I just had this big problem with php serialize. I stored a lot of data in a single field in which i used unserialize to read.
What happened is that I got some corrupt data in that field. Serialize map the data with codes like 'a','s' and 'N'. If there is corrupt data, the map failed. It will show a php error that the unserialize function is unable to work because of byte code error.
So my point is to avoid serialize. Go with JSON, way safer and you won't bang your head on future majors problems.
For me, no more serialize.
