Friday Night Law: Super Serial – My Affair With Another Podcast
Late last week one of my main ladies, and Binge Cast enthusiast, Gen, recommended that we get to listening to a little podcast called SERIAL. At first I was insulted that her ears would cheat on us with other audio entertainment. I mean, we get drunk every weekend and incoherently discuss movies and stuff at the lowest level possible. For HER! Whatever, I plugged this so-called “amazing” podcast investigation into my head and tried to figure out what all the hype was about. And then I was done. Nine episodes later and I had no idea where the time went. All I knew was that Adnan was innocent. No, wait…. Adnan was guilty. Hold on, there’s no way Adnan could have done it. I just remember something, Adnan had to have done it.
And this is what SERIAL is all about, the guilt or innocence of Adnan Syed after the murder of his former girlfriend, Hae Lee. The story is played out for us by Sarah Koenig, a journalist and producer of the radio program, This American Life. Any hype or praise that SERIAL has received during it’s first season has everything to do with Sarah and her natural talent to relate to the audience. It’s through her voice I find myself jumping sides every other episode. I imagine it was her strong belief that Adnan was wrongly accused that gave life to this project. You can hear her skepticism very early on in the first few episodes. Then things start to get cloudy. Some of the facts don’t line up with her theories and she starts questioning herself as we get farther along. Even her relationship with Adnan himself, whom she speaks with regularly via prison phone calls, isn’t what she believed it to be. Her approach to the entire investigation is just so simply… human. Sarah is the defining factor of this show and sets it apart from an over-dramatized episode of Dateline or 20/20.
As the show catches fire week by week more details about the case fall into Sarah’s lap. People who knew Adnan and Hae are listening and calling in to give their two cents. Still though, some of the most important pieces of this puzzle are still missing. The two investigating officers on the case refused to take part, Adnan’s original defense lawyer passed away after his trial, Hae’s parents won’t talk, and Adnan’s former friend and star witness for the prosecution, Jay, talked to Sarah but refused to be put on the record. I wonder if all these holes help or hurt my fascination with the story. Jay especially, I feel if I could hear this dude talk about why he did what he did I’d be able to form a better opinion overall as to exactly what is going on. Perhaps one or two of these players will get caught up in the hype and change their minds. Maybe the fact that millions of listeners what to hear their side will encourage them to speak out one way or the other. Except the lawyer. I get that.
I’m the first to admit that I’m easily obsessed with things. You can catch me every Monday reading through subreddits for The Affair as proof. SERIAL has brought me to another level though. I’ve recommended the show to basically everybody I talk to (3 people) and waited patiently as my wife caught up with me. Then we got into a legitimate fight. HER – “Why isn’t there more focus on Jay?” ME – “They did an entire episode on him.” HER – “There needs to be more. It’s so frustrating!” ME – “It’s not frustrating! It’s a great story! This is the same shit you said after GRAVITY!” And then she just laughs at me and leaves. I understand what she’s saying though. I kind of hate Jay. It’s unjustified, I know, but the fact that his story changed three times in the beginning, and there’s no phone at Best Buy, and he considered himself the “criminal element” of his high school without any sort of criminal record paints a picture of the dude that makes me want to slap him. And for the record – GRAVITY is not “too intense to be good”. It’s amazing.
We’re being led step-by-step through this mystery right beside Sarah. She’s asking all the right questions. She’s focusing on all the little things that get under our skin. It’s masterful and genuine storytelling. I’m not looking forward to the end for a couple reasons though. 1) Simply because it will be over and I’ll have that hour a week to fill at work. 2) I’m afraid there will be no true ending. The fact that those people are calling between episodes tells me that there’s no script here. There’s going to be no moment at the end that determines whether or not Adnan did it or didn’t. Still, as much as I love a good pay-off, there’s something to be said for the road to nowhere. As long as it’s as fascinating as this.