Spoilers. In an era dominated by streaming and an ever-increasing array of social media, it's getting harder to avoid the plot twists, reveals, and cameos that are coming down the track in your favorite shows and movies.
The lengths viewers are going to dodge these spoilers are getting more and more extensive. You can mute the names of shows on Twitter, or turn off social media altogether to avoid the clips, reactions and memes that might give something away, at least until you've powered through the whole of Stranger Things.
Now, while you can't rely on social media to keep quiet about spoilers, it might be reasonable to expect that streaming services themselves could be trusted to keep spoilers out of their previews and marketing material, but, according to a new thread on Reddit, they've been found wanting. Specifically Netflix and the final season of Ozark.
In a thread started over the weekend, numerous posters revealed that two key plot points were given away in preview clips and stills they saw while browsing through Netflix's homepage. Now, not wishing to be ironic, we won't repeat the spoilers here, but if you're curious to look and you've seen the final season of the bloody drama, all the details are on the thread.
Netflix is forensic about the clips and stills they place on the homepage and change them constantly, responding to lags in viewer numbers and the increased profile of stars. Take The Crown for example; when the show's fourth season debuted, all you would be served with was pictures of Olivia Colman looking on sternly. Now it's wall-to-wall Emma Corrin, after her breakout role as Princess Diana.
Sometimes, it seems, finding a hooky clip to grab new viewers, especially when a show has been running for a while, might give away a plot point, which is rather annoying.
Fortunately, though, there is a way to stop that from happening to you...
How to avoid spoilers on Netflix
There is a way to deactivate trailers and clips in your account setting, so all you will be served with on the Netflix homepage is a static page.
First, go to 'manage profiles', which you can find by hovering over the square smiley face in the top right-hand corner and clicking on manage profiles. Once there, click on the profile you want to change.
You'll then be presented with a list of options that include the chance to change the name of the profile and the maturity ratings. At the bottom of that page, you'll see an option named Autoplay Previews, which will automatically be set to be activated. Press the button and slide it over to the left, which will deactivate the setting on all devices. On some devices, it'll appear as a box to tick, or, in this case, untick.
Great, am I totally spoiler-proof now?
Sadly not. While turning off trailers and clips does help a lot, Netflix's homepage is still populated with stills and a few of those have been flagged as spoilers too, including a key Ozark reveal that one viewer told TechRadar "...completely spoiled the final season, it gave away a massive plot point."
If Netflix wants to keep doing these two-part seasons, as they have done with Ozark and this week's Stranger Things, then the staff at the streaming service will need to keep an even keener eye on what stills they use to make sure nothing is given away. Here's hoping...
