HBO offers ‘Sopranos,’ other hits free to nonsubscribers

You’ve officially run out of excuses for avoiding “The Wire.”

Starting Friday, HBO is making the groundbreaking series, widely regarded as one of television’s all-time best, available to watch for free, without a subscription.

It’s one of nine HBO original series that, along with a selection of the pay channel’s documentaries and movies from its corporate sibling Warner Bros., make up almost 500 hours of free programming.

The highlight of the offering is the collection of original series, every episode of which HBO is pulling out from behind its paywall for the first time.

In addition to “The Wire,” viewers can stream all seasons of “The Sopranos,” “Veep,” “True Blood,” “Barry,” “Silicon Valley,” “Succession,” “Six Feet Under” and “Ballers.”

Among the documentaries is “McMillion$,” aka the true-crime series about the McDonald’s Monopoly game scandal that everyone was obsessed with before “Tiger King” came along.

To access the free HBO content, download the HBO NOW or HBO GO apps or go to HBONow.com or HBOGo.com.