Workplace word-of-mouth and yearly success at awards shows used to be the main two ways you could judge a series’ success. Nowadays, the Twitter audience is often a good indicator of how popular a show is. There’s no denying that AMC’s Breaking Bad has as strong a social media presence than just about any currently airing series, with vigor, vehemence and conjecture being thrown out hours and days after episodes air, as later viewers catch up on DVR or iTunes. In fact, the Twitter audience in particular is so outspoken about the series that it has become something of an in-joke with fans on the West Coast (or those who can’t catch the first airing) that it’s treading heavily into dangerous waters to log-in to the site at any point on a Sunday evening. In steps Netflix, who recently unveiled the website Spoiler Foiler, a fairly ingenious concept for anyone finally realizing just how many things there are to spoil about one of the greatest series ever produced.
Spoiler Foiler is pretty bare-bones, mind you, and it’s appearing pretty late in the Breaking Bad game, showing up in the week before the series finale, for which the words “rabidly anticipated” is a daft understatement. You log into the site with you Twitter info and you get a simplified Twitter feed where you can read, reply and retweet, or compose a tweet of your own. There aren't many navigation capabilities, but this is when you’re supposed to be watching the episode anyway.
Whenever you happen to pass a Tweet that mentions Breaking Bad in any way, the entire post is censored, as seen below.
Here’s an extra B.B. bonus to make your day complete. You remember on last night’s rating record breaking episode ”Granite State” when they showed the phone number to Robert Forster’s vacuum repair shop? Turns out someone at AMC went so far as to secure the number, which leads you to a recording from Forster himself, laying out the shop’s voicemail message for curious fans. This is the kind of detail-oriented Easter eggs that make this show such a complete experience.
Give it a call. It’s (505) 842-4205 (via Uproxx.) .You won’t be able to leave a message though.
Netflix seemingly got in on the viral advertising to promote their Breaking Bad library, which latecomers have been going to in droves in wait for the finale. But they’ll never be able to stop Dean Norris from giving it all away, as you’ll see below. (Not really.)
