The fourth season came out on DVD this week, and I naturally snatched it up immediately to add to my collection. I've been working my way through the special features discs. (There's two this time, so lots to watch!) Tonight, when I dropped the fold-out pack from the slip case, I noticed something. Take a look at this picture (click to enlarge) and see if you can spot it. (My apologies for the photo quality if you can't.
On the outside case, all the castaways are featured. But on the inside case, only the "Oceanic Six" are lit up. All the other characters are blacked out. Baby Aaron has moved from Claire's arms to Kate's, and the number "6" appears in the water (instead of the "4" on the outer cover).
Now, on one level, this is pretty cool. It's a clever tie-in to the show, and it's kind of neat that someone thought of this and implemented it so well. Kudos, art department.
On the larger level, though, what kind of dick move is this?! One of the major points of mystery in the first half of the season surrounds the question of "who are the Oceanic Six?" And this packaging just gives that away before you can even get the first disc into your DVD player! That completely sucks.
I do believe there is some sort of window of time after which you shouldn't have to worry about keeping spoilers secret from people. I mean, if someone picked up season one of Lost just recently, liked it, and went to the store to buy the other three seasons and wondered, "huh, why isn't Boone on the cover of the rest of these?", then I think that person has no standing in a court of spoiler courtesy.
But it's very likely that a significant portion of people will watch these episodes on DVD for the first time. So your little packaging gimmick here, while cool, is ultimately just cruel. Shame on you.
2 comments:
this happens a lot with movie packaging and especially the DVD menu screens which always loop footage of the "cool" moments. most DVDs will show bits of a scene even before the menu pops up in a "you've just watched it, you can't un-watch it" way.
not too long ago I was very anti-spoiler. it used to infuriate me when something was ruined. but I realized that our society is very much inclined to spoil media tidbits. While I don't actively seek out spoilers, if I happen to catch a commercial for Battlestar Galactica, I'm not going to throw something at my TV anymore...
the mole
The Mole got it right: they do this ALL THE TIME with movies on DVD. Whenever you have a movie in which the main plot revolves about the possibility that two of the main characters will end up together, you can bet on the Packaging Bastard (TM) to slap a picture of the actual kiss either on the outside of the case, on the inside, on the disc itself, on in the on-screen menu.
And that's just one example.
As far as TV series go (on DVD), I remember the first season of 24 having horrible menu images. Almost each one showed a key moment that you *did not* want spoiled before you actually watched the episode.
I hate that.
FKL
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