One of the beautiful things about Netflix is the service’s addictive formula of unloading every episode of a series’ latest season at once. Those wondering just how much impact the Netflix way has had on the TV industry need only look at NBC’s latest series, Aquarius. The upcoming David Duchovny drama, which debuts May 28 on NBC, will follow the Netflix mantra, allowing fans to binge-watch the remaining 12 episodes online the following morning.
In a first for network TV, NBC has announced that it will make all 13 episodes of the new series available on NBC.com, as well as the NBC mobile app, and on cable VOD platforms the day after the series debut.
In the series, the Duchovny plays an LA police detective investigating the Manson Family case in 1967. On both the weekly telecasts and the VOD options, the drama will feature fewer commercials than normal series to replicate the viewing experience of other online video services.
“With Aquarius, we have the opportunity to push some new boundaries to give our audience something no broadcast network has done before,” NBC Entertainment chairman Bob Greenblatt said to Variety. “We are fully aware how audiences want to consume multiple episodes of new television faster and at their own discretion, and we’re excited to offer our viewers this same experience since all 13 episodes of this unique show have been produced and are ready to be seen.”
Duchovny comes to Aquarius right after finishing a seven-season run of Showtime’s Californication and has previous experience working with Greenblatt, who headed FOX when he starred in The X-Files. “I’m thrilled to be working with Bob Greenplatt again and coming back to broadcast television,” Duchovny told Variety. “I think Aquarius has a chance to be a special show and I can’t wait to get going.”
NBC has said that Aquarius’ debut season will follow Manson’s early transgressions — “a small-time criminal who specializes in luring vulnerable young women” — but that the infamous murder spree will not be part of the drama until future seasons.
Marty Adelstein, best known for the serial drama Prison Break, the Tim Allen sitcom Last Man Standing and 2006 slasher film Black Christmas, produced the upcoming series alongside ITV Studios.
