HBO is making Watchmen free all weekend

*Source: HBO* Regina King and Tim Blake Nelson in Watchmen on HBO. (Image credit: HBO)

HBO is making all nine episodes of its Peabody Award-winning Watchmen series available for free from June 19-21. It'll be available on HBO.com as well through HBO's myriad on-demand schemes. It'll also be made available through linear HBO broadcasts as a marathon starting at 1 p.m. Eastern on June 19.

The HBO Watchmen series is based in the world created by the graphic novel and continued by the 2009 movie, but it's very much an offshoot and is telling its own story. It's also a story of race, which is what led HBO to make it available for free this weekend. The series opens with the 1921 Tulsa Massacre, which led to the deaths of what historians believe could be as many as 300 people, and the burning of 35 city blocks on what was known as Black Wall Street.

That event serves as the catalyst for the series, which explores race relations in a time in which superheroes are outlawed but also employed by the police, and law-enforcement officers are allowed too keep their identities secret for fear of retaliation by the public.

You don't have to be a die-hard Watchmen fan to enjoy this one, and it truly is a remarkable series with remarkable acting from the likes of Regina King, Jeremy Irons, Jean Smart, Tim Blake Nelson, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Don Johnson, and Louis Gossett Jr. The series was written and executive-produced by Damon Lindelof.

This take on Watchmen is a standalone matter, and Lindelof has said that he doesn't intend to make another season, even though this one very much ended on a clifhanger.

In addition to Watchmen , HBO also is making other "content offering highlighting Black experiences, voices and storytellers" available for free this weekend, including: