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Watchmen Series Free @ HBO.com

2041

Saw this at The Verge.

Watchmen premiered nine months before the recent mass protests against systemic racism and police brutality happened around the world, but the show feels more timely than ever. Now, HBO is making the entire nine-episode series available to anyone to watch for free this weekend.
The network is making the episodes free as “an extension of the network’s content offering highlighting Black experiences, voices and storytellers,” according to a press release, adding that HBO is proud to offer the “timely, poignant series that explores the legacy of systemic racism in America” to anyone who wants to watch

NOTE for anyone concerned normally free episodes on HBO don't require VPN.
Starts on the 19th in America which around 2pm today. Will update time and link later if it changes.
Great series from what I've seen and sadly only the one season.

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  • +2

    Needs VPN to watch these free episodes, if VPN plays up, it's painful to watch.

    • +5

      I was able to watch the first episode free here without VPN - https://www.hbo.com/watch-free-episodes. May be different for the whole series. Will update if this is the case. Thanks

      • We're sorry. This video is not available in your region.

        • +11

          The first 6 are available for me without a VPN

  • +8

    Couldn’t even give it away :D

    • -2

      Each to their own, but yes I too found the show to be pretty terrible, gave up half way through the season.

      • +24

        To your point, each their own but I was hooked on the show and at the end googled to see if season 2 was on the way.

        • +17

          Same. I really enjoyed it and was a little sad there won't be a second season

          • +1

            @InsertCrow: It was one of those shows the critics loved but the audience on the whole didn't.

        • I thought it was really good but a bit disappointed with Dr Manhattan's arc.

        • +11

          I've only seen praise from audience and critics for Watchmen. It's a series you have to watch the whole way through because it's so well crafted and put together. Really comes together in the second half.

      • +8

        I wasn't that into it until the back half of the season when all the setups started paying off, and then it turned out to be amazing! All the random flashback scenes and plot threads that had seemed neither here nor there were actually interconnected and explained.
        So it's worth persisting even if you find the front half confusing or uncomfortable.

      • +4

        I really enjoyed this show, but it is very sci-fi and overall quite dark (both thematically and visually) so I can certainly understand it not being to everyone's tastes. It is a bit of niche market, which I think is a big part of reason it won't get a second season, its appeal just isn't very broad and sci-fi shows are always very expensive to make.

    • +13

      Have you guys read the original book? This HBO series is a masterpiece if you have the context.

      • +4

        Absolutely agree with this. It is brilliant. Best TV show of the year.

    • +10

      I honestly thought it was the best show of the year

    • -7

      Yes, I was very disappointed with the show as i loved the movie. It was too much about SJW and not enough about the actual world.

      • +1

        It's a sequel to the comics not the movie.

        • +1

          From my understanding it wasn’t following the comics very well either and they created a lot of their own stuff. At least that’s what my friends who were fans of the comics told me. Actually I think I read some articles on it too that it was more like a show that borrows some parts of the world and characters from the comics but for the most part was just another show hence why they were able to put in a lot more sjw stuff

          • +5

            @lonewolf: It 100% follows the comics and not the film. It's also 100% a sequel, none of this "borrows some parts of it" stuff. Finally the original Watchmen comic was very much an "SJW" comic.

            • @Autonomic: I was told the comics were smart about the SJW and the way it was written and not blatantly flaunting it in your face. A bit like how Star Trek was always SJW but all the star trek shows never made a point of throwing it in your face till Discovery. I couldnt watch Discovery past the beginning of Season 2 sadly. It was just too fake , too many convenient things. Watchmen I managed to watch till the end of season 1.

              Having dark skin and having lived in Africa and Asian countries as well as european before moving to Australia, I am not a fan of the new trend of attacking white people or specially White males in all the tv shows. From my experience white society has been the most progressive and accepting of my skin colour and culture as opposed to the other countries i lived in previously.

              • @lonewolf: A show is not attacking white males simply by showing a black female protagonist's perspective (the most obvious feature those two shows have in common apart from being sci fi), but I can see how they might perceive it that way when a white male has been the default protagonist for so long.

                If you have gotten the whole way through the season of Watchmen and still didn't like it, I think you just have different taste, nothing wrong with that.

                • @Melburnian: It wasnt really about the black female protagonist perspective why i said the show is attacking white males, its when a show tries to be diverse but then pretty much makes majority of white males the bad guys, moreso i was referring to Discovery though in that regard but i saw some of it in Watchmen as well. But yeah i probably wont be watching season 2 of Watchmen. So many other shows out there these days when it comes to quality tv productions. Its crazy, I cant keep up with the amount of TV shows coming out. Just goes to show the money is now in TV and not as much in movies since people would prefer to be home as well as having the guarantee of multiple episodes or even seasons.

