Autumn is just around the corner and the days when we can curl up with a juicy true crime series as the skies grow suitably dark is drawing ever-closer. Standby then, TV lovers, because there’s a gripping new mystery coming to the small screen soon.

In advance of its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival, Facebook Watch have released the first trailer for its brand new TV series Limetown. Based on the acclaimed podcast of the same name, the drama follows a radio reporter as she investigates an unsolved mystery. The source of suspense? The disappearance of an entire town. 

Starring Jessica Biel as Lia Haddock, a journalist for American Public Radio, Limetown is a fascinating mixture of mystery, paranoia and conspiracy, with a dark secret at the centre of the story. Ahead of its release, here’s everything you need to know.

What is the plot of Limetown?

Limetown follows the story of American Public Radio journalist Lia Haddock, as she investigates the mystery behind the shocking disappearance of over 300 people from a self-contained neuroscience research community in Tennessee over a decade earlier. 

Based on the gripping fictional story scripted by Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie in the podcast Limetown in 2015, the adaptation isn’t your standard undercover-reporter-swilling-hard-liquor spiel. In a clever narrative twist, Haddock is recording a podcast the whole time she’s unravelling the mystery of what exactly happened to the makeshift community of scientists, researchers and their families. And a big mystery is something of an understatement, considering no-one has ever understood how 300 people could vanish without trace.

World-weary workaholic Haddock isn’t purely motivated by a good story though; she has a personal connection to the case, as her uncle Emile disappeared from her life when the community inexplicably dropped off the radar. But although the tragedy has marked her life, the real question Limetown poses to a world where the 24-hour news cycle desensitises us to human catastrophe, is do we really care at all?

Who is in the cast of Limetown?

Limetown stars Jessica Biel as protagonist Lia Haddock, who also serves as an executive producer through her banner Iron Ocean Productions. Zack Akers and Skip Bronkie, creators of the Limetown podcast, also serve as writers and executive producers of the series.

Meanwhile, Stanley Tucci, who gained Oscar nominations for his work on The Lovely Bones, The Hunger Games and Spotlight, (but will forever remain in our hearts as Nigel in The Devil Wears Prada) is set to play Haddock’s beloved uncle Emile, who is among the missing. 

The series also stars Marlee Matlin (Quantico, The Magicians), Kelly Jenrette (The Handmaid’s Tale, Grandfathered), John Beasley (Shots Fired, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks), Sherri Saum (The Fosters, Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Omar Elba (A Hologram For the King), Louis Ferriera (The Man in the High Castle, S.W.A.T.) and Janet Kidder (Arrow, The Man in the High Castle).

When is Limetown released?

Limetown premieres on 16 October at 12 p.m. PT/3 p.m. ET on Facebook Watch. New episodes will become available every Wednesday on the Limetown Facebook page. In the meantime, you can watch the trailer below. 

Images: Facebook Watch