In the next few episodes of Serial that I listened to, Sarah Koenig goes into in depth detail all about how the state made a case against Adnan, and which pieces of evidence they used to cause Adnan to come across as guilty of being Hae Min Lee’s murderer. Sarah also inserts some of her own insight, claiming that while she sees a lot of problems with the state’s case, she also sees a lot of problems in Adnan’s story, which causes her to go in circles as to who is right and who is wrong, who is guilty and who is innocent. Much like the beginning of all of the previous Serial episodes that I have listened to, Sarah starts the podcast off with an introduction and a “Previously on Serial…” segment that provides snippets of conversation or analysis from previous episodes that will be important to or discussed further in the current episode.
As with previous episodes that I have listend to, Sarah uses documents, personal interviews, recorded interviews, phone interviews, and her own individual analysis as her sources and pieces of evidence to take apart and put back together the events of Hae’s murder. Using these sources, Sarah reconstructs the state’s case against Adnan to help us better understand the guilty murder charge. She talks in depth about the fingerprints the cops found in Hae’s car, Adnan’s strange behavior the night of the crime, Adnan’s cell phone records the night of the crime, and a stray police record; all of which provide evidence against Adnan, but can also be twisted in a way that would provide evidence for Adnan. Then, Sarah talks about what she refers to as the “smoking bullet” of Adnan’s case: a call to a girl that Adnan had been talking to. Why this was a bad thing for Adnan? There isn’t any real answer Adnan can give to this phone call, so the prosecutors are able to twist it in such a way that implicates Adnan. Along with this call and the shifty or completely dodged answers Adnan gives Sarah, it is easy to see why the jury and the judge decided that Adnan was guilty of murdering Hae Min Lee.
The podcast episodes remain similar in structure, as they all start with a segment that emphasizes important details from previous episodes, and they end with a small teaser and hook as to what the next week’s episode is going to discuss and analyze about Adnan and the case of Hae’s Min Lee’s murder. The podcast uses the same music in their intro and outro, and also uses music to transition between questions or different segments of the episode, or to indicate when an important piece of information is about to be revealed. The music also tends to indicate the mood of the new tidbit of information. Sarah continues to use recordings of her own analysis and reasoning, and also includes several recordings and snippets of phone interviews or police interviews throughout the course of the episodes.
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I have noticed similar things in the podcast I chose to listen to for class. The investigative nature of this podcast comes through in the way you describe interviews being an integral part of the narrative style. Dr. Death, the podcast I chose, also follows a similar tactic in presenting or divulging the information the narrator feels is most important for the underlying message they want to get across to listeners. The interviews and commentary really paint the picture of the situation which is being discussed by the narrator. It appears to solidify the themes and information when there are experts giving their impression of the situation as well as the quantity of perspectives provided by having multiple people contributing to the discussions. The private messages or phone calls made by people are interesting to hear in an investigative aspect, to me. There are very personal and possibly damning comments provided in these types of evidence. For instance, in Dr. Death one of the interviewees talks about how people were beginning to think that he (Dr. Duntsch) was just an incompetent surgeon blinded by his narcissism and other possible mental issues, until an email he sent to an ex-lover was read in court. I agree with you that the music choices made for certain situations of the narrative have immense implications when creating a mood for the listener. It really allows the listener to be in a certain mindfulness or emotional state of mind to allow the information to be taken in a specific way. I enjoyed reading your analysis.