Serial Podcast (spoilers starting at post #14) (1 Viewer)

[Nick Vermeil]

I can't read the thread because I just discovered this today but I'm hooked after just one episode. So this is my black dot and a bump.

 

[The Flying Elvis]

I am almost certain that the outcome is not going to be concrete. It seems that it is just going to be setting up an ambiguous ending.

Having said that, the way she presents the info it would make you think Adnan is innocent but I just don't know. My biggest question is how people knew where the actual car was.

My guess is Jay is more involved than presented. Whether he fully committed the crime and was able to blame it on Adnan or maybe more likely that Adnan and Jay were closer than we are told and they are both involved.

 

[Abraham]

I am almost certain that the outcome is not going to be concrete. It seems that it is just going to be setting up an ambiguous ending.

Having said that, the way she presents the info it would make you think Adnan is innocent but I just don't know. My biggest question is how people knew where the actual car was.

My guess is Jay is more involved than presented. Whether he fully committed the crime and was able to blame it on Adnan or maybe more likely that Adnan and Jay were closer than we are told and they are both involved.

How many episodes have you heard? Because I think they shift the possibility of innocence from one to the next quite well.

 

[The Flying Elvis]

I am almost certain that the outcome is not going to be concrete. It seems that it is just going to be setting up an ambiguous ending.

Having said that, the way she presents the info it would make you think Adnan is innocent but I just don't know. My biggest question is how people knew where the actual car was.

My guess is Jay is more involved than presented. Whether he fully committed the crime and was able to blame it on Adnan or maybe more likely that Adnan and Jay were closer than we are told and they are both involved.

How many episodes have you heard? Because I think they shift the possibility of innocence from one to the next quite well.

I've listened to them all. It just seems that people want Adnan to be innocent. It's probably true that based on what we have been told there was likely reasonable doubt as to his guilt, if he is even guilty at all but I just don't buy him being completely innocent.

Barring an introduction of some potential unseen serial killer I'm just not convinced there will be any definitive resolving of his guilt/innocence.

 

[Abraham]

Well, today makes up for last week. Hello, Jay.

 

[Abraham]

Adnan did it

 

[TobiasFunke]

Adnan did it

I'm more certain if it than ever.

I think it's a sketchy conviction for sure, definitely wouldn't call it "beyond a reasonable doubt" based on what we've heard so far, but definitely more than 50/50.

Anyway, long article in the Washington Post this morning about Serial as pop culture obsession.

 

[RUSF18]

Heard about this a few weeks ago, downloaded on Tuesday and got caught up today. Thank you temporarily horrible commute.

I don't want to believe he did it, and I agree Jay seemed like a likely suspect from the second he was introduced (my first thought was that he was also sleeping with Hae), but there's just too much else that wouldn't make sense if Adnan was innocent.

 

[SIDA!]

Has anyone heard about or listened to the serial podcast by Sarah Koenig where she goes over a 1999 murder case involving high school student and convicted murderer, Adnan Syed?

The gist of the story is that Adnan Syed murdered his former girlfriend (Korean), Hae (HAY) Min Lee. Ms. Koenig goes on to essentially investigate the case and presents her findings in a serial format. It is an ongoing report with a new "episode" to be released each week.

She has completed 8 episodes and has a fantastic way of telling the story.

I would encourage you all to check it out and give a it a try by listening to a couple of episodes.

 

[The Flying Elvis]

Heard about this a few weeks ago, downloaded on Tuesday and got caught up today. Thank you temporarily horrible commute.

I don't want to believe he did it, and I agree Jay seemed like a likely suspect from the second he was introduced (my first thought was that he was also sleeping with Hae), but there's just too much else that wouldn't make sense if Adnan was innocent.

Agreed... Also I mean we have to think of the people in this story as kids. Everyone was what, 17-19 years old? It's very unlikely at that age the people in this story were planning or involved in some vast cover up or conspiracy. The simplest version of the story is probably the truest version. Adnan did it, nothing else makes much sense unless Jay is a criminal mastermind.

