Amazon Original Series Betas Now Available on Prime Instant Video

Amazon Original Series Betas Now Available on Prime Instant Video

Ed Begley Jr., Joe Dinicol, Jon Daly, Maya Erskine, Charlie Saxton and Karan Soni star in Betas, created by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard

First three episodes of Betas now available free of charge for all Amazon customers, with additional episodes available every Friday for Prime members

SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 22, 2013-- (NASDAQ:AMZN)-The wanna-be entrepreneurs of Betas are back with an eleven-episode season full of apps, coding and debauchery. Amazon is excited to announce the premiere of the first three episodes of the Amazon Studios comedy Betas, which debuts today for all Amazon.com customers. Subsequent episodes will become available every Friday, exclusively for Prime members on Prime Instant Video.

Amazon Original Series Betas Now Available on Prime Instant Video (Photo: Business Wire)

Betas has been an incredibly fun show to create for customers. We have a stellar cast of comedians and actors, and we think customers are going to enjoy it, said Roy Price, Director of Amazon Studios. The chemistry these guys have on set definitely translates to the screen. While their characters are still very much underdogs, it's easy to find yourself hoping they make it big in techland.

Starting today, the first three episodes of Betas are available to all Amazon customers for free via Amazon Instant Video on Kindle Fire, iPad, iPhone, Roku, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii, Wii U, hundreds of other connected devices, and online at www.amazon.com/instantvideo. After today, one new episode of Betas will become available every Friday, exclusively on Prime Instant Video, with episode four available on November 29. Customers who are not already Prime members can sign up for a trial at www.amazon.com/primevideos.

Set in the land of Silicon Valley start-ups, Betas, written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard, follows four friends as they attempt to strike it rich with a new mobile social networking app. Joe Dinicol, Karan Soni, Jon Daly, Charlie Saxton, and Maya Erskine star in the show, with Ed Begley Jr. (Arrested Development, St. Elsewhere). Michael Lehmann directs and produces the show along with Executive Producers and Emmy Award winners Alan Freedland and Alan Cohen, and Academy Award nominee Michael London.

Here's what TV critics are saying about the series:

It's a little wild and woolly and more serialized; it's also more addictive. -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After three episodes, I feel invested in the Betas characters and I'm eager to see where the story takes them. -Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The show crackles with witty (and jargony) banter. -San Jose Mercury News

it has a standout character in Nash (Karan Soni), a programming prodigy who digs Christopher Cross and Kenny Loggins tunes -San Jose Mercury News

Betas gets a lot of things right -San Francisco Chronicle

The pilot, created and written by Evan Endicott and Josh Stoddard, was easily the best of the Amazon bunch. -New York Times

clever, sharply observed -New York Times

the above-passing grades for Betas suggest the service's incipient efforts have gone two for two. And frankly, for any startup, that's a pretty impressive debut. -Variety

Betas actually has the potential to be a lot more than just a catchword-of-the-day laden satirical look at the ridiculous of the new dot-com era. -Indiewire

Betas is a solid tech world comedy. -Indiewire

Here's what customers said about the Betas pilot:

Too many comedies make their characters just caricatures, and push the comedy over a ledge. Betas is funny and the characters are people I cared about, I want to see them succeed while knowing they'll commit plenty of self-defeating laugh-your-ass-off mistakes. I want MORE!

The show has a solid cast, an interesting premise and features some veterans of comedy in the pilot. The pilot has some great laughs. Jon Daly is an underrated comedian and I want this show to continue to watch his performance. Excited to see this picked up.

I would definitely like to see more episodes of Beta[s]. It was very funny, and the characters are very likable. If you work with programmers like I do this show seems to capture the different (sometimes socially awkward) personalities perfectly.

Betas is a humorous, well-written take on the struggle to start a revolutionary social networking site. The characters were introduced well and the cast played off each other marvelously. I'd be excited for Amazon to pick this show up.

I loved the pilot, I want to see more! This show has many different characters that you can relate to.

Okay, so the characters are great. The humor is witty, dry and hilarious. The premise for the show is not too complicated and when it ended, I immediately wished that I had another episode to watch. Can't wait for a full season. Great show!

Today's Betas premiere follows the successful premiere of Alpha House, Amazon's first-ever original series, last Friday, November 15. Amazon announced earlier this week that Alpha House was the most-watched series over the weekend, following its debut. Customers were given the first three episodes of Alpha House to enjoy for free, with the fourth episode becoming available exclusively for Prime members today. Comedy Alpha House follows four senators-turned-unlikely-roommates as they maneuver the outrageous-and sometimes all-too-real-follies of Washington politics.

About Amazon Studios

Amazon Studios launched in 2010 as a new way to develop feature films and episodic series-one that's open to great ideas from creators and audiences around the world. Anyone can upload a script and will then be notified within 45 days if that script is optioned. Amazon Studios will read and review all submissions and t

LINK:	http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=176060&p=irol-newsArticle&...
	See more stories from phx

Most recent headlines