Monday Snark

Forewarning: It's Monday. My head is pounding. I'm a little cranky.  I apologize in advance if this post contains more snark than others.

Let's talk about spoilers, guys.

Your favorite show is on tonight and for whatever reason, you can't watch it the second it airs. Maybe because you have a small child whom you have to get ready for bed or you have prior commitments that evening. Whatever the reason, you aren't able to watch along with the rest of the world so you set your DVR to watch it later, maybe tomorrow... only to have a major plot point completely spoiled for you by some super awesome person on your Facebook feed... or your Twitter feed... or by just browsing some news site and they blatantly put the spoiler right there in the headline.

I always think to myself, "how is this still happening??" Haven't we all collectively reached an agreement in this Social Media driven age not to be a hole and spoil a television show for the rest of our fellow couch potatoes by stating exactly what happened in our status updates? I know it's not a law. I know it's not set in stone but isn't it like, some unspoken nod to each other that we will keep really important facts and exciting occurrences from the episode that evening to ourselves? At least for a little while?

I'm not saying you shouldn't talk about TV shows at all. Look at me, for crying out loud. I have an entire blog based on my love for pop culture. I have no qualms with discussing a particularly thrilling event from one of my favorite shows. Here's the thing, though... I input those thoughts into a controlled area on this here blog. You won't just stumble upon a crazy spoiler here. Also, and here's the big thing... I give freaking SPOILER WARNINGS! I am always shocked and amazed by how quickly people are to spoil a huge, significant event from a TV show on social media. I get it. If I choose not to watch a show live (or the evening it airs), I am basically asking to have the plot ruined for me. It's my own fault, right?

Just stay off the internet for 12 hours until I am able to watch the episode.

Sure.

That'll happen.

If I go on Twitter and cast members from say, The Following are live tweeting tonight's episode but I am not watching it, then hello?? My dumbass should stay off Twitter. If I am 4 episodes behind with The Following and I end up getting spoiled by a picture that some pop culture site posted two weeks after an important episode aired, well then, of course that's my fault. But if I am unable to watch say, oh, last night's Game Of Thrones live because I have to work and the second it ends, people are posting status updates about what happened? THAT SUCKS! I use last night's GOT as an example because my lybf decided not to watch it live. As soon as the credits started, I texted her and told her to either watch the episode last night or stay off the internet all day today, otherwise she would absolutely get spoiled. Five minutes later, people on her newsfeed were posting about the crazy thing that happened in the episode. No worries, my warning saved her. She watched the episode before seeing the spoilers. But still.

STOP. IT.

I get the excitement. I know you want to talk about it. No one loves talking about pop culture more than me but please, please, please have some consideration for your fellow TV watchers. Wait a couple days or for crying out loud, if you feel compelled to post something, be general. Be vague. Don't flat out say exactly what happened. Being surprised by a plot twist is exciting. It's one of my most favorite things EVER. Having it ruined for you absolutely blows and can completely wreck a person's day. Sure, it's insignificant in the grand scheme of things but if you spent all day looking forward to finally watching an episode that you weren't able to catch live and you just happen to go on FB out of habit, and someone posts word for word what happened in the episode, you are going to be devastated.

I know I sound like the spoiler police. "Who is she to tell us what we can and cannot post??" I'm just asking that we not post major plot points the second after they air. Can't we just wait a bit?? Let's just have an unspoken agreement between social media buddies not to ruin a show for the next person. Watching, experiencing, discussing TV shows is one of my most favorite things in the whole world but I would feel absolutely horrible if I ruined the end of a really great episode for someone else. Everyone should experience that feeling of being shocked by their favorite characters. I almost miss the olden days when we had no chance of finding out any information of any kind about the shows and movies and books  that we love, but that's not the world we live in anymore. Just take a second before you post that major spoiler and think to yourself "am I going to completely ruin the show for someone else if I post this?" if the answer is yes, then dude, don't do it.

I'll get off my high horse now and move on...

