AT A GLANCE:
WHAT: Serial, the Beyoncé of podcasts*.
WHY CARE: Because after an incredible first season and a less intriguing second, Serial is back with a new formula.
WHERE TO FIND IT: serialpodcast.org, or wherever you listen to your podcasts.
FULL REVIEW:
When season one of Serial was released almost four years ago, it felt like the entire world was suddenly obsessed with the story of a man sentenced to life in prison as a teenager for the murder of his high-school girlfriend.
It was well-researched and expertly told, and waiting for a new episode to be published each week was sweet torture for fans of the show (that season was downloaded a record-setting 175-million times).
Season two moved Serial from the courtroom into the military, and didn't grip as many people (it followed the story of a US soldier who was held captive by the Taliban and, after his release, charged with desertion).
With the newly released third season, the podcast goes back to its roots: the courtroom.
A few minutes into the opening episode, Serial's host Sarah Koenig says that after season one, people asked her and her colleagues what that case tells the listener about the US justice system. The answer? Nothing much, because "cases like that one are not what's filling America's courtrooms every day … I don't think we could interrogate the American justice system by looking at one extraordinary case. Ordinary cases are where we'd need to look."
That's the premise of season three: rather than delving into deep (and sometimes unnecessary but nonetheless interesting) details about a single case over several episodes, each episode has a different case and new storyline, and introduces new characters.
Sounds like a Law & Order episode, doesn't it? The variation is actually a smart move on the producers' part because this new format makes it difficult to compare the new season to the first (the heights of which - hype-, content- and production-wise - they will probably never reach again).
Another change is that Koenig isn't the sole narrator of the podcast - she's joined by reporter Emmanuel Dzotsi.
The cases they follow this season take place in Cleveland courts, mainly for practical reasons ("because they let us record everywhere"). The first one is the strange (and bewildering) case of a young woman who is sexually harassed at a bar, then attacked - but ends up behind bars. How?
LISTEN | The trailer for Serial season 3
The second episode uses a controversial judge, Daniel Gaul, as an example of just how much power judges in US courtrooms are granted.
You'll cringe listening to him speak to the mostly black defendants in his courtroom (a lot of Ebonics, putting on a blaccent, the stereotypes he uses), but it's also interesting to "witness" how much his ego seems to influence his judgments and just how much control he has over people's lives.
While not as riveting as season one, the first two episodes of season three are interesting enough to keep you listening for more. Hopefully there will be a cracker of a case for us to sink our teeth into in one of the episodes. But for now, the ordinariness is anything but boring.
*Meaning, it changed the podcast game and is one of the most famous names in its genre...