 

[Abraham]

The alternate story is extremely believable and I'm curious why it wasn't part of the prosecution. If some dude said "I'm going to kill this girl" and then showed me a body and then said "if you don't help me get rid of the body and keep your mouth shut your girlfriend will be next" then I imagine my 17 year old self would have been scared as well. With that in mind I could see jay having reason to lie and change his story.

 

[SIDA!]

Mods. Please lock this thread or merge it into the one found here:

http://forums.footballguys.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=717861&page=2

When I started this thread I did a search for "Syed" and this thread did not come up.

 

[SaintsInDome2006]

I just saw this written up in the WSJ this morning.

- Actually a friend of mine tried to get me involved in a radioplay website several years ago, fascinating to see this is actually a hit now...

http://serialpodcast.org/

 

[SIDA!]

Fascinating and riveting stuff.

Can anyone give me a detailed explanation of how authorities came to this 21 minute window of time in which the murder supposedly took place? My understanding is that this time of death window is based exclusively on Jay's testimony and the fact that Adnan's cell phone receives a call at 2:36 (presumably from Adnan telling Jay to come pick him up at Best Buy).

For the record, I believe Adnan is guilty.

Favorable Points for Adnan

Below are the two main points that favor Adnan in my estimation.

I don't buy the motive or the timeline. I don't think it is possible to get out of that school, kill Hae somewhere along the way between there and Best Buy, put her in the trunk and make a call, all within 21 minutes. Just seems laughably absurd.

So, the primary problem I have with this case is the lack of a strong motive that I find credible. There is nothing presented in the case or by Sarah that suggests to me that there is a strong motive to kill. Second, the timeline doesn't make sense to me. Again, I don't recall any evidence or statements from forensics experts putting time of death in a 21 minute window. Just the testimony of Jay.

With all that said, I don't believe the prosecution needs to present a credible motive to secure conviction. So right now, I am left with the fact that I believe Adnan did it...but just not exactly how the prosecution or Jay claimed.

Why do I think Adnan did it?

Negative Points for Adnan

First and foremost, unless my facts are wrong, Adnan's cell phone pinged the tower near Leakin Park the evening Hae disappeared and around the time Jay said they were burying her body. Moreover, the ping occurred during the time that Adnan has stated the cell phone was in his possession.

Second, he didn't call or text Hae after she went missing. He called her the night before to give her his new cell phone number as evidenced by her journal notation of it, but he never calls her after she goes missing. I just don't really buy his explanation. Doesn't make sense to me.

The Library Alibi

Admittedly, this is troubling. If the prosecution contends that the murder happened during a specific time window where he was supposedly seen by a witness in the library, then that destroys the case. This aspect of the case bothers me for a variety of reasons. Why wasn't she interviewed? However, I am not exactly convinced that her memory about that specific day in question is accurate despite her being so sure and recounting the first snow of the year, etc. She was remembering this some six weeks after this all went down. So, while I am extremely troubled by this...I am not convinced that her testimony is credible.

The Neisha Call

This call looks terrible for Adnan, right? Jay is supposedly in possession of Adnan's cell phone during the time the call is made to her, a person that Sarah says only Adnan knows. The presumption being that Jay would not call her and speak to her for more than 2 minutes. It is also stated in the public record that her phone did not have voicemail in rebuttal to any mistaken butt dial defense presented.

My only argument for Adnan and why this phone call isn't such a big deal is that I find it possible that there was a mistaken auto dial and it is possible that another person in Neisha's household picked up the phone and listened in on the conversation. I have been butt dialed before and done that. My understanding is that it was Neisha's landline..not a cell phone that was called that day by Adnan's cell phone.

Many more interesting aspects of this case, but those are the big ones. At the end of the day, I don't think anyone has given me a plausible explanation for why Adnan's cell phone, which was in his possession, pinged the cell tower near Leakin Park around the time that Jay says they were burying her body.

