the show’s central mystery, such as the true identity of the mysterious A, was often tweeted out by thousands.

As mentioned, Netflix shows are inherently at risk of spoilers because of their release format, but the enormous following “Stranger Things” has practically guarantees it. The internet has exploded with love for “Stranger Things,” and an unfortunate side effect of that has been that plot points have been spoiled by fans celebrating the show. Perhaps the best examples of this are the untimely demise of Barb, well known because of the hashtag #justiceforbarb, and the outpouring of love for former jerk Steve, who developed into a lovable badass babysitter in season two.

“Lost” introduced a number of mysteries and exciting twists and turns throughout its run. So whenever a major revelation about an event or character took place, people loved to talk about it, often spoiling the big twist for those a few episodes behind. Because of the serialized nature of the show, telling one long story, rather than short episodic ones as are popular with other science fiction shows, the series needed to be followed week to week, and viewers could easily fall behind. Spoilers among fans became so prevalent that “Saturday Night Live” even featured a bit about “Lost” fans trying to avoid spoilers featuring the TV drama’s own Matthew Fox.

Like “Lost,” “Breaking Bad” was part of a wave of serialized TV series from the 2000s that helped popularize shows with a complex overarching story. This meant that from the very first episode “Breaking Bad” was moving towards an inevitable conclusion. Over the years, it became one of the most well-regarded and popular television dramas of all time, drawing in both devoted and casual fans. Of course, more casual fans, who might binge a season after it ended, were always in danger of having key events, including a number of major deaths, spoiled for them by fans who were up-to- date.

Much of the suspense of “The Walking Dead” is built around the fact that anyone can die at any time, and over the years plenty of main characters have been killed off. Sometimes these characters are killed by zombies, only to be later revealed to have survived, only to have their head bashed in and killed for real not long after. Chances are pretty good that even those that haven’t seen an episode know what happened to Glenn, whose fate had been teased a number of times in dramatic fashion. His death and those of many many more characters have been spoiled for many.

Don’t even try to go on Facebook after “Game of Thrones” has aired unless you want to get bombarded by spoiler-filled statuses and memes. Of course, there are plenty of ways outside social media that GOT has been spoiled. This includes shows like “South Park,” which has spoiled the show for humorous purposes, and the magazine EW, which had a cover with a spoiler in large print. Ned Stark’s death at the end of season one, while originally a shocking twist, is now one of the most well-known plots on TV in years, if not decades, meaning new viewers already have a big spoiler looking over their head, so to speak.