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,…