So, how many potential scenarios are there:

1. Jay's version which pits Adnan as the killer and himself as the accomplice.

2. Adnan's version that he had nothing to do with it at all, whatsoever.

3. ?

Can someone present a scenario whereby Jay was somehow involved in this entirely by himself or with others completely unknown to Adnan, thereby leaving Adnan out of the situation? I would love to hear it.

In order for this scenario to work, Jay would have had to have acted in some sort of "heat of the moment" passionate killing of Hae. Why, how and where did this happen? Now, if you agree with my assessment that the 2:15-2:31 timeline is incredibly suspect, then that opens a door for some sort of possibility that Jay and/or others did it.

EDIT TO ADD: Jay knew where Hae's car was. So, we know that Jay was either involved somehow, knows those who did it or is connected in some way to someone who knows who did it, or just happened to be riding his BMX around town and found her car before the rest of Maryland was able to. And of course, if you believe the latter, then you must also accept the fact that a dude randomly discovering the car of a murdered high school classmate would voluntarily admit to being an accomplice in a murder he had no part in.

 

[KarmaPolice]

just random thoughts, some address SIDA!'s post above.

- yes, it seems like they just narrowed down the time of the murder using the cell call log. seems fishy, and I don't buy that this is when the muder happened.

- we really didn't learn much this week. I guess that jay is a weird dude and acted differently around different people? thought we kind knew that.

- jay knew where the car was so he is involved somehow, we know that.

- could Adnan be involved, but not do the killing?

- we know they were together at Kathy's house. possible that jay had adnans phone after that and adnan wasn't in the park with him?

- after this episode I am coming around more to the theory that there won't be much resolution to this. could very well just end up a meditation on memory/evidence/court system. it is what she lead off the series talking about.

- seriously, we here another completely different story from jay where he saw the body/murder happened? this time at the library and poolhall?

- I do find it interesting that people admit that the timelime is ####ed at it doesn't seem the murder could be done that way, but also focus so much on him not calling an ex-girlfriend after she went missing. or are you saying that Adnan did it, but not the way the prosecution presented it?

 

[Abraham]

There are blog posts on the site that add more detail for sure. Like the best buy maps.

 

[KarmaPolice]

There are blog posts on the site that add more detail for sure. Like the best buy maps.

a lot of discussion outside the podcast about the case on reddit too.

 

[RUSF18]

Was so happy when this was released at like 5:30am Eastern so I could download it before heading to work. Really good episode but I have some issues with it that I'll address a little later...

There are blog posts on the site that add more detail for sure. Like the best buy maps.

I got pointed to this as well. The one posted after seems like a really big point that I already saw reddit commentators say they were surprised it didn't get mentioned to start this episode since there were "updates". I'll put it in tags just in case people don't want to read anything that hasn't been addressed in the series:

Spoiler

Basically it could destroy the potential alibi that resulted from the Asia letters who claimed she saw him in the library that afternoon Hae was murdered:

Recently we looked at the weather on Jan. 13, 1999 – the day Hae Min Lee went missing. In Episode 1, Asia McClain, Adnan’s potential alibi witness, tells Sarah she specifically remembers seeing Adnan after school on Jan. 13 at the Woodlawn Public Library. She says she remembers that day because of the snow. It was possibly “the first snow of the year” and she remembers getting snowed in at her boyfriend’s house that night. She also thinks that school was cancelled the next two days.

So we were curious about when the weather got bad that day. Was it snowing that night in Leakin Park? How about when Jay and Adnan were driving around Baltimore County, from school to "Cathy’s" and then to Jay’s house and wherever else?

We looked up the weather for Wednesday, Jan. 13 and Thursday, Jan. 14, 1999. The Baltimore area certainly got hit by a big ice storm beginning in the early morning of Jan. 14. The storm left the area without power for a few days and closed Baltimore County schools on both Jan. 14 and Jan. 15.

But going by the hourly (and sometimes more often than hourly) observed weather reports, there was no significant ice, rain or snow on Jan. 13. A light, freezing rain started falling around 4:30 a.m. on the morning of Jan. 14 and continued for the rest of the day.

