Starz to stream ‘Blunt Talk’ episodes, ‘Survivor’s Remorse’ season 1 for free before new premieres

2015 is turning out to be in some ways the year of Starz programming. For a time, we thought that the network was going to start to sag behind Cinemax when it comes to premium content providers, but they have really upped their game over the past eighteen or so months. “Outlander” has become a huge hit with critics and diehard book fans, “Power” is still underrated for its commercial success, and they also are adapting Neil Gaiman’s “American Gods” with the help of the incredibly Bryan Fuller.

So how do you follow all of this up? Let’s just say now the network is hoping to get the same sort of reach out of its comedies. At the time in which you are reading this, the network has made the first two episodes of their new Patrick Stewart series “Blunt Talk” available for viewing on their official site. Now only that, but the entire first season of basketball comedy “Survivor’s Remorse” is also available.

Is this a smart move by the network to give away premium content for free? From this vantage point, they don’t have a whole lot to lose. If this gets more subscribers to stick around, or recruits some new ones to the network, it’s worth the gamble of maybe losing one or two people who would go back and buy a show like “Survivor’s Remorse” on iTunes. This is a genre that the network has yet to score a big hit in, and we’re in this age where in general, it is very hard to secure a hit comedy series.

These new shows are going to premiere on the network on August 22.