                  I am disappointed with Star trek though as being a massive fan of all the other star trek shows, i struggle to know that i probably cant watch discovery as i just get really annoyed at some things that occur on it.

              • -1

                @lonewolf: There is no such thing as white society. It's Australian, American, Canadian and so on. I find it hard to believe you were more accepted for your ethnicity in a western country than a country where your ethnicity is literally from.

                Personally I'm the opposite view. It's far, far, FAR more of a trend to attack anyone who's NOT a white male
                When's the last time we had a middle eastern protagonist? An Asian male protagonist? Or an Indian male? Indigenous? And so on.

                • +1

                  @Autonomic: Actually Australian, American, Canadian all came from Great Britain which was a Anglo Saxon society following christian beliefs. Hence those societies were founded on those beliefs and evolved from those beliefs. They then allowed other societies to migrate in and for the most part have been far more progressive in allowing other cultures and beliefs to be able to co-exist with their own society's as long as it didnt break the law. Which is far more than can be said for many other countries out there.

                  You find it hard to believe i was more accepted for my skin colour in Australia than in my own home country where i was born and where a genocide occured. If you look at many countries out there in The African and Asian continent you will see this happens more often than we would like to believe. Same goes for the Middle East.

                  Last time we had all those protagonists.. Easy every day, in those countries movie studios. The Indian movie industry is larger than Hollywood and is pretty much only Indian protagonists as well as not only that but majority of the times you need to be from certain castes as well as very fair skin. China has a big movie industry with pretty much all chinese protagonists, same goes for Korean etc etc. Again Only in the Anglo saxon / white societies do we have more diversity in the film and tv industry. If you have darker skin you have much more luck in american films and beauty pagents than you do in Asia. In Indian, korean, thai etc industries, good luck if you have dark skin, no chance of you winning a beauty pagent. India has a billion dollar industry and advertising campaign on whitening skin products and how much better a person and how much better a life you will have if you whiten your skin. China had a very famous advertising campaign with a black man who gets thrown into a dish washer and comes out as a fair skin chinese man which was apparently a lot better. In thailand people pay good money to bleach their skin white, which lasts a couple of years. In Thailand even though majority of the people would be tanned skin to dark skin (due to the sun and the outdoors nature as well as farming etc), you will never see them on TV or movies.

                  I also lived in a couple of quite strong muslim countries, my experiences there were just as bad. But the asian countries especially where i was the only dark skin person in class and one of very few in the whole school, the way i was treated was abysmal, like an animal. Like a species far beneath them, not just by every single other student (and dont get me wrong, there were different races of students and skin tones but there is fair and tan and then there is dark) but also teachers. And worse it was socially acceptable behaviour and there in lies the crutch. These behaviours and trends will always be far worse in societies and cultures where its acceptable behaviour and taught behaviour from parent to child. MY best friend in one of the countries i grew up in was a really nice chinese boy, We were neighbours and best friends, his dad worked with my dad and they were good friends too. But his mum refused to want to socialise with us because of our skin colour (this was what his dad even told my dad), she over time insisted on the boy not play with me and then the dad and the mum ended up having serious arguments about it as she wanted to move house just so that the dad and son wouldnt socialise with us. In the end the dad moved house for her. He apologised to my dad and explained even though he didnt agree with it he had to do it to keep the family together and she grew up in a society / family that had that way of thinking of dark skin. It just goes to show its all about education and acceptance. No one is born racist.

                  Did White societies treat people like this, yes they did in the past, Go back centuries and they did some horrible stuff in the Crusades then again go back centuries and you will find other races / cultures also did some horrible stuff. But over time the Anglo saxon and christianity based culture has progressed and improved to accept other races and cultures as well as beliefs, moreso than any other culture or race or religion i have come across in the many different countries i lived in on the continents of Africa, Asia and Europe. They have also been far more welcoming of other migrants. That isnt to say they are perfect but at least they are educating people who grow up in their society for the most part to be accepting, the same isnt happening as progressively in other countries/ cultures.

                  I have some friends who also dont see it this way or think that the anglo saxon / white society has been racist to them and then after talking with them we both realised it was because they had either been born here (or in another country aka England , canada and the US, as all my family and friends are separated through out the world but mainly those countries) and / or they had lived a part of their childhood in their home country and then come to the aforementioned anglo saxon country. So depending on which home country they came from or if they were born in the current country, they have only experienced racism from white people but havent actually lived in other countries to compare it to what racism is like in the continents of Asia, Africa. So i realised if i had been born in australia and experienced only the racism i have experienced in australia then yes i would think its bad but compared to what i experienced in other countries, its not even close.

