Showtime has given fans of their horror mash-up show Penny Dreadful a shocking surprise with the early release of the Season 2 premiere for free online. The show is scheduled to return for its second season on Sunday, May 3rd, but the first episode Fresh Hell has currently been made available online by Showtime on multiple platforms, including here on YouTube.
In addition to Penny Dreadful, the cable network has also made the series debut of HAPPYish, starring Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn and Bradley Whitford, available on the same selection of platforms. If YouTube isn’t your thing, or if you just prefer another platform, you can also check out the premieres on SHO.com, via a number of television providers’ free On Demand channels and websites, on Showtime On Demand and various partner sites and applications.
The episodes will also be available via Showtime Anytime on desktop, iPhone, iPad, Android phones and tablets, Kindle Fire, Roku, Chromecast, Amazon Fire TV, Xbox 360, Xbox One and Apple TV streaming players anywhere in the U.S., as well as for download as a free video podcast on iTunes. Penny Dreadful will also be available on the Showtime Preview app on Smart TVs from Samsung, LG and Panasonic.
Here’s the press releases describing each show:
From three-time Oscar® nominee John Logan, PENNY DREADFUL returns with ten episodes and will find Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) and Ethan Chandler (Josh Hartnett) forming a deeper bond as the group, including Sir Malcolm (Timothy Dalton), Dr. Frankenstein (Harry Treadaway), and Sembene (Danny Sapani), unite to banish the evil forces that threaten to destroy them. Meanwhile, Dorian Gray (Reeve Carney) and the Creature (Rory Kinnear) are all waging battles of their own. Two-time Tony Award winner Patti LuPone will guest star as a mysterious character of great importance in Vanessa’s past. Helen McCrory returns as Evelyn Poole (a.k.a. Madame Kali), the seductive spiritualist who will pose a unique threat to our protagonists this season, along with Simon Russell Beale, who is back as eccentric Egyptologist Ferdinand Lyle. Additional guest stars include Douglas Hodge as a Scotland Yard investigator and Sarah Greene as Poole’s powerful daughter, Hecate. PENNY DREADFUL is created, written and executive produced by John Logan (Hugo, The Aviator, Gladiator) and executive produced by Logan’s Desert Wolf Productions, along with Oscar winner Sam Mendes (American Beauty, Skyfall) and Pippa Harris (Revolutionary Road, Call The Midwife), both of Neal Street Productions. A co-production with Sky Atlantic, PENNY DREADFUL was filmed on location in Dublin, Ireland.
Starring Oscar® and Golden Globe® nominee Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn and Emmy®winner and Golden Globe nominee Bradley Whitford, HAPPYish is a comedic, soul-searching examination of our pursuit of happiness and why it continues to be so elusive. Currently in production in New York, HAPPYish also features guest stars Emmy and Tony® Award winner Ellen Barkin, Emmy Award winner Carrie Preston, Molly Price and Andre Royo. Coogan stars as Thom Payne, a 44 year-old man whose world is thrown into disarray when a pair of 25 year-old wunderkind bosses arrive, saying things like “digital,” “social” and “viral.” Is he in need of a “rebranding,” or does he just have a “low joy ceiling?” Maybe pursuing happiness is a fool’s errand? Maybe, after 44 years on this ludicrous planet, settling for happyish is the best one can expect. HAPPYish is created, written and executive produced by critically acclaimed author and regular This American Life contributor Shalom Auslander. Emmy Award nominee Ken Kwapis (He’s Just Not That Into You, A Walk In The Woods) executive produces and directed the pilot. Kwapis’ producing partner Alexandra Beattie serves as co-executive producer under their In Cahoots banner.
Penny Dreadful will premiere on Sunday, May 3rd at 10 p.m. ET/PT and HAPPYish will premiere on Sunday, April 26th at 9:30 p.m. ET/PT.