But no snow.

So it seems unlikely Asia would have been stuck at her boyfriend’s house on the evening of Jan. 13, because the ice storm didn’t start until 4:30 on the morning of Jan. 14.

Was Asia mistaken about seeing Adnan in the library on Jan. 13? Could it have been a different day? Asia says she thought it was “the first snow of the year.” The Baltimore weather reports for January of 1999 tell us that the first snow of the year was a week earlier – on Friday, Jan. 8. Snow began falling on Jan. 8 around 4:00 in the morning and then fell consistently for the rest of the day. The National Weather Service reported four inches of snow on the ground by the end of the day.

So we wondered if maybe this was the day Asia actually saw Adnan in the library.

But here’s the thing: There was no school on Jan. 8. In a Baltimore Sun article from Jan. 9, Baltimore County Schools spokesman Charles Herndon is quoted as saying, "Not only was there the snow in the morning, but we were particularly worried about later in the afternoon with more hazardous conditions in freezing rain and sleet." So neither Asia nor Adnan would have been at school on Friday, Jan. 8 and, presumably, they wouldn’t have been at the library – the library that is essentially on the campus of Woodlawn High School – that afternoon either.

Considering that in just one week there were three school days cancelled due to weather, it seems possible Asia conflated these two weather events. But if her memory of talking to Adnan in the library is specifically tied to snow, then it’s unlikely that the day she is remembering is Jan. 13

 

[whoknew]

Just got caught up on this last night. I was leaning towards he didn't do it previously - but the last episode (What's the deal with Jay?) swung me to the he did it side.

 

[Don Quixote]

Great news about season two

 

[SIDA!]

Just got caught up on this last night. I was leaning towards he didn't do it previously - but the last episode (What's the deal with Jay?) swung me to the he did it side.

What specifically caused you to change your mind?

 

[SIDA!]

In listening to the current episode, I feel that most of the new evidence/findings presented further substantiate my belief that the murder of Hae took place outside the 21 minute time window between the end of school and the alleged call from the Best Buy.

The positive news for Adnan was the revelation that he allegedly called the homicide detective after he learned that Hae's body had been found. Generally speaking, I wouldn't think an individual who killed someone would subsequently contact the homicide detective. However, I have seen several episodes of The First 48 where individuals believed to be individuals of interest voluntarily come into the police precinct to tell authorities that they were not involved. And some of these people are ultimately responsible.

While I presented a theory for the Neisha call, it is still more plausible that he made the call. Assuming that he really did make that call, then the call was made when supposedly only Jay had the phone and his car. We are left with the fact that Adnan's phone pinged the Leakin Park cell tower around the time Jay says they were burying Hae's body and when Adnan had told authorities that the phone was in his possession. And we are supposed to believe that a girl he loves, still has feelings for, goes out and helps fix a flat tire, etc, goes missing and he never once calls or texts her to see where she is at?

 

[whoknew]

Just got caught up on this last night. I was leaning towards he didn't do it previously - but the last episode (What's the deal with Jay?) swung me to the he did it side.

What specifically caused you to change your mind?

I guess it started the episode before where the neighbor boy told some girl who told her father that they saw a dead body. And she thought the kid's name was Adnan or something.

In this episode, his story seemed plausible and especially the part about threatening Stephanie. I think there were multiple friends who backed up the part about Adnan threatening Stephanie (or at least Jay telling them that at the time). That stuck out to me.

Also - at least one of the witnesses says they thought the murder happened near the library. Which would solve the 21 minute issue - if the murder even happened at that time.

I mean - there're still a ton of unanswered questions. I think this was the first time, however, that I thought it wasn't Jay and was Adnan.

The thing I can't figure out, though, is if it wasn't Adnan - why would Jay lie about it?

 

[SIDA!]

Just got caught up on this last night. I was leaning towards he didn't do it previously - but the last episode (What's the deal with Jay?) swung me to the he did it side.

What specifically caused you to change your mind?

