MUST SEES AND DYING TO DOS: We spend our lives dodging spoilers

Hold on a second — how far are you in it?

As a question, out of context, it doesn’t seem to make much sense. Perhaps if your friend was lost in a maze and rung you from it because they knew you’d already made your way through it and therefore could guide them out, then you would have cause to say it.

But many of us repeat that phrase quite often in social gatherings. It’s necessary because we need to avoid that thing that has the potential to ruin an evening as surely as a bout of food poisoning: the spoiler.