In the days leading up to the show’s season 4 finale, I wrote about the great Jack Vs. Locke conflict around which much of the TV show “Lost” revolves. In the days (or day) following the finale, however, my coworkers and I fittingly found ourselves in the throes of our own civil strife not unlike the divided camps of the mysterious Island itself: those who had watched “Lost” the night before, and those who planned to watch it later. 

The two biggest innovations – technical or creative – in recent television history are probably Digital Video Recording and the rise of complex serial dramas like “Lost” and “The Wire.” Shows are denser and more addictive than ever, and we can watch them whenever we please. It’s a great time to own a television. If TV is cocaine for entertainment junkies, then we’re living in the 1980s.

But the convergence of these innovations has had an unintended consequence. One that could send offices across the country into bloody battles by the water cooler. Now that half of a given show’s fans are watching the latest captivating episode as soon as it airs, while half DVR it and catch up a day or two later, the risk of inadvertently revealing “spoilers” (i.e., major plot points of an episode) to friends or colleagues, or of overhearing one yourself, is greater than ever. And with the newest serial dramas relying on twists and bombastic endings, the stakes are higher, too.

This is precisely what happened the morning after the “Lost” finale at my office. Half the office (including myself) had been fortunate enough to tune-in for the climactic final 2 hours of the show’s fourth season the night it aired. The other half were cursed with prior obligations, but had digitally recorded the show, or planned to watch it at ABC.com.

But not until after work.

The result was a palpable tension floating through our hallways and between our desks. The Last-Nighties (those who had watched it the night before) huddled in one corner, whispering our thoughts on Jack’s actions, on Locke’s fate, on the future of the Island. We kept our voices hushed, lest we accidentally reveal the episode’s outcome to one who had DVR-ed it – a cardinal sin amongst TV junkies. So extreme was this office division that myself and a small expedition of fellow Last-Nighties chose to eat our lunch in a soundproof glass conference room, where we could scream about the Others and the Smoke Monster to our hearts’ content. 

I realize now this would not be an isolated incident, but was in fact a result of a larger trend. When “The Sopranos” premiered in 1999 (before the rise of DVR) television was socialist with its distribution of new episodes—everyone who watched knew everything that had happened to Tony at the same time. By the show’s finale in 2007, however, television had become capitalist—those who tune in quickest are rewarded with information other fans may not yet have.

I am, of course, by no means a Marxist. But if I were, I would warn the capitalist pigs to give in to DVR and abandon their quest for episodic superiority. Break free, friends! You have nothing to lose but your remotes!