Alcatraz is one of those subjects that just pulls you in no matter how many times the story gets retold. You've got the isolated rock, the freezing water, the three men who vanished in 1962 and were never found. Every few years someone takes another swing at it, and now Discovery Channel is having its turn with a new series called, straightforwardly enough, Escape from Alcatraz.

If true crime and historical mysteries are your thing, Discovery is currently airing the series. The good news is you don't need a pricey cable package to tune in.

Discovery Channel is available through several live TV streaming services that offer free trials, which means you can watch the series without paying anything up front. Philo, DirecTV Stream, and Sling TV all carry Discovery in their channel lineups and offer trial periods that vary by service. You sign up, you watch, and if it's not for you, you cancel before the trial ends.

Philo is probably the simplest option if you just want Discovery without a bunch of extras you'll never scroll to. It's one of the cheaper live TV services out there and includes Discovery in its base package, along with a solid mix of other unscripted and documentary channels. The free trial gives you enough time to check out the first several episodes and see if the series hooks you.

If you miss the live airing or the trial window doesn't line up right, episodes also land on Discovery+, the network's standalone streaming platform. That one isn't free, but it's cheap, and it carries the full back catalog of Discovery shows if you want to keep going down the rabbit hole after Alcatraz wraps up.

You can check out the full breakdown of streaming options over at MSN, which walks through each service and what they're currently offering.

What I like about Discovery's approach to stuff like this is that they tend to go deep on the forensics and the logistics rather than just dramatizing everything. The 1962 escape by Frank Morris and the Anglin brothers is one of the most investigated prison breaks in American history, and the series reportedly digs into new files, DNA testing, and evidence that could shed light on whether any of the three actually survived. There's enough competing evidence and conflicting theories to keep a show going without repeating itself.

Jess Wingo would probably tell me I'm too much of a sucker for prison documentaries. She's not wrong. But this is the kind of thing I'll put on a Saturday afternoon with a sandwich and accidentally watch three episodes back to back. If you've got a free afternoon and a trial to burn, this is an easy one to get pulled into.