The thing I can't figure out, though, is if it wasn't Adnan - why would Jay lie about it?

He could lie about Adnan's involvement to minimize his own culpability.

Jay's testimony about the timeline is very suspect and I am pretty damn convinced that he played a much more integral role in all of this. If anyone in this thread is of the belief that Adnan did not do it, please articulate an alternative theory.

Remember, Jay knew where Hae's vehicle was located. Therefore, he was:

involved in the murder

knows the people or person who did it

managed to find her car randomly before an entire police manhunt was able to do so

We can eliminate the last one because it strains the bounds of belief in my opinion. So, Jay either knew the people involved or was involved himself (as he claims). Assuming he was involved, we are then supposed to believe (if Adnan was not involved) that Jay orchestrated this finely tuned murder plot and waited for the day Adnan (a guy who says they weren't really all that close) would randomly encourage/allow Jay to borrow his car and cell phone to go buy the girlfriend a present..but instead use the opportunity to then kill Hae...randomly just kill an Asian girl for no reason?

 

[RUSF18]

I can't see any way Adnan wasn't involved at this point. Doesn't mean he should have been convicted based on the evidence we have been presented so far though.

Pretty much every theory I can come up with for why he isn't involved, based on whatever percentage it is that involves considering Factor X or dismissing Factor Y, all of that doesn't beat out what I figure to be the higher probability that he's just lying.

 

[whoknew]

Just listened to the new episode. Glad its back.

She's supposed to be a great lawyer, but I really don't think Adnan's lawyer did a very good job at all. At least from the little that we hear of her in court. The cross of Jay did not seem very effective. It was quite muddled.

Plus, she's just annoying. I can see a jury really not liking her.

 

[Neofight]

Near zero chance Adnan did it (and I'm not just saying that because Ab thinks he did). I doubt Jay did it either, but the way the evidence/lack of evidence presents-phone calls (not tower pings, that info is useless and actually does not support Jay's stories either), forensics on Adnans clothing, boots, etc.-Jay has more questions brought up about his own actions than he answers with his ever-changing testimony. Many possible answers for that but I will go with the police coaching him down a preconceived path based on the time-honored "ex-boyfriend did it" theory. Ritz likely got away with another miserable job of detecting and, quite possibly, corruption.

Adnan Musuf Syed was convicted based on the testimony of a lying criminal and a plea deal, with a little cultural stereotyping thrown in for good measure.

 

[SIDA!]

Near zero chance Adnan did it (and I'm not just saying that because Ab thinks he did). I doubt Jay did it either, but the way the evidence/lack of evidence presents-phone calls (not tower pings, that info is useless and actually does not support Jay's stories either), forensics on Adnans clothing, boots, etc.-Jay has more questions brought up about his own actions than he answers with his ever-changing testimony. Many possible answers for that but I will go with the police coaching him down a preconceived path based on the time-honored "ex-boyfriend did it" theory. Ritz likely got away with another miserable job of detecting and, quite possibly, corruption.

Adnan Musuf Syed was convicted based on the testimony of a lying criminal and a plea deal, with a little cultural stereotyping thrown in for good measure.

You think Adnan didn't do it and you are pretty sure Jay didn't as well. How do you explain Jay knowing where Hae's car was located and taking police to it?

 

[Abraham]

Did our first troll just arrive?

 

[Neofight]

Near zero chance Adnan did it (and I'm not just saying that because Ab thinks he did). I doubt Jay did it either, but the way the evidence/lack of evidence presents-phone calls (not tower pings, that info is useless and actually does not support Jay's stories either), forensics on Adnans clothing, boots, etc.-Jay has more questions brought up about his own actions than he answers with his ever-changing testimony. Many possible answers for that but I will go with the police coaching him down a preconceived path based on the time-honored "ex-boyfriend did it" theory. Ritz likely got away with another miserable job of detecting and, quite possibly, corruption.

Adnan Musuf Syed was convicted based on the testimony of a lying criminal and a plea deal, with a little cultural stereotyping thrown in for good measure.

