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Serial
2024 · TV series · 1 season
Created by Vincent Coleman, James Coleman
In the quiet, picturesque town of Ashbourne Falls, a dark and horrifying secret lurks beneath its serene surface. The residents, accustomed to a life of routine and safety, are about to face their worst nightmare as two brutal serial killers begin to stalk their community. Serial delves into the chilling personas of the two depraved killers: Mabel Monroe, portrayed by true crime YouTuber Stephanie Harlowe, and Harold Nuemeister, brought to life by the talented Michael Ciesla. Set in the eerie town of Ashbourne Falls, Serial pays homage to the slasher films of the past, while weaving its own unique tapestry of suspense, mystery and terror. As the tension escalates and the couple grows more confident, the town itself becomes a character- a place where everyone knows everyone, but no one truly knows who can be trusted.
9 positive1 negative7 neutralfrom 17 commenters
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17 comments on Hacker News
Not understanding or having experience with something is not the same as it lacking validity and merit.
Without understanding the problems and ways police harm communities, throwing data at a problem is unlikely to result in good outcomes. Through the lens of “crime” harm is hard to separate from illegality. Driving with expired plates because you can’t afford it until next month is illegal, but it isn't causing the same amount of harm as burying that person under court fees and fines until they’re homeless. Unless you collect the right data, understand the data's meaning, data is useless.
Some starting places on harm police do to communities, if you’re interested:
- podcast: season 3 of Serial https://serialpodcast.org/season-three
- article: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/over-policing-of-america_b_4412187
- book: the end of policing https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_End_of_Policing
Serial was flawed because they didn't re-record the episodes as new information came out? That's an odd take
> 'Serial' was the podcast that launched all podcasts.
It feels like we were listening to This American Life in podcast form in the car for at least five years before Serial even existed. And Serial was being marketed on TAL during what I'd describe as TAL's slow decline from popularity, with Ira personally shilling for Serial and teasing the first entire episode on TAL, IIRC.
If either of these were responsible for launching the modern podcast era, I'd point at TAL, not Serial.
This assertion has always been strange to me. This American Life was releasing their episodes as podcasts for something like 7 years before they decided to do Serial. Shows like Adam Corolla, WTF with Marc Maron, the BS Report, Joe Rogan Experience, etc were all very successful before Serial. Major media companies like NPR, CBC, BBC were releasing podcasts and dedicated podcast companies like TWiT.tv had existed for years. I think you can kind of credit Serial for popularizing true crime podcasts but it gets way too much credit for the success for the medium.
I don't have real insight but I have real hope that your sentiment comes true at least in part, and that Adnan is both exonerated and compensated appropriately. Listening to Serial from episode 1 you cannot ignore the fact that it wouldn't be compelling (or wouldn't have been researched or serialised) if the suspect's guilt was clear and unequivocal.
Serial season 3 - where they hang out at a courthouse for a year, learning all of the ins and outs - illustrates all of this very well.
There's a lot of injustice tied up in expediting cases. Massive backlogs of work, not enough people to do the work, and massively asymmetric funding for prosecution and defense.
> I shudder to think about what it tells us about our judicial system.
Coincidentally, this is the general topic of season 3 of Serial.
Serial was blowout success, but flawed in many ways. For me, chief amongst these is not updating the podcast with new (and potentially exculpatory) information as it came to light over the years.
What really progressed the case was the Undisclosed podcast [0]. Rabia Chaudry, a childhood friend of Adnan and an attorney, first took Adnan's story to Sarah Koenig, who documented it in the Serial podcast. But in Undisclosed, Rabia and her colleagues Colin Miller and Susan Simpson dissected the case with scalpel, found new evidence, and ultimately set the groundwork for today's result.
Undisclosed stuck with it, and have covered other similar cases. Their twitter [1] says they've had 400m+ downloads, which is more than Serial, albeit over many series.
If you liked Serial, or even if you didn't but do like True Crime, go check out Undisclosed.
If long podcasts are not your thing, HBO's The Case Against Adnan Syed [2] is quite information rich across just 4 episodes.
[0] https://undisclosed-podcast.com/episodes/season-1/ [1] https://twitter.com/Undisclosedpod [2] https://www.hbo.com/the-case-against-adnan-syed
The larger incident is the subject of the season 2 of the Serial Podcast.
