Tuesday, April 16, 2019

avoiding "Game of Thrones"

Ever since I became an inveterate YouTube-watcher, I've found it exceedingly difficult to avoid spoilers for shows I plan to view after everyone else has seen them. The problem is that YouTube's algorithm, which knows me better than I know myself, keeps suggesting review/commentary videos for me to watch. The videos' titles are visible to me even before I have a chance to click "not interested," and those titles can themselves be spoilers. Season 8 of "Game of Thrones" just started, and while I'm doing my best to avoid spoilers, I've already seen two or three, simply by glancing at video titles before I dismiss those videos. The same goes for io9 commentaries whose links appear as suggested reads on my cell phone. Any day now, I'm going to see some io9 article title like "Why Jon Snow's Death Early in Season 8 Doesn't Affect the Overall Plot" before I have a chance to look away.

I tried signing up for HBO via Amazon Prime, but Amazon is claiming that the service isn't available in my country. I might try subscribing again at home via my VPN (I'll make Amazon think I live in California), but most likely, I'll just wait for the series to be done in six weeks, then wait an extra couple of months for the season to come out on home video, at which point I'll add the final season of "Game of Thrones" to my Amazon Prime Video collection. In the meantime, I have to navigate the dense minefield of spoilers lying in wait for me out there.



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