There are some things you just can't expect. For example, I didn't expect the LeBron James-supercharged Cleveland Cavaliers to have a negative record at any point this season, or I didn't expect the John Constantine series to live past its pilot, but it did. One sure thing, I never expected anything groundbreaking and socially game-changing stemming from arthouse radio show This American Life, but I was wrong and it did.
Their new podcast Serial is the now obsession of intellectual America.
Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of Ira Glass' This American Life and I find it's an underrated inspiration source for fiction, but what they do is really straightforward: they tell the stories of American people. It's often told from a first person perspective and the themes can dramatically vary from let's say the Ferguson events to one man's relationship to television. They own the niche market of literary-fueled radio, because they are the only radio show doing it properly. Somehow, producer Sarah Koenig managed to take that very premise and create something entirely new with it.
Serial is the week-to-week investigation on the real life murder of Hae Min Lee in 1999 in Baltimore. The twist here, is that the case has technically been solved. Her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed has been rotting in jail for more than a decade for her murder, based on the mysterious testimony of his dope-smoking buddy Jay, But did Adnan really do it? The deeper we get into the case, the murkier it gets and the more surprising it becomes that Adnan was so quickly and unanimously condemned by a jury of his peers. Sarah Koenig first meant to create a unique piece of entertainment meant to answer visceral questions such as: how call can you know someone? and how do you make the truth out of contradicting stories and vague memories?
The overwhelming answer to Serial transformed it into something completely different.
See, 2014 was the year of shitty social justice on social media. Not that it never happened before, but this year was pretty bad in terms of doing things such as: spreading disinformation on social media in order to create emotional responses, crucifying people on the public place for being portrayed as evil by shitty click-bait websites, looking for vengeance instead of actually trying to understand what happened, etc. What Sarah Koenig is doing with Serial is actually giving me a little hope in humanity: instead of condemning and raising doubt on Adnan's guilt for entertainment's sake, she investigates on the public place, refuses to draw conclusions and leaves you the responsibility of what to make with this case.
The driving force behind Serial.
Now, allow me to be idealistic for a moment. Could it be the beginning of something new? As a detective novel junkie, I'm well aware that investigations can be a lot of fun, especially if somebody else is doing all the legwork for me and I'm only presented their findings. Could we turn the era of condemnation into an era of investigation? While Sarah Koenig narrates Serial from a first person perspective and gives it an aura of ''friends discussing around a drink'', her process is to basically go over the judiciary evidence, so the entertainment factor comes the case itself and the amateur sleuth perspective. Could it be the beginning of intelligent investigation on the web? If it's entertaining, why not, right? Why couldn't it be?
This is also the first iteration (that I'm aware of), of cerebral, reality-based entertainment. Serial operates under the same logic than reality shows and true crime television: it wants to make you the judge. But instead of having you judge someone's shallowness or evil character, it actually asks you to judge something that matters. Adnan Syed could potentially get his life back because of Sarah Koenig's efforts and because of what you think of the case. I don't know about you but I'd rather worry about a potential miscarriage of justice and a killer maybe on the loose than about Kim Kardashian's talentless little sister or some douchebag on a dating shit. So yeah, Serial makes me believe in a better future for reality-based entertainment and social justcie both.
I still haven't decided whether or not Adnan Syed killed Hae Min Lee. It's possible, but it's improbable that it would've happened according to the scenario that got him condemned. I find the testimony of Jay to be extremely suspicious by its nature alone. He is the only person in this entire case that remembers every single detail from that day. Everybody else has something they can't account for, but not him. He was obviously prepared. When Sarah Koenig and her assistant visited him at his home, he wasn't and his answers were very different, a lot loopier.
I am convinced that Jay is lying, but I don't know why.
I am not sure if Jay invented a scenario from A to Z, or if he actually witnesses something and filled the gaps in his mind in order to protect himself. I don't know if Jay struck a deal with the cops in the three hours before his testimony. As episode 9 exposed it, Jay lied. I don't know to what extent, I don't know why for but Adnan Syed was convicted of first degree murder on a lie. What I know is that there are tons of reasonable doubt in this case and that Adnan technically shouldn't be in prison right now. But did he kill Hae Min Lee? I don't know and it's killing me. I guess I'll tune in for the next episode of Serial in order to find out, and so should you.