You think Adnan didn't do it and you are pretty sure Jay didn't as well. How do you explain Jay knowing where Hae's car was located and taking police to it?

I can think of three ways, off the top of my head. I gave you a clue as to what, if Jay didn't do it, I think most likely happened.* I don't want to go into details in case some are remaining pure by not visiting the subreddit dedicated to the show or following any of the many blogs and metacasts. If you've only listened to all the episodes of Serial it should be pretty clear why Jay's story was ever-changing. Or at least that is the main question you should be asking...

 

[Abraham]

Being scared that someone you know is capable of mirder is a pretty good reason to change your story.

 

[Neofight]

Being scared that someone you know is capable of mirder is a pretty good reason to change your story.

And imagine if said friend killed someone!

 

[Abraham]

Anyone still wondering how long the season lasts gets their answer today.

 

[Reginald Cornsilks]

Losing a lot of steam for me (the podcast itself).

Today was, IMO, mundane and boring. In fact, other than last weeks talk about his attorney, the last 3 or 4 episodes have lost a lot of the appeal that episodes 1-6 had for me.

 

[KarmaPolice]

Losing a lot of steam for me (the podcast itself).

Today was, IMO, mundane and boring. In fact, other than last weeks talk about his attorney, the last 3 or 4 episodes have lost a lot of the appeal that episodes 1-6 had for me.

Agree 100%.

 

[RUSF18]

Just finished this week's. Snoozer, agreed.

 

[Fat Nick]

So I just started listening this week...1/2 way through episode 3. Good stuff. I've gotten really addicted to Podcasts lately. I find long drives much more enjoyable with a podcast. Radio makes me drive more aggressively. If I find myself in a good story, I actually drive slower sometimes.

As of right now, I'm in the "did it" camp...I don't like how he keeps saying "I know that looks bad, but I can't explain it any other way." I feel like that's his way of trying to minimalize evidence against him. I guess I'll see. I've got some catching up to do!

 

[fasteddie_21]

Whether he did it or not, there are enough questions that I can not understand how the jury convict d him beyond a reasonae doubt. Seems like a terrible jury.

Fwiw, I was the foreman in an attempted murder 4-day trial, so I do understand how the process works. Blows me away how they convicted him with this many questions. A lot of stuff must not have been presented. Also wtf was his lawyer blowing all that money on?

 

[kardplayer]

Agreed - seems to be slowing down. Not so much that I didn't listen to it this morning, but enough that I'm not looking forward to next week's with any meaningful anticipation. On an anticipation scale of 1 (the last episode of Glee) to 10 (the last Breaking Bad), I'd put this around a 6.

I think the challenge of the last few episodes is that they don't have a tidy conclusion to work towards. We are basically getting twelve weeks of background/buildup, and by now, and knowing next week is the end, we are conditioned to be looking for the story to narrow and take us down a path.

 

[Abraham]

Just finished this week's. Snoozer, agreed.

That's because it isn't a Law and Order episode. I don't mean that rude, just that the innerwebs seem to think there will be an arc and a climax when the takeaway is likely to be (1) the evidence still looks shakey but (2) he DID have a chance to go through the process and defend himself and he was convicted. /podcast.

 

[Reginald Cornsilks]

Just finished this week's. Snoozer, agreed.

That's because it isn't a Law and Order episode. I don't mean that rude, just that the innerwebs seem to think there will be an arc and a climax when the takeaway is likely to be (1) the evidence still looks shakey but (2) he DID have a chance to go through the process and defend himself and he was convicted. /podcast.

Not rude at all, but people like Law & Order because of what it is. This isn't that, obviously, and needs to be enjoyed in a different way.

I didn't think in a 40 minute episode, spending 30 minutes discussing him stealing 20 dollars from a church collection plate as a young kid really revealed anything about him that was shocking, interesting or important. The conclusion equivalent for me was, a kid may have stolen 2 candy bars from the convenience store, or he may have stolen 40 over the course of his childhood.

