Hit US podcast 'Serial' back for season three

"Serial," the hit US internet radio sensation and most downloaded podcast in history, is back for season three. This time, focused on explaining to listeners how ordinary American criminal justice functions.

Season one ultimately resulted in an appeals court ordering a retrial in a murder case. Season two focused on a soldier who deserted in Afghanistan, only to be held captive by Taliban-linked militants for five years.

This time the action takes place in Cleveland, the Midwestern city, the product of a year spent watching ordinary American criminal justice in action.

Different cases will be told across two or three episodes. The first homes in on a bar fight in which a woman is slapped on the rear, but winds up in jail. The first two episodes are currently available for free download.

"Serial" -- a mix of investigative journalism, first-person narrative and dramatic storytelling launched in 2014, focused on a man convicted of his 18-year-old ex-girlfriend's murder in 1999.

The 12 episodes were downloaded more than 175 million times, a world record.

This March, an appeals court in Maryland ordered a new trial for Adnan Syed, although the appeals process is not yet finished, after the global attention brought to the case.

Syed was sentenced to life in prison for the murder of Hae Min Lee, whose body was found buried in a shallow grave in the woods of Baltimore, Maryland. She had been strangled. He has always maintained his innocence.

Bowe Bergdahl, the soldier held captive in Afghanistan before being freed in a prisoner swap with the Taliban, pleaded guilty in 2017 to desertion and endangering fellow troops for walking away from his unit in 2009.

Season two of "Serial," which was released in 2015, revealed how he thought walking off his base proved he was like fictional CIA movie spy Jason Bourne.

Last year, the team behind "Serial" set up a podcast production company, Serial Productions, which created a spin-off radio show called "S-Town," which follows one man and his hometown in rural Alabama.