Jump to content
Washington Football Team Logo
Extremeskins

Serialpodcast.org


Elessar78

Recommended Posts

I heard one of these - or a summary of the series, I'm not sure which - on NPR while driving around a couple of weeks ago. It was very interesting. The gist of what I heard is that a girl who says she was in the library at the time of the murder with the kid convicted of the murder was never called as a witness. It was not clear why this person, with a solid alibi for the defendant, was never asked to testify.

What I didn't hear talked about was the evidence that convicted the kid.

I understand the podcast has become a mini-sensation, with lots of people listening and discussing, almost like it was a hot TV series.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

damn, i'm about to sound stupid, but it's just a podcast, which I have never really listened to one but always assumed it was just a few people speaking ... is Serial like that or several people, is there inflection in their voices, sound effects in the background, etc? 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

damn, i'm about to sound stupid, but it's just a podcast, which I have never really listened to one but always assumed it was just a few people speaking ... is Serial like that or several people, is there inflection in their voices, sound effects in the background, etc? 

It's free, unless you want to make a donation, you should go check it out. It plays off your web browser. Couldn't be simpler.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think it's supposed to be 12 episodes ... because #10 that came out this morning did not have much of a conclusion and at the end said "next week on Serial" ...

 

Also, riveting story. I actually stumbled on a story someone posted on facebook from CNN or something about its popularity last week and was like huh I'll have to check this out. Listened to the first 3 episodes to and from work early last week then binged on 4-9 on my drive back down to the DC area for Thanksgiving. My wife didn't even hear the first 3 episodes and was like "yeah sure" when I asked if I could listen to one on the way home ... we ended up cruising through the whole ride listening to them because she was also as riveted as I was. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I was just about to start a thread on this. Girlfriend got me hooked into it. I'm about half way in and its ****ing fascinating.

 

For those who don't know what it is:

 

It follows the story of this Pakistani guy in Baltimore County, Adnan Syed, who was imprisoned for murdering his girlfriend in high school. The entire case was based on the testimony of his best friend who accused Syed of hatching the plan and executing it. Syed didn't have a clear alibi for the timeframe in which his girlfriend. Hae Min Lee was strangled. So he was found guilty with basically no physical evidence and only a testimony.

 

It's my daily listen on commute to work.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

It follows the story of this Pakistani guy in Baltimore County, Adnan Syed, who was imprisoned for murdering his girlfriend in high school. The entire case was based on the testimony of his best friend who accused Syed of hatching the plan and executing it. Syed didn't have a clear alibi for the timeframe in which his girlfriend. Hae Min Lee was strangled. So he was found guilty with basically no physical evidence and only a testimony.

Just a correction, Jay wasn't his best friend. They were more acquaintances, which makes it all so much stranger. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just a correction, Jay wasn't his best friend. They were more acquaintances, which makes it all so much stranger. 

 

Are you sure? In the first few episodes, they made it sound like Jay and Adnan hung out a lot and smoked weed together all the time. Adnan was great friends with Jay's girlfriend?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Serial is great. I've been listening to it since it started and by now, I've come to a conclusion (don't worry, no spoilers follow...) about Adnan's guilt or innocence. However I've done that a couple of times already and switched back the other way.

 

FWIW, Sarah Koenig is one of the folks from TAL that seem to be spinning off and starting their own podcasts. TAL is the best podcast on the interwebz IMHO followed closely by Snap Judgement. And yes, those were shameless plugs. :) I drive a lot for work and these three are always first up on my playlist when I hit the road.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Serial is great. I've been listening to it since it started and by now, I've come to a conclusion (don't worry, no spoilers follow...) about Adnan's guilt or innocence. However I've done that a couple of times already and switched back the other way.

 

FWIW, Sarah Koenig is one of the folks from TAL that seem to be spinning off and starting their own podcasts. TAL is the best podcast on the interwebz IMHO followed closely by Snap Judgement. And yes, those were shameless plugs. :) I drive a lot for work and these three are always first up on my playlist when I hit the road.

Yeah, I love TAL. Planet Money is a nice program too. 

Potential spoilers, don't read on if you're not caught up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

In Koenig's direct conversations with Adnan, I don't find him very convincing that he's innocent but not necessarily guilty either. However, the prosecution's case is full of holes. And, according to episode 10, his defense was probably less than stellar(?). 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I'm completely caught up now and here's the conclusion I've come to so far. Spoilers below

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I think Adnan most likely did it. There are way too many clues that point to him. The big two for me are the call to Nisha which place Jay and Adnan together right after school. The other is the tower ping to Adnan's phone from the park around the time Jay suggested that he and Adnan were burying Hae's body. That to me is the big one, IMO it places Adnan directly at the scene. It's almost obvious that Jay knew too much about Hae's death (location where the car was left) and the fact that Adnan is placed in the location of the burial is too difficult to explain. That Jay's account is later corroborated by the tower records is not a coincidence IMO. Some small ones are things like the note (really weird) and the fact that he makes no attempt to page Hae after her disappearance. He can call her house three times at midnight the night before, but he can't show concern when she goes missing the next day?

