After already being very suspect of whether I felt that Adnan Syed was guilty or innocent, these next two episodes threw me for a big loop. The style that the narrator Sara Koenig uses to give the audience information on the case is very strategic and tends to have an episode that makes it seem that there was no way Adnan could ever have done it to adding new information that makes it seem that he must have done it. This creates a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts for the audience and keeps them engaged throughout each episode no matter what. She has consistently kept me on my toes with her story telling and by bringing in outsiders to add new perspectives that interest me. In episode five, Adnan Syed challenges the time frame that the police have laid out in the trial that there is no way they could have driven to best buy and killed Hae Min Lee in twenty one minutes. As a result, Sara decides to test this and makes the drive from the school to the best buy and times. What she finds out is that it took them eighteen minutes to get to the best buy and that would have given him only three minutes to strangle her and get her body into the trunk of the car without anyone seeing him. Although it is technically possible it seems very unlikely that this could have happened, at least in the time frame that the cops said she was killed. The next thing they notice is that Jay (Adnan’s friend) said that after Adnan had murdered Hae, he immediately called Jay from a pay phone in the best buy parking lot. However, there is no pay phone in the parking lot and it turns out there never was according to the Best Buy employees. So that makes Jay look suspicious and is a good sign for Adnan. But right as you think Adnan couldn’t have done it, she tells us that his finger prints were found on a map of Leakin park and the next episode shows that Adnan wrote “I’m going to kill” on a letter talking about Hae. Adnan also never seemed to check in to see where Hae was when he found out she went missing and says the day was insignificant to him even though the police called him questioning him, which was a red flag. This is exactly what I am talking about. The narrator does this on purpose to create an inner battle of whether you think Adnan is innocent or guilty and it forces you to want to keep listening. This style creates a lot of suspense with music in between important segments so you have time to reflect and makes the episodes very addicting to listen to. Another aspect that I find really interesting about this podcast is that rather than just discussing the case and interviewing people, Sara is so dedicated to find results that she travels to Maryland and actually retraces the steps of the case to see if some of these accusations could even be true. It takes the listeners on a journey/adventure that you are discovering the Sara along the way. This makes the listener aware that Sara has yet to figure out the true answer to this case and you think maybe you will solve it together. I almost felt like Watson going alongside Sherlock Holmes as Sara went to Leakin Park to find the area where the body was found as well as when she is challenging the whole timeframe of the murder. We feel as if we are the sidekick to Sara and that by listening to her thoughts and information she has gathered that we might recognize something that is crucial in solving the case. This is exactly what Watson does. He follows Holmes around and listens to the information given to him and you think that maybe one time Watson will pick up on something to help solve the case. However, like Watson, we never end up figuring out the case and are just alongside for the ride.
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Hey Jimmy! I really enjoyed reading this blog post and was excited to read that you have continued to follow Serial as we originally explored a bit of this podcast series in class. I like how you jumped right in and talked about the unique narrative element of confusing the listener with facts that prove Adnan’s innocence, and ones that prove he may be guilty. I think this is a great way to keep the listener wanting to listen to the episodes in the future. It creates a sense of misdirection that forces the listener to listen carefully and make their own predictions as to whether or not Adnan is truly guilty.
In the podcast series that I’m following, The Dropout, the narrative element is exactly the opposite of the one from Serial that you mentioned. The narrator in The Dropout choses to use the actual words of the criminal, Elizabeth Holmes, as a way of further incriminating Elizabeth. This leads to quite the opposite effect of what Serial does since the listener of The Dropout just gains more information that proves Elizabeth Holmes is guilty. Consequently, the listener likely continues to the rest of the series merely waiting for a huge plot twist or the ending. I think that the narrative element from Serial is actually much more effective and would actually closely parallel the in-class discussion we had about suspense. Serial is able to maintain suspense throughout several episodes by taking the listener on a roller coaster of emotions, while The Dropout simply fails at this. Overall however, like I mentioned in my blog post, I think The Dropout is more of a casual listen than one where we should look into every narrative element deeply.
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