Or....Syed may be a sociopath, or he may not be. Syed may have been in a fugue state when killing Hae, but he might not have.

I didn't hate it. It was just the weakest of the series and hardly kept my interest.

 

[Abraham]

Just finished this week's. Snoozer, agreed.

That's because it isn't a Law and Order episode. I don't mean that rude, just that the innerwebs seem to think there will be an arc and a climax when the takeaway is likely to be (1) the evidence still looks shakey but (2) he DID have a chance to go through the process and defend himself and he was convicted. /podcast.

Not rude at all, but people like Law & Order because of what it is. This isn't that, obviously, and needs to be enjoyed in a different way.

I didn't think in a 40 minute episode, spending 30 minutes discussing him stealing 20 dollars from a church collection plate as a young kid really revealed anything about him that was shocking, interesting or important. The conclusion equivalent for me was, a kid may have stolen 2 candy bars from the convenience store, or he may have stolen 40 over the course of his childhood.

Or....Syed may be a sociopath, or he may not be. Syed may have been in a fugue state when killing Hae, but he might not have.

I didn't hate it. It was just the weakest of the series and hardly kept my interest.

I'm fairly certain that if there was a piece of new evidence, much less a piece of exculpatory evidence, it would be all over the news (or Reddit) by now. So I think in the end it will end with a whimper instead of a bang - with Adnan in jail.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Just finished this week's. Snoozer, agreed.

That's because it isn't a Law and Order episode. I don't mean that rude, just that the innerwebs seem to think there will be an arc and a climax when the takeaway is likely to be (1) the evidence still looks shakey but (2) he DID have a chance to go through the process and defend himself and he was convicted. /podcast.

Not rude at all, but people like Law & Order because of what it is. This isn't that, obviously, and needs to be enjoyed in a different way.

I didn't think in a 40 minute episode, spending 30 minutes discussing him stealing 20 dollars from a church collection plate as a young kid really revealed anything about him that was shocking, interesting or important. The conclusion equivalent for me was, a kid may have stolen 2 candy bars from the convenience store, or he may have stolen 40 over the course of his childhood.

Or....Syed may be a sociopath, or he may not be. Syed may have been in a fugue state when killing Hae, but he might not have.

I didn't hate it. It was just the weakest of the series and hardly kept my interest.

I agree with this. I didn't think this episode added much to the narrative or offer much value in any other way.

In contrast, I really liked last week's episode. The stuff about the lawyer was particularly interesting. I though the audio of her from trial was both grating and dull, not at all what you want when you're cross-examining the key witness or exploring the important ambiguity of cell phone logs. And the stuff about her constantly asking for money and then disappearing was pretty damning. I'd been wondering for weeks what went wrong at trial considering the many reasons to reasonably doubt Adnan's guilt and that was all pretty illuminating stuff.

 

[bigmarc27]

The first handful were entertaining because it was telling the story and facts (disputed or otherwise) of the case... Now we're past that and just hearing anecdotes about Adnan and killers and Muslims and blah blah blah. I'm losing interest.

 

[RUSF18]

Just finished this week's. Snoozer, agreed.

That's because it isn't a Law and Order episode. I don't mean that rude, just that the innerwebs seem to think there will be an arc and a climax when the takeaway is likely to be (1) the evidence still looks shakey but (2) he DID have a chance to go through the process and defend himself and he was convicted. /podcast.

Not rude at all, but people like Law & Order because of what it is. This isn't that, obviously, and needs to be enjoyed in a different way.

I didn't think in a 40 minute episode, spending 30 minutes discussing him stealing 20 dollars from a church collection plate as a young kid really revealed anything about him that was shocking, interesting or important. The conclusion equivalent for me was, a kid may have stolen 2 candy bars from the convenience store, or he may have stolen 40 over the course of his childhood.

Or....Syed may be a sociopath, or he may not be. Syed may have been in a fugue state when killing Hae, but he might not have.

I didn't hate it. It was just the weakest of the series and hardly kept my interest.

