I watched a mediocre movie instead of The Boys and regretted it twice

MeinMMO author Max hates spoilers. Like, really. That’s why he usually watches movies and series as early as possible. But he made mistake after mistake during The Boys finale.

Safe text! This text contains no spoilers for The Boys or anything else! I’ve checked!

I blame Spider-Man: Back when all the leaks (and official trailers) for No Way Home revealed more and more about which characters would appear in the third Tom Holland Spider-Man, I was one of those people who wanted to know everything about a movie release beforehand. Especially for Spider-Man, whom I’ve loved since my childhood, I always wanted to stay informed.

Accordingly, I was thrilled back then about No Way Home, since the movie offered basically… everything. But something inside me whispered: Imagine you hadn’t known any of that beforehand. Your head would have exploded in the cinema. Because I actually love surprises too.

Since then, I’ve completely changed my attitude from I need to know everything beforehand by about 180 degrees. For series, movies, and video games that I particularly like, I actually want to know nothing beforehand anymore. I don’t read leaks, I don’t watch trailers. Also the finale of The Boys, which started last Wednesday, I wanted to watch without any knowledge.

The thing is: The social media algorithm apparently knows exactly which series I watch and would inevitably show me clips that I don’t want to see. Well, I can simply avoid that by putting my phone down. But I knew: At the latest on Thursday morning, I would be spoiled here due to work during the morning conference. It’s hard to avoid (even if the lovely colleagues always try to make sure they don’t spoil anything for each other as much as possible).

Therefore, it was clear: I had to see the finale on Wednesday, preferably as early as possible. But somehow I completely messed up the planning.

Michael instead of Butcher, Beat it instead of Boys

Overall, people spend far too little time with family, which is why I didn’t think twice when the request came to join my colleagues at the cinema on Wednesday. Somehow I had briefly forgotten during planning that Wednesday is indeed finale day.

Michael was the movie of choice, and don’t get me wrong: I really enjoy the music. I found the dances, the actor, the whole look of the film very impressive. It was fun. But story-wise, the movie was rather straightforward for me… in any case, I wanted to know what would actually happen to Homelander.

So it was cinema instead of sofa after work, and from then on, a self-imposed phone ban – because of the clips. After the movie, we still went out to eat together. Also a very nice part of the day. Nevertheless: the clock was ticking. Now I was almost looking forward to the fact that the finale would only last about an hour. Because I could fit it in a little later at home.

I got home, only to find that my wife had occupied the TV with her favorite series. Normally not a problem, but I definitely didn’t want to watch the Boys FINALE on my phone. So I sat down on the sofa and watched with her – because I couldn’t go online anymore. Too much risk!

Eventually, my wife said goodbye, and it was really late by then. But: whatever! Now it was finally time for The Boys finale! Spoiler-free, I triumphed and watched the episode. Then off to bed and, of course: First, read the discussions about the finale.

And that was the one price for staying spoiler-free: When I woke up this morning, I felt miserable. Dead tired, I started the day but smiled when the conference started: I was sure. Nevertheless, the day is not going quite smoothly today.

And the second price for my spoiler-free Boys finale had already been paid in the cinema. Because how could it be otherwise: Before the movie, the cinema showed the trailer for the new Spider-Man. The one I’ve been avoiding since release. And which now showed me at least three characters that would be in it – whom I would have been genuinely surprised to see for the first time in the cinema.

What do you think about spoilers? Throughout this day, I was reminded once again how incredibly difficult it is these days to dive into any form of entertainment without any prior knowledge. What do you think? Take part in our survey:

How do you deal with the topic? Do you want to know everything beforehand about the series, movies, and games you want to try? Or do you prefer to be surprised? Tell us in the comments! (And please don’t just write random spoilers for… anything!) And if you want to read which series you can watch after The Boys, check this out.