The Serial podcast is about to return with its much anticipated third season.
Almost three years after the second season was released, the producers and writers are finally back with Season 3, with the release date for the first new episode set for September 20.
Since the podcast usually tackles major cases, fans had been expecting to hear about another groundbreaking case going through the legal system. But that will not be the case this time around.
According to a new Instagram post, the third season will take a deep dive into the criminal justice system as a whole by looking at a variety of ordinary cases.
Listeners will be taken behind the scenes into the criminal courts in Cleveland, with “unprecedented access” into courtrooms, back hallways, judges’ chambers, and even the prosecutors’ office.
As the official post explains, a pattern emerges when looking at run-of-the-mill cases. Based on the Instagram post, it also sounds like the hosts found some shocking things.
The Serial podcast launched in 2014 with a look at the Adnan Syed case, one that had shocked the creators of the podcast.
Syed was a teenager from Baltimore, who was being accused of killing his girlfriend, Hae Min Lee. She disappeared from the Woodlawn High School on January 13, 1999.
Her body was discovered in Leakin Park and it was determined she had been strangled. The podcast dove into the legal proceedings and included interviews with Adnan, who continued to deny any involvement.
The second season was about something completely different — soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who was deployed to serve in eastern Afghanistan.
He decided to leave his U.S. Army outpost in the middle of the night and found himself captured.
His story would anger, shock and awe listeners. It was a case that stunned the nation, with him being labeled a traitor.
The Serial podcast producers said of Season 3: “You can’t really understand how the criminal justice system works by interrogating one extraordinary case.
“*Ordinary* cases are where you need to look. This season of Serial, we do just that. We take a look at the entire criminal justice system.
“We spent a year inside the criminal courts in Cleveland. They gave us extraordinary access, letting us record everywhere — courtrooms, back hallways, judges’ chambers, the prosecutors’ office.
“As our host Sarah Koenig says, “Every case we looked into, there came a time when I said, ‘Wait, this can’t be happening.’ And then it did.” This season, you’ll see what we saw, from the inside.”
Serial Season 3 begins on September 20.