Hm, I wrote a whole reply here where I strongly agreed with you and gave an example from my own life where, if a major crime happened, I might end up being a suspect (purely through some unlucky circumstances) and essentially in the same situation as Adnan. It looks like my reply has disappeared into moderation, not…

I just assume that's been the secret goal of every episode of her podcast, except she's downplaying it a bit so that people are sucked in to realizing it, instead of feeling lectured.

I was telling my coworkers today that the #1 impact Serial has had on my life is making me reexamine everything I do to see how it could implicate me in a hypothetical crime. For example, I like to sleep in on weekends (I'm planning on sleeping until 1 or 2 pm tomorrow). What if one of my friends were murdered during…

Well, "months" is slightly misleading, it was only slightly more than one month. But your point is well taken. I wish I knew how many of these situations involve the cops finding things vs. the families finding things (as the result of a coordinated search) vs. people stumbling across things and recognizing them. You…

I found him convincing in the sense that I believed what he said about Jay being scared of people threatening him and so on. I guess I just don't find that testimony to be convincing evidence that Adnan was the one doing the threatening.

That seems way more likely to me too! To be honest, I'm not sure how much of what the prosecution presented was their actual theory of what happened, and how much of it was their idea of what a jury would like to see, or of what would cause a jury to be more likely to convict. I can certainly see someone saying, "If…

Actually, this really clarified things for me! So clearly it was a great comment. :)

I think premeditation would be their prevailing theory because they thought they had evidence for it, because people were willing to testify that Adnan asked Hae for a ride. (Unless this didn't happen at the actual trial? I'm now getting a bit muddled, honestly.) I feel like prosecutors generally build the most…

Although I think Adnan was probably innocent, I was pretty influenced on the DNA testing thing by the Innocence Project lawyer, who said (I think in an earlier episode) that about half the time that people ask for DNA testing in their cases, it actually just comes back matching them. So it seems like wanting DNA…

Hm, I actually don't think it would be that random. I mean, I get APBs on my phone now for missing children, but honestly I don't think I would be able to recognize any of those children if I did see them, and I definitely would never be able to recognize a specific car of someone I didn't know no matter how many…

Huh, interesting. Who's angry on Facebook? I don't really know anyone IRL who listens to Serial, so I don't think I've seen any of this.

I really agree on scripted cop anthologies — I feel like our desire for certainty, and the way that desire is pandered to in scripted crime dramas, has had serious consequences for our ability as a culture to deal with ideas like "reasonable doubt" or "innocent until proven guilty". This is pointed out in Serial over…

Well, I guess I would say it's compelling to me because I personally think Adnan is probably innocent (holes in Jay's testimony, etc) and I also just don't see the motive or, frankly, opportunity for Jay killing Hae. Other people disagree with my feelings here, which is fine, so I would expect this theory to be less…

I sort of lean towards the idea that a third party did it, but I totally agree with you here. I also went in expecting "Here's an innocent man who some dirty cops framed!" and instead got this lovely exploration of how real life is always stranger and more complicated than we think it is. I probably believe more in…

I visited the Serial subreddit yesterday (after taking several deep breaths, because usually I avoid reddit like the plague) and everyone there seemed very happy with the finale. I honestly don't think anyone was expecting Serial to wrap up like a scripted drama would, except for the people whose jobs involve…

I've honestly been very confused by the whole slate of "Will Serial's ending be satisfying enough for people?"-type articles that I've been seeing. Maybe media outlets are used to covering podcasts like they're scripted dramas, but I for one am very aware of the difference between a scripted drama and a real-life…

Also, to be clear, I don't necessarily think this was all completely conscious, malevolent behavior on the part of the police. I mean, maybe it was. But maybe it was also just the natural human tendency to be less suspicious of people who are helping you (which Jay would have been by reporting the car) and more…

Honestly, I think it's because Jay was in a position to help them get somebody, whereas Adnan wasn't. He maintained throughout the whole thing that he didn't do it, that he didn't remember where he was that day, and that he had no idea who did do it. So the cops were naturally suspicious, which makes sense. In comes…

I feel like you're dissembling a bit here. You're asking why people think Adnan is innocent, given that the jury returned a guilty verdict, and when people say "Well, here's all this evidence that makes us think he didn't do it," you say "Well, the case as presented to the jury wasn't that."

I think there might also have been some hair on Hae's body that went untested?