Standard Of Review: 'Serial' Brings Legal Storytelling Into The 21st Century

Everyone is talking about the Serial podcast; does it live up to the hype?

A month ago, when a friend first told me that I should begin listening to the Serial podcast, I figured that the podcast would consist of a deep dive into the intricacies of Cap’n Crunch. However, when I found out Serial’s gimmick – the in-depth exploration of a true-crime murder case over the course of a season – I was skeptical. I also believed that I was already saturated with podcasts; adding another one (which required me to listen to every single episode from beginning to end) might prevent me from listening to the numerous other podcasts that I had already downloaded to my phone. After all, that Dr. Drew episode of the WTF with Marc Maron podcast wasn’t going to listen to itself.

But when I discovered that Serial-mania was sweeping the country – to the point where there are literally podcasts discussing the Serial podcast – I gave in and decided to listen. I figured that I would only listen to the first episode, which I probably wouldn’t like, given my lack of enthusiasm for legal and crime stories that I mentioned last week.

How wrong I was. I tore through the first seven episodes in a mere four days. I usually only listen to podcasts in the subway, but I was so enthralled with Serial that I just sat in my apartment listening to it, as if I was living in the 1930s and my only form of entertainment was Orson Welles’s The Mercury Theatre On The Air radio show. I was immediately hooked by the mystery, to the point where I began thinking about how I would fit my Serial conspiracy theory corkboard in my apartment.

For those of you who haven’t listened, Serial is hosted by Sarah Koenig, a journalist and producer of This American Life, and explores the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, a senior at Baltimore County’s Woodlawn High School. Hae’s ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed – by all accounts an intelligent, athletic, and popular student – was arrested and convicted of Hae’s murder. Many years later, Adnan’s family friend contacted Koenig and asserted that Adnan’s lawyer, M. Cristina Gutierrez, had botched his defense – possibly intentionally. The family friend implored Koenig to investigate. Koenig agreed, throwing herself full-bore into an investigation of the murder and Adnan’s defense, including multiple interviews with various individuals involved in the case. Each episode meticulously delves into a particular aspect of the crime, including Adnan and Hae themselves, various other suspects, Adnan’s friend Jay, Adnan’s defense attorney, and even the intricacies of cellphone towers. It immediately becomes clear that the prosecution’s case against Adnan was questionable at best, and that Gutierrez failed to contact a key witness who could have potentially provided Adnan with an alibi.

Koenig is an excellent host. I was unfamiliar with her previous work, but she knows the material cold, and she isn’t afraid to criticize individuals where their actions or their re-telling of the story are suspect, be it the police, the lawyers, Adnan’s friends, or Adnan himself.

On the other hand, Serial provides a classic “unreliable narrator” problem. Koenig did not randomly stumble on Adnan’s case; instead, Adnan’s friend approached her with the proposition that Adnan is innocent. Gutierrez – who purportedly botched Adnan’s case by not contacting a key witness – passed away several years ago, and is not around to defend herself. Is Koenig suffering from confirmation bias? Can Koenig possibly be a disinterested investigator? Or did she set out from the outset to try to prove Adnan’s innocence? Is Koenig a journalist or is she Adnan’s de facto attorney?

To be fair, Koenig does point out numerous holes with Adnan’s story: she spends a whole episode on “The Case Against Adnan Syed” and she spends part of last week’s episode on various other negative “rumors” about Adnan. But one of Koenig’s statements is particularly unsettling. After Adnan asks Koenig why she decided to become involved in his case, she replies, “What hooked me most is him – just trying to figure out who is this person who says he didn’t kill this girl, but is serving a life sentence for killing this girl. My interest in it honestly has been [Adnan] – [he is] really a nice guy.” Has Koenig been duped? Is this “nice guy” Adnan really a sociopath? Is he actually manipulating Koenig (and the massive Serial audience) for his own benefit?

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In many of Koenig’s interviews with him, Adnan seems unusually, almost suspiciously calm for someone who has been purportedly wrongfully imprisoned for fifteen years for a crime he did not commit. In one particularly baffling interview, Koenig informed him that she had finally found the aforementioned classmate of Adnan’s who could possibly provide Adnan with an alibi for Hae’s murder. Because Gutierrez had not even attempted to contact this classmate, Koenig had uncovered a potentially huge lead in the case. Koenig expects Adnan to react with elation, but instead he reacts with detachment. In fact, Adnan reacted with much more anger in last week’s episode after Koenig broaches the rumor that he stole money from his mosque. While these reactions are somewhat understandable – Adnan realizes, correctly, that Koenig’s discovery is unlikely to lead to his release from prison, and stealing money from the mosque has nothing to do with killing Hae – it did make me wonder if Adnan could be the monster that he was portrayed as by the prosecution.

I also worry that the success of Serial has had a detrimental effect on the quality of recent episodes, as the episodes that I have listened to since my initial binge have been subpar. For example, the November 20 episode contains an extended disquisition regarding Adnan’s cooking prowess in prison. As much as I love hearing food-pornesque descriptions of caramelized onions that would make Julia Child blush, that segment should have been excised. I do not know how many episodes were originally planned for Serial, but I do wonder whether the success of the show prompted Koenig to dredge up her C-material in an attempt to create additional episodes (and more advertising money from Serial sponsor MailChimp!). If today’s final episode contains twenty minutes of Adnan ranking his ten favorite Frozen characters, I will know that my theory is correct (though if his favorite character is Hans, that would probably be definitive evidence of Adnan’s guilt).

Last week, I wrote about how I do not like stories that wrap up too neatly. Serial potentially has the opposite problem: it has become apparent from recent episodes (and interviews given by Koenig) that the season will not end definitively, as a simple Google search makes plain that Adnan is still imprisoned. While I appreciate art that contains in-depth exploration of issues such as memory, evidence, policework, and lawyering, I imagine that much of Serial’s audience – trained by shows like Law & Order – is going to be upset at the lack of a conclusion. Moreover, the first episode hooked the audience with the intriguing possibility that Gutierrez intentionally threw the case, but the December 4 episode anticlimactically concludes that while Gutierrez made some lawyering mistakes (and quite possibly has the most annoying voice I have ever heard, an annoying, sing-songy voice that makes Gilbert Gottfried sound like Andre Braugher), she likely did not lose on purpose.

Nevertheless, despite these criticisms, Serial is a novel way to address some of the issues I have had with legal stories that I outlined last week. By treating Adnan’s case in long-form fashion, Serial displays a respect for the plot and the characters that is not present in typical legal or crime procedurals. Koenig has announced that there will be a Season 2 of Serial, and I hope she picks another legal case to investigate, or at least literally anything other than prison food.


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Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.