If you spend any amount of time watching shows on streaming services like Netflix or Hulu, then you may have noticed that several big-name productions are now putting trigger warnings on the screen before some pivotal episodes. The show “Baby Reindeer,” for example, warns its viewers in advance of an upcoming scene depicting sexual violence. “Better Call Saul” alerts its audience about an upcoming suicide. Other popular shows, like “Severance,” “The Morning Show,” “Life & Beth,” and several others also include similar messages before the show even begins. Even classics like “Goodfellas” and old shows like “All in the Family” now come with warnings about “ethnic prejudices.”
Online, these trigger warnings have caused a lot of consternation because they often ruin the episode that people are about to watch. If you know a suicide is coming, for instance, it’s usually not too hard to guess which character might be involved. (Spoiler alert: It’s probably the character that’s been having serious mental problems all season). And even if you’re not sure what character might be involved, it still blunts the dramatic impact of the scene to be told, directly, that something shocking is about to happen. There’s a reason Shakespeare didn’t have some guy go on stage before the fifth act of “Romeo & Juliet” to explain that poisoning and self-harm would occur. There was no stagehand to announce, “If you’re not ready to see two lovers take their own lives, then leave the amphitheater immediately.”
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