When we hear "podcast," generally most shy away, as I did. I would hear my mom listening to some voice through her ear phones and I knew I would much rather be listening to music or watching a TV show.
However, Serial is the new fad that has swept the nation in recent months. So much so, that when I went home for winter break, all of my family was talking about how addicting and captivating the series was.
This weekly podcast follows a true case from 1999 where a high school girl was murdered. Sara Koenig, who was the producer of "This American Life," a very popular radio broadcast show, is the host. She takes you through each aspect of the investigation, showing holes in the alleged story and the possible innocence of Adnan Syed. Adnan is currently serving life in prison after being convicted of his ex-girlfriend's murder.
I will give a little background into the story without giving too much away. About fifteen years ago now, Hae Min Lee was a senior at Woodlawn High School and was allegedly strangled in the time span of about 21 minutes. 21 minutes comes from the amount of time it would have taken Adnan to get from the school to the Best Buy parking lot where she was said to be strangled. Unfortunately, most of the evidence against him came from one witness, the story of Jay, a "friend" or even said to be more of just an acquaintance to Adnan in high school. Many friends said these two smoked together on occasion but were no where near best friends.
However, during the podcast, Koenig has you listen to actual recordings of Jay during the trial, who tells his side of the story. This story changes just a little bit every time he tells it, which Koenig brings to our attention. She also brings forward many other discrepancies in the case as she interviews friends of Jay, friends of the victim, friends of Adnan, and Adnan himself from inside prison. She has many phone calls with him where you hear his true emotion about everything that has happened before he is often times cut off by his time limit on the phones.
What is especially interesting in this case is that it is almost more interesting now that it has been so many years since the incident. As Koenig interviews people, you can tell their memories from the day of the murder have become fuzzy. Even a juror on the case had distorted memories of the evidence presented, giving false information.
I don't want to give too much away, and trust me, I haven't. There are so many elements to this murder mystery. After every episode, I tend to change who I believe is guilty. I was hooked after episode 1, so my suggestion is to give the first hour a chance, even though it is not a Netflix original series.
Sara Koenig does an excellent job of keeping you intrigued. The series is quite a "page-turner" for an audio series.
