Showtime puts ‘Penny Dreadful’ season 3 premiere online early

It’s been a marketing strategy of Showtime for some time to put the premieres of their shows online early. They realize that they need to get the word out somehow, and this is a smart way to get people hooked on their programming early in hopes that they will subscribe for the rest of the season. They’ve done this already this year with “Shameless” and “Billions,” and we’ve seen this also happen with “Homeland” in the past.

Today, the network put the season 3 premiere of “Penny Dreadful” online a good six days before its May 1 premiere. There are a few caveats here:

1. This is probably available only to viewers in America.

2. This is a slightly-edited version of the premiere for YouTube and there will still be some adult content, so we don’t recommend watching it at work. For a more unedited experience, we suggest subscribing to the provider.

This drama is one of the most underrated on TV: It combines strong storytelling with a period setting and a darker turn on the fantasy genre. Eva Green is Emmy-worthy in the role of Vanessa, and we imagine that with many characters separated by great distances early on this season, there could be more drama this season than we’ve seen at any point so far. Will our cast find a way to get back together before the season is done? Also, there will be new infamous characters being introduced so be on the look out for that!

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