I'm not, by nature, spoiler adverse. But the issue is that there just genuinely is only so long you can hold out from learning about a twist or a cliffhanger if

I'm not, by nature, spoiler adverse. But the issue is that there just genuinely is only so long you can hold out from learning about a twist or a cliffhanger if you're interested in it. A shock TV moment is not good for each individual viewer, but works once for the whole population of viewers. This works well as an aesthetic device for popular culture, where the purpose is in large part to catch the zeitgeist in the short term. I don't want to sound snobbish about this - Charles Dickens was a master of this type of thing, after all, and his present reputation as a Great Writer In English Literature would amuse and appall the snobs of his day, if they only knew. The best parts of mass popular culture endure after everyone knows he's his father, or its a sled, or little Nell dies.