New lessons are learned and dark secrets come to light with the return of Polish drama ‘The Teach’

Teacher and occasional sleuth Pawel Zawadzki is back and he’s determined to make a fresh start. But does his hometown hold the biggest mystery yet?

A man stands looking sideways, with a serious expression.

Maciej Stuhr returns as Pawel Zawadzki in season 3 of 'The Teach'. Credit: CANAL+ / Estella Dandyk

If there’s one thing we learned from the first two seasons of hugely popular Polish drama The Teach, it’s that trouble has a way of following certain people around. Or at least that seems to be the case for accomplished teacher and amateur investigator, Pawel Zawadzki (Maciej Stuhr).

As an educator, Pawel is as calm and intuitive as they come, but it’s these same qualities that draw him into the search for answers and bring him face to face with crimes that are often closer to home than they appear. The first season saw Pawel arrive to his new job in the fictional small town of Dobrowice just as an investigation into the death of a student in his class, who later turned out to be far from a stranger, was getting underway. Lesson number one: the smallest towns often have the biggest secrets. A move to the city in the second season followed Pawel into the world of Wroclaw’s upper echelon, where the disappearance of three students was less personal for the teacher, but no less intriguing, and was the tip of a very sinister, crime-laden iceberg. Lesson number two: big cities have even bigger secrets.

Maciej Stuhr, Paweł Zawadzki, The Teach, Polish TV series

Maciej Stuhr in season 2 of The Teach. Source: SBS

Now, in the third season, Pawel returns to his seaside hometown of Malomorze, hopeful that trading the unfamiliar for a place he knows well will keep the unexpected, and any further brushes with the law, to a minimum. But what starts as a much-needed chance at a normal life quickly becomes the teacher’s most challenging mystery yet.

Taking up a position in the local high school where his father Bogdan (Jacek Koman), a retired navy officer known as ‘Captain’, runs the sailing club could be the olive branch that their fractured relationship needs but, once again, trouble has a way of turning up in unlikely places. An ill-fated educational cruise, led by the father son duo, ends with one of their students, colourful character Kacper Krynicki (Michal Zielinski), vanishing into thin air. When a body is later discovered washed up on the beach, Pawel can’t help but think he is walking into dangerously familiar territory: a missing person, a body, and a web of deceit that this time leaves him doubting those he knows best.

A man in a dark jacket leans on the railing of a boat at sea, looking pensively ahead.

Bogdan (Jacek Koman), aka The Captain. Credit: CANAL+ / Estella Dandyk

As all eyes turn towards Bogdan, Zawadzki knows he can’t rule out the possibility that his father, a somewhat formidable figure in Malomorze, is not the man he thought he was. He also knows there’s the chance that Kacper’s family hold the answers to both their son’s disappearance and the death of an employee who worked for Kacper’s father Waldemar Krynicki (

Mirosław Baka

). With the local media determined to place his own father front and centre in the police investigation, and with potential evidence being shared at the click of a button, Pawel’s role as educator once again sees him caught between a desire to protect those close to him and his irrepressible need to get to the truth.

Pawel Zawadzki (Maciej Stuhr) is drawn into a situation that extends beyond the disappearance of a student. Credit: CANAL+ / Estella Dandyk

With the help of childhood friend and local commissioner Ewa Krawiec (Roma Gasiorowska), whose own daughter has a complicated history with Kacper, Pawel begins to unravel the case. Grief and uncertainty colour his father's involvement in the story and Pawel comes to realise that the hometown he thought he knew so well has a side he could never have imagined.

The Teach is the definition of a mystery-crime smash hit. It’s record-breaking success in Poland and beyond, sold to networks and streaming services globally, has left many waiting with bated breath for the next instalment and it doesn’t disappoint. Maciej Stuhr is the glue holding these distinct narratives together, a standout as the sullen yet kind-hearted Pawel, and though his relentless pursuit of the truth is the common thread running through each season, it is also what sees him out of his depth on more than one occasion. But, despite the personal cost, it’s a challenge he takes on willingly; after all, there’s no reward quite like justice.

All 3 seasons of The Teach are streaming now at SBS On Demand.