I watched the podcasts for 3-4 months before signing up with TR. I’d even say all the free stuff — pods, forum, articles — are worth more than the actual service. 
If you had the time to troll the ‘What Workout Did You Do Today?’ topic (5,000 posts!), you could probably cobble together a (very) poor man’s version of any TR plan without even signing up. 
Good luck!