                  Also even in Australia I have in the recent years experienced more racism from other migrants / non anglo saxon people than i have from anglo saxon people.

                  I will also say I am dark skin and not of the christian beliefs but rather another religion altogether.

                  • @lonewolf: Too long to read…did you have a summary?

  • +33

    It's incredible how prescient this series was. Tulsa massacre, cops wearing masks and acting more like vigilantes than an public protection agency, strong black female lead.

    I thought this was an incredible series.

  • +5

    Awesome show, just have my critiques with one character however the show really hits hard especially during these times

    • Which character?

    • +3

      It was Lubeman wasn't it? He needed more screen time

      • +1

        He needs his own series.

        • I'm an advocate for it!

    • +25

      Luckily we don't live in a society where previous criminal records and drug use warrant being killed on the spot.

        • +11

          Cool - then you'd agree that there's something that needs to be looked into here, that the victim didn't deserve to die?

        • +1

          well change you news platform then

    • +9

      Whats your point? He also had coronavirus. Doesn't change the fact he was killed. Also, what victim in the show are you talking about? There's a website called 4Chan where you don't even need to go miles off-topic to talk about the things you want to talk about.

      • +4

        I'm talking about the OPs comments of systemic racism in America and I'm pointing out that there are two sides to every story (unless it involves racism which of course means we ignore all other cards) Just sharing a comment the same as the OP, I guess my comment isn't allowed though.

        • +1

          So what's the other side of Floyd being murdered in the street? Please, tell me what justifies what happened.

          • +2

            @Frostay: In that case it was murder, nothing short of. I just don't understand why so much has been held back from news outlets. Did you read up on the other killing in Atlanta? Murder felony my ass

            • +2

              @[Deactivated]: I'm talking about Floyd. Why is it so important that you knew he had a rap sheet?

              • @Frostay: Because it adds to the reasoning why CPUs turned up and arrested him immediately over a dodgy $20 note. It doesn't appear so racist when they ask his name and they find out that he has violence, drugs and robbery in his past.

                • +1

                  @[Deactivated]: It appears incredibly racist when they then go on to murder him.

                  • +1

                    @Frostay: Is it because he's black or is it because they're prejudice is due to his criminal history? That's my point, the other factors are ignored and it becomes a race thing.

    • +4

      FYI - the meme you're referring to as your facts is inaccurate. There's no toxicology report showing meth nor was there an incident of armed robbery. Regardless of what you might be referring to, nothing can really justify murder based on previous records.

      • -1

        News outlets reported at first that he did have substances show up in his toxicology report, that stopped though once everyone bowed down to rioting and looting.

        • +3

          First you blame the media for not providing information. Then you use the media as a reference to dodgy information to justify your rants. Seems like you just have a racist position that you want to spew out and need to use the media to justify it. No one's buying.

          • +1

            @bargainshooter: Yeah, the racist card. Good one.

            I am from a minority (profanity), I see racism in Australia everyday.

            • +1

              @[Deactivated]: And your final defence is the unironic: I'm "allowed" to be racist because x.

              • +1

                @fenowik: Can you explain how my comments have been racist?

    • -1

      Wait, what smells like hot garbage?

      Oh, it's your comment.

      "This person used meth, not that I can tell having just encountered them" doesn't equal "so I can sit on his neck until he's dead" or "so I can shoot him in the back as he flees" or "so I can shoot her to death in her bed".

      The world must be a terrifying place for you, what with it continually changing for the better and safe spaces for racist trash becoming fewer and farther between. People like you were wrong about slavery, child labour, suffrage, segregation and gay rights, and history shows you'll just be straight up wrong about this too. Suffer in your jocks.

    • +1

      There is always one…ffs

      • There's around a dozen of you by my count.

        • Keep digging.

          • @ttlooshan: Oh no, a few clueless keyboard warriors are upset.

            • +1

              @[Deactivated]: You are seriously no better than the trolls who go around social media pushing an agenda and always need to get the last word in. This is pretty evident with you here feeling the need to respond to every single comment which disagrees with your original one, plus the personal attacks. You can have the last word because I will waste no more words on you.

  • +17

    Yep, this is one of the most ambitious and enjoyable shows I've seen in a long time. I do wonder if it just seems like absolute gibberish to normies and people that never read the book though.

    • -2

      Way to be elitist. It's a decent show but it's not the second coming of Jesus as you think it is.

      • Correct. That show was called "Messiah".

    • +1

      I've not read book/comics, but have seen the movie. It took a number of episodes of 'wtf is going on', but by the end everything was explained and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

  • +9

    10/10 Will rain squids again.

  • +12

    I was fully expecting this show to be terrible. An unasked for TV show about a story that had already been effectively told. What we got was a show which not only actually elevates the source material, but is also an amazingly timely and thoughtful exploration of race relations in the US.

