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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Lifestyle
Marina Hyde

Spoiler alert: the US government can ruin your enjoyment of House of Cards

House of Cards
Netflix's House of Cards is a drama, but Fema has difficulty distinguishing fact from fiction. Photograph: Netfilx

To the internet, where spoiler fury has now officially finally tumbled down the rabbit hole.

Though we have yet to see the first spoiler revenge killing, be assured that the time will come – all exactly as predicted in the Book of Revelations. (Along with Sexy World Book Day. Come on: in your heart of hearts, you just know that one is in the post.)

For now, content yourselves with the following sequence of real-life events, which took place a few days ago:

1. A US government agency decided to tweet a legal debunking of a recent policy-based plot point in House of Cards.

2. Some fans of the show yet to see the episode freaked out about this.

3. The government agency apologised for it, explaining that they “may need to consider posting a pre-emptive ‘spoiler alert’ tweet next time”.

The agency in question was the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), which – SPOILER ALERT – is almost certain to come up short next time a natural disaster strikes the US. In fact, Fema has yet to adequately apologise for any number of real-life plot points on its watch over the past decade, such as its Hurricane Katrina response staging a fake press conference in which all the reporters were actually Fema employees. “Error of judgment” doesn’t really begin to cover some of those. Still, few are entirely devoid of a sense of shame, and it’s encouraging to learn that failing to observe the Netflix omerta finally caused Fema’s to kick in.

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