'Unsolved Mysteries' Officially Kicks Off a Brand-New Era Today

To quote the late Robert Stack: update! Unsolved Mysteries, the long-running investigative documentary series, is back for another season. The series has been everywhere, from network TV to cable, to Netflix, and to podcasting platforms everywhere. Now, it’s going where it’s never gone before: YouTube. The podcast series will now be available both as a podcast and a YouTube video series, starting with its new season, which kicks off today, October 29. Before it makes its YouTube debut, Collider is proud to exclusively present a sneak peek from the first episode of the new season.

The first episode of the season will center around the mysterious murders of Mary Cooper and Susanna Stodden in 2006. 56-year-old Cooper and her 27-year-old daughter Stodden were hiking the Pinnacle Lake Trail in Washington when they were murdered by an unknown assailant who shot both women in the back of the head. The two had not been robbed or otherwise assaulted, and there were no witnesses to the crime. Twenty years after the crime, the police still have no suspects and no idea whether the two were targeted, or if it was simply a crime of opportunity.

Our sneak peek features an interview with a law enforcement official who gives a first-hand report of the discovery of the bodies and the initial manhunt for the killer or killers. The hikers who found the bodies were taken to safety, but that may have given the perpetrator time to escape and cover their tracks. It’s only the first mystery the series will cover this season; future episodes will explore the disappearance of aviator Amelia Earhart, the vanishing of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370 in 2014, and the 1990 theft of 13 priceless artworks from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

Four criminal masterminds. One of them was always going to be yours.
Here is who comes for you, why they picked you out of everyone available, and what they want from
the encounter.

Your nemesis does not want to beat you. He wants to know you
completely, and he is patient enough to wait for it. The frightening part is how good the
conversation is.

• Lecter is the most dangerous kind of opponent: the one who finds you interesting. He
  never raises his voice, because he has never needed to.
• You keep a great deal to yourself and you are careful about what you show. That reserve
  is exactly the door he would knock on.
• The films understood something other thrillers missed. The horror is not the violence.
  It is being perfectly understood by the wrong person.
• He would be unfailingly polite about all of it. That is the worst part.

Your nemesis is not after money, territory or revenge. He is
after a demonstration, and you are the person he has chosen to prove his point on.

• The Joker only picks opponents who believe in something. Your decency is not a defence
  against him. It is the entire reason he showed up.
• He has no plan you can predict and nothing you can take away, which removes every tool
  you would normally reach for.
• His whole argument is that you are one bad day away from being him, and you would spend
  the rest of your life proving him wrong.
• He would call it a magic trick. You would call it the worst night of your life.

Your nemesis respects you, which sounds flattering until you work
out what it means. He chose you because nobody else was worth his time.

• Moriarty is the original criminal mastermind, the template every later one borrows from:
  a mind the equal of the hero’s, pointed the wrong way.
• You enjoy being the cleverest person in the room. He is counting on exactly that, and he
  has already built the room.
• This is the rare nemesis who would be genuinely disappointed if you lost badly. He needs
  the game to be worth playing.
• It ends the way these things always end. Two people, one problem, and only one way down.

Your nemesis has no personal interest in you whatsoever, and that
is precisely what makes him unsurvivable. You are not a rival. You are a stop on the way.

• Chigurh does not negotiate, gloat or explain. He arrives, he asks one question, and the
  answer was decided long before you opened your mouth.
• You trust yourself to handle things. He is the one problem in the world that has no
  interest in how capable you are.
• No Country for Old Men rewrote the screen villain by removing the thing audiences
  quietly rely on: the sense that talking might work.
• Call it. He will wait.

What Is ‘Unsolved Mysteries’?

Unsolved Mysteries began as a series of specials on NBC hosted by Raymond Burr, Karl Malden, and Robert Stack. When it was picked up as a series, the stentorian Stack was chosen as the full-time host. The series continued for a decade on NBC before moving to CBS, where Virginia Madsen was briefly added as a co-host. Cancelled in 1999, it was revived on Lifetime before Stack retired due to ill health. It was later rebooted on Spike TV with Dennis Farina as host. The series was then revived on Netflix, sans host or narration; five seasons have been produced so far.

The new season of Unsolved Mysteries will premiere on YouTube today, October 29; new episodes will debut weekly. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.

Unsolved Mysteries