ABC launches its third season of 'American Crime'

After its first two acclaimed seasons, “American Crime” is ready to link into the country's pulse again.

Created and executive-produced by filmmaker John Ridley (“12 Years a Slave”), the ABC drama series begins its third round Sunday, March 12. After stories of a home invasion's aftermath and an assault on a private-school student, the newest tale focuses on labor matters at a North Carolina farm (though filmed in California), encompassing troubling socioeconomic aspects discovered by a Mexican father (continuing co-star Benito Martinez) during his search for his missing son.

Other members of the “American Crime” acting ensemble returning in new roles include Felicity Huffman, Timothy Hutton, Regina King, Lili Taylor, Richard Cabral and Connor Jessup. They're joined by familiar television faces Cherry Jones (“24”), Sandra Oh (“Grey's Anatomy”), Tim DeKay (“White Collar”), Janel Moloney (“The West Wing”) and Dallas Roberts (“The Walking Dead”).

“In terms of the issues that we try to address,” Ridley explains, “a lot of it is really predicated on issues or circumstances or individuals that we felt perhaps we didn't address in the previous seasons.”

In her third “American Crime” round, actress King plays a social worker, which regular viewers of the series will recognize as being much different from her previous two roles on the series.

“It's just exciting as an actor to have the opportunity to play a character and then just let it go and not have to continue being that same person each season,” reasons King, who won Emmys for her work in both Seasons 1 and 2. “That's kind of how we express our art, by being chameleons, by playing different roles. And the beauty of 'American Crime' is that not only do we know we're in good hands with John and Michael (fellow executive producer Michael J. McDonald), but we know this group of actors that we're working with. They're going to bring their 'A' game, 'A-plus-plus-plus' game every episode, every moment, and it just really doesn't get better than this. I feel like a kid in a candy store.”

After setting the first two “American Crime” sagas in Modesto and Indianapolis, Ridley intends to continue to show regional diversity ... even if the issues aren't necessarily unique to one area.

“It is 'American Crime,'” he notes, “and we just want to make sure that we are representing, geographically speaking, as many places as possible. These kinds of things happen everywhere, and we can't delude ourselves that it's geographically driven, that it happens merely East Coast, West Coast, north or south. We're just very fortunate that we've had the opportunity to represent three different geographical regions, and we hope we have the opportunity to represent all 50 states at some point.”