Q. I want to see the new HBO show, Big Little Lies (pictured above), with Nicole Kidman and Meryl Street because I love them, particularly Meryl. I’ve seen everything she’s been in. But I don’t have HBO. What’s the easiest and cheapest way to get it? I don’t like to spend money. — Nat, Fairfax, Virginia. 

Nat, you are right. HBO is now airing season two of Big Little Lies, which stars Nicole Kidman, Shailene Woodley and Reese Witherspoon as Marin County housewives who try to cover up a murder. Meryl Streep plays the deceased’s mother, a grieving woman who searches for clues to her son’s demise.  (Episode four of season two airs this Sunday at 9 p.m. ET.)

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HBO costs $15 a month, but is there a cheaper way to get the premium channel so you can get your Meryl Streep fix?

Well, the cheapest way is to persuade someone who already has HBO to give you his or her user name and password. Yes, you could watch either the streaming edition of HBO, called HBO Now, or the pay TV version of the premium channel, called HBO Go, with someone’s user name and password.

Here’s how it works.

If a friend with a cable or satellite subscription has HBO, that person can get a user name and password from his pay TV service that also permits him to watch HBO Go, which can be viewed via an app or the HBO web site. And that friendly individual can give you the user name and password so you can watch HBO Go as well.

The same goes for HBO Now, which is the channel’s standalone streaming service. Instead of paying $15 a month, you could get a HBO Now subscriber to give you her user name and password.

Now, you might be thinking there’s a catch, right?

Well, there is. While HBO has done little to discourage password sharing, some people believe it’s not ethical. After all, you are essentially cheating HBO out of $15 a month by getting it for free.

So, before ringing up that old friend who has HBO, you might want to ponder on that a bit.

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Have a question about new TV technologies? Send it to The TV Answer Man at swann@tvpredictions.com. Please include your first name and hometown in your message.

— Phillip Swann