'Truth Be Told' Season 3 Is Finally Here — When Should We Expect New Episodes?

Truth Be Told asks an important question about publicizing the pursuit of justice in its new season that just aired yesterday. Tackling the rampant popularity of true crime podcasts, Truth Be Told follows Poppy Parnell, played by Octavia Spencer, a podcast showrunner who actively investigates the recent disappearances of young black girls, frustrated by the lack of action by law enforcement. The efforts to find them need to be quick, as it's a race against the clock before they're trafficked and sold.

Truth Be Told premiered in 2019 and the second season aired in 2021. In the first season, Poppy Parnell starts a show that reopens the murder case of a Stanford professor after new evidence came to light that the man she helped put behind bars for the crime was wrongfully convicted. The second season follows Poppy again as she tries to solve a murder at the behest of her friend. The show makes Poppy seem well-intentioned and she does go after problems no one else does, however, it juxtaposes that with the irresponsible nature of publicizing the investigation of a crime.

New episodes of Truth Be Told will air every Friday until March 24. Only one is out so far, the episode titled "Unto the Sweet Bird's Throat" which aired yesterday in which Poppy focuses her podcast on missing girls in Oakland. Next week's episode is titled, "Her, Armed With Sorrow Sore," in which Poppy will take the investigation of these missing girls into her own hands, and attempt to locate her friend's missing teen daughter.

1. Unto The Sweet Bird’s Throat – January 20, 2023
2. Her, Armed With Sorrow Sore – January 27, 2023
3. TBA – February 3, 2023
4. TBA – February 10, 2023
5. TBA – February 17, 2023
6. TBA – February 24, 2023
7. TBA – March 3, 2023
8. TBA – March 10, 2023
9. TBA – March 17, 2023
10. TBA – March 24, 2023

Together with the help of a school principal played by Gabrielle Union, who Poppy works with to keep the names of the missing girls in the public eye, she tracks down leads on the girls that point toward a sex trafficking ring that may have captured them.

The titles of the episodes are all lines from classical poetry, as "Unto the Sweet Bird's Throat" is a line from William Shakespeare's "Under the greenwood tree." Likewise, "Her, Armed With Sorrow Sore" is a line from William Blake's "The Little Girl Found" which tells the story of parents looking for their daughter. As they search they fear their daughter dead, and the father holds the mother, and the mother holds her sorrow.

The show shines a critical light on the broadcast journalist turned private investigator, as well as crime podcasts in general. While it emphasizes in the first season how dangerous it can be to put serious crimes in the court of public opinion (as the man she initially helped put away was wrongfully convicted).

The second season stressed conflict of interest and bias, as her friendships compromised her judgment. While the third season shows Poppy as the person willing to investigate when no one else will.