Although some fans of Serial were a little cool on its second season, there's no denying that the podcast has become a phenomenon in pop culture.
After all, it even got its own SNL sketch and everything - so that really is saying something. However, for their new series, the creators of Serial are going in a slightly different direction. S-Town, which is due for release in March on iTunes and Soundcloud, will be a non-fiction series that's set in a small town in Alabama.
According to a blurb released today, "(production) of S-Town began when a man reached out to This American Life bitterly complaining about his small Alabama town. He wanted a reporter to investigate the son of a wealthy family who had allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. Brian agreed to look into it. But then someone else ended up dead, and another story began to unfold — about a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure and the mysteries of one man’s life."
While it does sound very, very similar in terms of the themes and issues of Serial, it's important to stress that the show is fictional. Not that fictional podcasts don't work; far from it. Welcome To Nightvale, for example, has been hugely popular and that's basically like Twin Peaks in a podcast.
Meanwhile, there's little in the way of news on a third season of Serial, however host Sarah Koening was sighted covering a trial in Baltimore in late 2016, sparking rumours that the new season may be investigating a gangland killing in Cleveland, Ohio.
Via RollingStone.com