This is how I felt as well. I never expected any sort of final resolution back when I started (by catching up to 6 episodes) and that was even before I realized that she was recording these on the fly. It's just that this particular segment contained nothing that approached being interesting, whereas last week's was pretty informative and showed a side of something most wanted to hear more about. It just seemed like she had ideas for 11 episodes and threw this stuff in here, while she could have chosen a lot of other areas to explore some more if she really wanted to fill 12 episodes. Hell, I would have been fine with this entire episode being nothing more than just recapping where she stood at this point.

 

[HellToupee]

this ####### ##### has the balls to use Mitt's good name. Hope he rots in hell.

 

[TobiasFunke]

Just finished this week's. Snoozer, agreed.

That's because it isn't a Law and Order episode. I don't mean that rude, just that the innerwebs seem to think there will be an arc and a climax when the takeaway is likely to be (1) the evidence still looks shakey but (2) he DID have a chance to go through the process and defend himself and he was convicted. /podcast.

Not rude at all, but people like Law & Order because of what it is. This isn't that, obviously, and needs to be enjoyed in a different way.

I didn't think in a 40 minute episode, spending 30 minutes discussing him stealing 20 dollars from a church collection plate as a young kid really revealed anything about him that was shocking, interesting or important. The conclusion equivalent for me was, a kid may have stolen 2 candy bars from the convenience store, or he may have stolen 40 over the course of his childhood.

Or....Syed may be a sociopath, or he may not be. Syed may have been in a fugue state when killing Hae, but he might not have.

I didn't hate it. It was just the weakest of the series and hardly kept my interest.

This is how I felt as well. I never expected any sort of final resolution back when I started (by catching up to 6 episodes) and that was even before I realized that she was recording these on the fly. It's just that this particular segment contained nothing that approached being interesting, whereas last week's was pretty informative and showed a side of something most wanted to hear more about. It just seemed like she had ideas for 11 episodes and threw this stuff in here, while she could have chosen a lot of other areas to explore some more if she really wanted to fill 12 episodes. Hell, I would have been fine with this entire episode being nothing more than just recapping where she stood at this point.

This actually would have been awesome. I'd have listened to that twice.

 

[John Bender]

Even an update on the Innocence Project work on the case would have been more interesting to me. Surely, that could have been pulled together quite easily.

Oh well, it's a ground breaking podcast format that I'm sure they are feeling their way through. They may have just miscalculated the number of episodes needed to keep the audience interested.

 

[shader]

far be it from me to tell the best selling podcast in history how to do their job, but I really think they missed an opportunity.

I would have run about 8 episodes, then taken a 3-4 month break.

You have millions of detectives available. Use them to crack the case open, find the best lines of reasoning and continue researching.

It seems like the did the researching, but once the podcast started, there wasn't a lot of new information.

Also, you have to wonder how a guy like Jay is reacting to this podcast. Does he have legal rights to sue? If defamation of character is a real thing, this podcast has a large number of people in the country that think he's a murderer.

Imagine for a moment that you are Jay, that you are telling the truth and are truly innocent (not completely innocent because we know he was an accomplice, but not guilty of the murder) and have been cleared in a court of law.

Then this podcast comes out and this lady clearly is on the side of the convicted murderer and has millions of people listening and believing her.

What would you do?

I'd sue the crap out of the show for defamation of character.

Adnan also seems like he's done with the show too...it has to be a weird feeling going from anonymous jail guy to bigtime jailed celebrity. Millions of people know all about his case. Just really weird.

 

[shader]

Even an update on the Innocence Project work on the case would have been more interesting to me. Surely, that could have been pulled together quite easily.

Oh well, it's a ground breaking podcast format that I'm sure they are feeling their way through. They may have just miscalculated the number of episodes needed to keep the audience interested.

Just not enough time. The Innocence Project takes awhile to work. Adnan has an appeal hearing in January.

Once things start happening in the courts, they move at the pace of the court system, which is far too slow for a weekly podcast that needs fresh info.

There just isn't any fresh info right now.