New comedy series Please Like Me to premiere in a full-season three-hour marathon

I received an email today from a television network’s PR machine asking me to please share a trailer of a new show premiere. It’s actually pretty common, but I don’t usually post trailers just for the sake of it unless I’m incomparably interested in the show. I don’t know if I’m particularly interested in the new comedy series titled Please Like Me — about a millenial who has just figured out he’s gay and has to move back in with his mother. But the email could not have been more timely.

Earlier today, I wrote about the wonders of binge-watching and how I realized the true pros of it with Orange is the New Black. Pivot TV, a new network, is premiering Please Like Me with a three-hour marathon of the entire series. Six episodes in three hours. It’s sort of like a traditional TV network’s way of Netflix’ing a new series. And it got me to thinking about whether Netflix’s model may be catching on.

Now, a few things: (1) Please Like Me isn’t an entirely original premiere. The show was produced in Australia and premiered there earlier this year. And (2) Pivot TV is a new network and is trying to garner attention, obviously. I don’t know if this will make waves, and I’m pretty sure that they’re not even thinking about it in that way. But if nothing else, I think premiering an entire series with a marathon dump is kind of unusual and absolutely interesting.

New networks and streaming ones like Netflix may have to rely on this type of model to prove to audiences they have great content without having to encourage them to come back week after week by providing just a sample taste. Just an observation.

Unfortunately, I don’t get Pivot TV in my neck of the woods, but if you’re interested, it premieres on Pivot TV Thursday, August 1 at 8 p.m. through 11 p.m. Check out the trailer below.