 

However, and here's my problem, there is too much doubt to convict the guy and sentence him to life. He seems to be the most likely candidate to commit the crime and most of the fragmented evidence points to him. But I don't think the evidence is clear enough for a conviction. Furthermore, his defense attorney seems to be a total mess, along with the fact that she seemed to have been extorting his family for money. He definitely got horrible representation at his trial. 

 

I don't look too much into the holes in Jay's story because the major chunks of it checkout. Adnan was most likely with Jay after school. Adnan was with Jay after track practice. Adnan was at the park later that evening after they got high at Cathy's house. Jay seems like a guy who got trapped in this thing by Adnan. Underneath Adnan's nice guy persona is a really really clever person.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just started listening to Serial yesterday and I'm already on Episode #9. I've had a theory on what happened since the third episode, and nothing I've heard since that has shaken that theory for me. 

 

I don't know if my theory should be considered a spoiler, but if it turns out to be true I'll hide it anyway. 

 

I believe Jay did it all by himself. Adnan is said to be a player by his best friend, he was clearly popular and openly flirted with girls at school. In one of the early episodes Adnan tells Sarah how he bought Jay's girlfriend, Stephanie, a birthday gift. She is thankful for the gift, and remarks how she can't wait to see what Jay bought her. Not too long after that Adnan sees Jay and finds out Jay hadn't bought a gift for Stephanie at all. So since he had a free period, he took Jay to Target to get her something. It is also said of Jay, he could be scary sometimes, he could hold a grudge, he's a well-known liar, that he was an "alpha male" and he tried to stab a guy because he'd never been stabbed before and he needed to know what it felt like. 

 

It's not a huge leap in logic that Jay receives Adnan's inquiry on whether he bought his girlfriend a birthday gift, as a threat to his relationship.  And finding out that this acquaintance has bought his girlfriend a birthday gift could lead Jay to believe Adnan and Stephanie were more than just friends. It wouldn't surprise me that Jay killed Hae Min as retaliation for Adnan "sleeping" with his girlfriend. Then when the heat turned on, admitted his guilt in it but made sure to place the blame firmly in Adnan's lap. It explains why Jay knew where Hae Min's car was, how shallow the grave was, etc,. It doesn't make since that two young men would only dig a six inch grave to bury a body in, but maybe one guy with little time would. It would explain the inconsistencies in his story, as he was consistently revising it to make it more believable. Maybe he wasn't afraid of Stephanie being hurt by Adnan, as he claimed, but he really was afraid of Stephanie leaving him for Adnan. Which is why Jay told Stephanie to stay away from Adnan.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just started listening to Serial yesterday and I'm already on Episode #9. I've had a theory on what happened since the third episode, and nothing I've heard since that has shaken that theory for me. 

 

I don't know if my theory should be considered a spoiler, but if it turns out to be true I'll hide it anyway. 

Seems like a big jump to me. Adnan gets Jay's GF a gift (we don't know what kind of gift), so in retaliation Jay kills Hae. Seems extreme, esp. considering that Adnan and Hae were broken up already. 

 

A buddy of mine's theory is, and I don't recall it in the series, but Jay was cheating on his girlfriend, Stephanie. Hae is friend's with Stephanie and was going to confront Jay about it. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I can't buy the Jay did it alone and framed Adnan story. Jay and Adnan were together after school ended and before track practice began (the Nisha call), the time frame in which Hae seemed to have been killed. Adnan and Jay were together after track practice. Adnan's phone pinged very close to Leakin Park around the time Jay said they were burying the body.

 

As much as Jay is lying about the version of events, Adnan's hasn't been completely honest either about some details that are not that muddy. He claims to have never been to Leakin Park or I-70 Park and Ride when several people close to him have come out and said that he was well aware of those locations and he smoked weed there with them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just find it difficult to believe that even the resident HS bad boy, Jay, would just agree to be an accessory to murder. That's a pretty big jump from being a HS thug/drug dealer to yeah, I'll just get into the murder biz. 

 

If memory serves correctly, Jay and Adnan weren't good friends. Why would you help a casual toke-buddy help dispose of a body? You'd have to have some pretty hefty leverage on him or you pay him a great deal of money. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Great stuff. I binge-listened 6 episodes this weekend and now I am fully caught up. Can't wait for the next one.

1) It is a complete joke that Adnan was found guilty. That jury is ****ing stupid. I don't care what his defense was like, that case was weak. I pray I am never in a situation that I am on trial. Not trying to be mean, but the jury members sound so incredibly dumb.

2) While I think there is way too much reasonable doubt for a conviction - my gut says Adnan was involved in some way with the murder. He is clearly not telling the entire truth. To many things point to him being involved in some way.

3) The theory that Adnan was framed is too far fetched for me. Jay would need to be a mastermind. Lets be honest, Jay doesn't seem that smart.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm curious about the connection between Jay and Mr. S, who found the body. I think Koenig mentioned off-hand in one of the episodes that police checked and couldn't find any link.

 

Something tells me this involves drugs in some way. I know they were all just a bunch of high school kids sneaking off to smoke weed after school ... but it just seems to be way too prevalent in this case. It seems like everyone was smoking all the time, at least the way the story portrays it. Not that that means smoking weed = murdering people ... but maybe someone got caught up in something a little deeper whether with dealing, gangs, something. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...