    Also there's squids. And Lube-Man.

    • +6

      Who lubes the lube men?

      • The squids bro, c'mon pay attention

  • +4

    I really enjoyed this series.

  • -1

    Propaganda should always be free.

    • In capitalism the market decides the value of a good. Blame the people if you don't like them throwing money at a psyop.

  • +5

    Incredibly brilliant series.

    I hope the show runner comes back (after coming up with new plots) and there are more seasons in the future.

    PS: I've only watched the movie before with a small bit of reading of Wikipedia before and it all makes sense.

    PSS: They must have ran out of budget/screen time after introducing Lubeman.

    • I don't think they planned to have Lube Man in the show for any longer than he appeared. Fun fact - Lube Man is almost definitely Petey (Agent Blake's offsider)

      • Yep, read that afterwards. But as I was watching it to the end, it was like WTF happened to that guy? Good guy or bad guy? What was his purpose in the season?

  • Excellent show!

  • This show did not hook me. Found the first episode very boring apart from the very start and the very end. And I like slow shows.

    • +4

      It's definitely a show that takes its time to begin with and slowly dripfeeds you answers (ie. stuff happens in the early episodes that isn't explained for several episodes or until the end of the whole series). I found it a bit like Westworld in that way but a million times better. Watchmen takes its time to give you answers but, unlike Westworld, if you get through the whole season it's a perfectly contained story and has loads of likeable characters to keep you interested through the slower/confusing parts.

      I'd recommend reading a bit about the Watchmen backstory (even just on Wikipedia) then giving the first few episodes another crack. Completely agree it's slow at the beginning though.

      • +2

        I will go back to it one day. To be honest I didn't know it was based on a comic, I remember when I watched the initial trailer for it I thought it was some creepy cult type of show so I was instantly intrigued, after watching it and realising there's super powers and stuff I felt a little stupid. I guess I don't pay that much attention.

    • +4

      I struggled with the first few episodes as it seemed like a lot of disconnected, unexplained, nonsensical and even disturbing stuff stitched together. But that was all laying the groundwork for revelations which pay off later and it was definitely worth it to watch the whole way to the end! It's a really great experience to put it all together and solve the mysteries.

  • +2

    Terrific show. It deals with the culture wars well, and doesn't exactly pick sides.

  • +7

    Best show of 2019 for me…easily

    • +4

      Except for Succession ;)

      • +2

        Except for The Boys ;) (admittedly I haven't seen Succession)

  • +2

    I hope it will be available in Australia as well. I wonder if there is a possibility of HBO Max ever launching here.

    • +2

      It's on Foxtel Go and Binge (same company). I think Foxtel has exclusive HBO rights here, or at least they seem to get the licence for a lot of shows.

  • +2

    Would love to watch this, but no way am I getting through 9 episodes of it this weekend :P

    • Start on the first episode and you won't regret it; don't worry, you'll find time.

  • I noticed the other day that Trump and his supporters held a rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma and it made me think of this series and how it's set there

    • +6

      The massacre in the series is based on the historical Greenwood massacre in Tulsa. Trump chose to hold a rally in the same place on the anniversary of that event. He moved it to one day after due to intense protest. The POS is as dirty as a klansman.

      • +1

        How is this upvoted so much? Regardless of the political opinions this sounded too ridiculous to be true so I googled it and he moved it from June 19th to June 20th because June 19th was the holiday to celebrate abolishing slavery… June 1st was the massacre….

      • Someone in his campaign managed to push the rally back one day to June 20, certainly would not have been his idea.
        June 19th is actually an anniversary of the day emancipation came to the last enslaved people in the most distant state Texas.
        Tulsa massacre was 31st May - 1st June.

  • +1

    Best show of the last couple of years by faarrrrrrr

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  • -5

    I've tried to watch this.

    It is too cringe. They went full WOKE.

    Could not continue with it.

    • +8

      What. Some of the major themes from the show are playing out in the US and around the world right now. Just because a show takes things a step further than reality doesn't mean the show or its themes are "cringe" or "woke" - the society depicted in 1984 is worse than reality but that doesn't make it a bad book or mean that its themes/lessons aren't relevant to the real world.

    • Go eat a cabbage then…

  • +3

    Best show of 2019, and featuring some of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross's best instrumental work.

  • Looks like only this weekend which is a shame.

    Can you download HBO Go on WebOS (LG TV) in Australia, like if I hooked TV to a VPN?

  • +2

    I found the first few episodes average but ended up being one of my favourite series. Would highly recommend.

  • +1

    Brilliant show.Loved it.

  • +1

    Seems to be live and working for me, without VPN.

  • Also watch 'Hunters' for some relevant fiction.

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