Serial: The Podcast

Continuing last week's post on death and the mention of my love of podcasts, I thought I would talk about Serial.

If you haven't heard of it, where have you been?! I'm super late to be talking about it, but they are working on Season 2 of Serial so let's just pretend like I'm actually early for that, okay?

Serial is a podcast that tell one story over the course of 12 weeks. It's broken up into mini-episodes, hence the name of the show. I kind of imagine this is like the old radio shows where families would gather around the radio and sit by the fire and eagerly listen to how the next part of the story unfolds. Except it is a podcast and you listen on your phone. And since the entire first season is out, you can really bring it all into the 21st century and binge-listen to all 12 hours at once!

Season 1 was a CSI/Law and Order theme. It followed the case of a guy that had been accused and found guilty of murder. Each week Sarah Koenig, the host, focuses on a different aspect of the case and the evidence. Over the course of the season, I went back and forth in my mind. One week I was certain that Adnan was guilty and the next week I knew for sure that it was someone else. I won't give away everything in case you are one of the few people that hasn't listened to Season 1 and still plan to, but I will warn you that this is a true story. It's real life. And in real there are no pretty packages with all the loose ends tied up at the end of each episode. This may come as a surprise to you, but real life is not like the movies!

For the sake of full disclosure, I will share my one negative about the podcast. First, let me say that I do not consider myself a hipster. Far from it actually, but I feel as if I had a very hipster reaction to Serial. I heard the first episode on This American Life, before the Serial podcast had officially been launched. I was hooked from the very beginning. I immediately downloaded the Serial podcast and listened every week to the story unfold. But then something happened. Serial got big!  In my own hipster way, I felt like podcasts were my thing that I shared with a handful of select nerds and now everyone was listening. It was becoming "mainstream" and I felt disgruntled about it.

Lucky for you guys, I have gotten over that.  Maybe it's because I want to share this with other people. Or maybe it's because Season 1 of Serial is over and the bandwagon fans have moved on and podcasts are now safely back with their niche audience. Either way, I'm over it and excited to see what the next season of Serial brings!

* Update: Since I posted this blog, I read an article on BuzzFeed about a new podcast, Undisclosed, that starts on April 13 and will focus more on Adnan Syed, who incidentally was just granted an appeal hearing. I haven't heard it yet, so I have no opinion. I'm just passing on information. Listen at your own will.