I'm going to talk about The Walking Dead now. SPOILER ALERT (see what I did there?) if you have not watched all of season 4... The first half of the season, I was pretty disappointed. I didn't care about everyone getting sick and watching people cough in the prison every episode. I was bored. I didn't care about Carol killing that Karen lady and that other boy because I was not invested in those characters. It almost felt like Nikki and Paolo from Lost the way they were trying to get us to care about them being murdered. I still don't really understand why Tyreese was so upset about it. She was his kind of girlfriend for like, a day. To still be as upset as he was about it 6 episodes later? I just wasn't buying it. As soon as The Governor came back though, I was totally invested again. I loved almost every episode of the second half of the season. I liked seeing the relationships between characters you wouldn't normally see (Daryl/Beth). I have never cared for Beth but Daryl is so great that I was able to tolerate her the longer they were together. Having Rick gone for so many episodes made me appreciate him so much more when he finally showed up again. Man, I love Rick. I don't know anything about those Terminus people. I have a few theories floating in my head but I loved how the season ended. I love Andrew Lincoln so much, I just long for the day that he is able to shave and put a clean shirt on.

As I alluded to earlier, I am way, way, way behind on The Following. I was super bummed with the first few episodes. They all just felt like they were trying shock viewers for the sake of shocking them. There was no real story or content going on. From the things I have seen in promos and on Twitter and other sites (yes, I was spoiled), it looks like it has gotten way better and that makes me happy. I'll get back to it again soon.

I love, love, love the new show About A Boy (Tuesdays at 9, on NBC) with Minnie Driver, David Walton and Benjamin Stockham. That show warms my heart so much. I absolutely adore it.

Chris Lowell from Veronica Mars and Private Practice fame, started his own Kickstarter campaign (I know. Again with the Kickstarter campaigns, Sarah??) about 3 weeks ago. He wrote and directed a movie; Beside Still Waters, with his friends and is using the Kickstarter fund to help distribute it. His goal was $63,021 in 30 days. He reached the goal in a day. He may even triple it when all is said and done. I'm fascinated by it. Anyway, he filmed some of it in up north, Michigan and there are some really cool people in the movie. Check out the campaign and the trailer (donate if you feel like it) when you have a second. Chris is a super, super funny dude. I love following him on Twitter and Instagram.
Beside Still Waters: A Chris Lowell Film 

Speaking of pop culture campaign funding... Zachary Levi launched his own campaign to try to keep Nerd HQ at the San Diego Comic Con. It's a completely free event FULL of panels with your favorite nerdtastic actors and actresses (Nathan Fillion, Alan Tudyk, Joss Whedon, Matt Smith etc.). You can have pictures taken with these guys if you donate to Operation Smile and you get to participate in a huge party as well. If you are unable to attend these events (like me), they put all the panels on youtube and you can even watch some of them live... for free. It makes my pop culture heart very happy to see things like this. They ran into some issues last year with sponsors and whatnot and they are asking for the general public (IE: us) to help with the funding of the event. Zac can explain it better. Here's the link to the campaign:
I Want My Nerd HQ

I heard they are splitting Allegiant by Veronica Roth into two films. I'm not too happy about this. I liked the Divergent movie. I had a few issues with it but for the most part, I was pretty happy with it. I'm just not sure they need to continue on with the rest of the books. Don't get me wrong, if they are going to make them, I will see them. If only because I would get to stare at Theo James for 3 more movies, but I just don't think two movies is necessary for that book. I can sum it up pretty quickly for you; -SPOILER ALERT- They leave the factions behind, find out they were being watched this whole time, genetically damaged talk, fighting, death, sadness. Lots of sadness. It's not like Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows... That one needed to be split into two. It was a 780 page book with a TON of content. They could very easily make Allegiant one movie. Easily. To be honest, I don't even think Mockingjay needs to be two movies. I guess it's just a way for producers to make a whole lot of money. If they are going to make it two movies and keep every single detail/dialogue from the original book and put it in the movie then heck yeah, I am all for it but that is never how it goes. And the difference  between two Allegiant movies and two Mockingjay movies, is that the two Mockingjay movies are going to make a ton of money. I don't think two Allegiant movies will do all that well. We'll see, though. I'm no expert. Just a pop culture enthusiast.

I will end this post with Ed Sheeran performing his new single on SNL this past weekend. I love this boy so much: