I couldn’t go into the office last Tuesday. The finale of what I consider to be the greatest TV show of the last decade, Succession, had aired the previous day, and I hadn’t yet watched it. The risk of hearing spoilers from my colleagues was unacceptably high.
So I embarked on a comprehensive spoiler-shielding programme: I stayed at home, muted a particularly telly-focused WhatsApp group, and avoided social media. Or I tried to, anyway. In the end it was my addiction to the latter that proved my downfall: in a moment of distraction, my thumb found its way to the Twitter app, and there it was, right in front of me: a tweet containing a giant spoiler.
Some might argue that I should have just watched the 90-minute episode when it aired — which was 2am in London — or at least as soon after that as possible (I would counter that I had other more important things to do). They might also lament my inability to avoid social media, where TV series are often discussed (I have since installed a Twitter-blocking app, which is remarkably effective).