Entertainment

How to Avoid TV Spoilers Once and For All

by Demetria Irwin

Have you ever been busy on Sunday night so you had to DVR Game of Thrones? And then you hop on your Facebook feed only to be inundated with tons of spoilers for the episode you haven't watched yet? It's the worst, and it's a feeling I know well because Scandal airs on Thursday nights but I don't have a TV so I have to wait until it airs online on Friday mornings. I learned long ago that I simply have to stay away from Twitter and Facebook while the show is on — Gladiators love to live tweet the show, especially the juicy bits. Damn it, I don't want a preview of Daddy Pope's latest unnecessary speech or Liv's most recent trembling lipped argument with Fitz about their disastrous love affair.

Which is why I am so glad to see that Google Chrome is here to save the day with a new extension called Silencer that offers "Mute Packs." This handy little bit of technology will prevent any posts that contain words related to your selected show from appearing in your feed. So a Scandal Mute Pack might have words like "gladiator," "Pope," "Scandal" (duh), "Huck and Quinn are gross" and any other words you'd like to add.

But Stephen King did make a good point the other night. While watching Game of Thrones, King live tweeted the death of a main character and was immediately inundated with people upset at his spoiler. His response:

Fair point, Mr. King. But for those of us who don't have what amounts to advance scripts of our favorite shows, whining about spoilers is more legit.

Plus, the awesomeness of Silencer doesn't stop at TV shows. Sick of hearing about cuffing season? Mute it! Completely uninterested in hearing one more single solitary word about the latest reality show hulabaloo? Mute it! Ready to scream at the next mention of bikini body? Mute it! Heck, you can even mute a person. Maybe an unfollow would be rude, but a mute never hurt anybody. For now, the extension only works for Twitter and Facebook though, so beware of all your other media outlets, social and otherwise.