Being Annoyed by Previews

I recently started watching the BBC series Being Human. Three episodes in I am enjoying it but I am not enjoying one programming portion.

As each commercial break comes, they show scenes from later in the episode as a teaser. The first one revealed a crucial plot point that could have gone either way. It is infuriating! I have to discipine myself to fast forward and close my eyes so they don't ruin the show for me.

I am already watching the show, does the BBC think that are attention spans are so short that we need this kind of thing? At the very least they could announce it with "coming up" and then show the clip. The lack of warning is maddening.

This tactic is very common in the reality show genre but I don't recall seeing it in an hour long drama series. Reality shows have perfected it but at least have the decency to use the "coming next on . . ." tag to warn us to avert eyes and hit fast forward. Some shows use it and it's stepchild, the "what's happened so far" to great lengths. I assume that by doing the "what's happened" part they can rope in viewers who just surfed on in and want to watch the remainder. The greatest abuse of this that I ever saw was the brilliantly awful VH1 series The Pick Up Artist.

I DVR'd this show because the premise sounded so absurd that I had to witness it. Actually, having grown up as a socially retarded teenage male, the idea that someone could have helped me learn how to talk to woman was intriguing. But the show was a bit creepy and weird. This alleged hour show seemed to only have about 17 minutes of actual show in it. The rest was all "coming next" and "what's happened" and ominous music pauses to heighten the drama.

Some people may enjoy this part of television but I try to live my life spoiler free. I have come down off of that high horse quite a bit in the last few years but some of the previews are so revealing it ruins the drama (or even the comedy.) I used to watch The Sopranos with my wife and (pre-DVR) I would run out of the room whenever they said "next on The Sopranos." I tried to stay pure for Survivor and Lost but since I started listening to podcasts for those shows, it is impossible to avoid the “next on” discussion.

I know it is asking too much to get shows to stop this immediate spoilering but I expect more from the network that brought me The Office and MI-5 (Spooks.)