Huh. I mean, all the podcasts my friends recommend me always seem to be information-dump type ones, whether on politics or design or whatever. Kind of like audio New Yorker articles or mini-documentaries. I listed to the first few hours of Serial and it sure felt like a documentary to me too -- I didn't notice any interaction between the hosts. So I'd just prefer to read.
But to answer your question, no. But maybe that's the difference -- I'd rather "interact" with my friends directly where it's a 2-way street, that just listen to hosts interact with each other. But I guess if I were feeling lonely/bored that could make a lot more sense to put on a podcast, if I couldn't put on a TV show (e.g. because driving)...
In the subject of the workings of the US judicial system, season 3 of Serial is all about courthouse stories. I really enjoyed the episodes so far.
https://serialpodcast.org/
There's been a larger push for evidence-based medicine over the past decade or two. I'd love it if our criminal justice system was more evidence-based and focused solely on reducing crime/suffering/injustice and better rehabilitation. Many police departments fall into the trap of using number of arrests as their KPI, because that's easier to measure than outcomes.
Serial season 3 has had good discussion on minimum sentencing and judges who sentence based on whims, not on what's effective.
I binge listened to Serial the same way I binge-watched The Wire and Breaking Bad. But I don't watch TV shows on a consistent basis. I rarely watch shows even by download. This might not be an important factor, but identifying non-traditional consumers being attracted to the content, consuming it and moving on might be a useful cohort or metric.
Second, I'd be cautious to say the format is the reason why it's popular. Such as saying that the TV-show like structure, and made it easy to consume, are the reason for binging. It is certainly why it is popular - for a podcast - but I doubt it's why it's popular in general. Content is king.
Not being a typical TV-show fan I only consume TV/podcasts that I hear (and turn out to be) exceptionally good from friends and reviews. Although I do listen to podcasts while I work (on a day to day basis).
Regarding the question of binging, well I think it could easily be 90% about quality of content. Quality such as Serial and The Wire are rare. So given the opportunity and access to all the media at once (thx to the internet) nothing stops us from consuming it all at once.
Anyone who wants to repeat this model, more quality content please. Which means content creators should focus most on good storytelling.. and less about the format and delivery. Hollywood should take note of this since they also seem to be obsessed with format over good storytelling. They seem to think CGI is an adequate replacement for good characters and drama.
I haven't done any outside reading on "Serial" but if you haven't checked it out I highly recommend it.
Also, starting with episode 5, the Slate folks put out a companion series, "Serial Spoiler Special." After listening to each episode, Slate writers talk about the episode. Not just going over facts, but analyzing Serial as a storytelling medium for true crime stories.
Also highly recommended.
Serial: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/serial/id917918570?mt=2
Slate's Serial Spoiler Special: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/slates-serial-spoiler-specials/id935063801?mt=2
i've only started listening to podcasts in the last 3 or 4 months, but what you said really resonates. i subscribe to about 40 podcasts now, and it lets me soundtrack all of the mundane and tedious things in my life (the hour+ of walking i do every day, the hour+ of jogging i do every other day, the hour+ of cooking i do every day, etc) is soundtracked by either neat minidocumentaries or conversations between people i think are funny and interesting. between podcasts and my chromecast i've completely severed myself from traditional broadcast media and i feel much richer for it.
a few recommended podcasts for others who may want some:
-the podcasts of npr's better shows: this american life, radiolab, the moth, snap judgment, the organist -- by extension, serial, which isnt an npr show but is TAL affiliated
-the radiotopia.fm suite: 99% invisible is the best known, but all of them are top notch imo
-the duckfeed.tv suite: best known for watch out for fireballs, weekly discussions of a different retro video game; all of their shows are videogame oriented, and frankly while i barely play video games at all anymore i enjoy listening to their discussions
-no such thing as a fish: weekly half hour of a group of people quickly rattling off interesting facts
-i don't even own a television: reviews of bad books in discussion format
-the flop house: reviews of bad movies in discussion format
-roderick on the line: conversational comedy podcast
-uhh yeah dude: long-running general comedy podcast
I agree with you. For Serial at least, their website has direct download links to an mp3 file for all of their epsiodes: http://serialpodcast.org/#episodes
I've been into podcasts for about 6 or 8 years now and, as stupid as this sounds, it has really changed my life. Not in some huge way, but still, those are strong words. There are just so many mundane, crappy things you need to do throughout the day. Especially since I've now got two kids. I have no idea how many hours I spend a week preparing meals, cleaning the kitchen, picking up toys, vacuuming, etc. Radiolab, TAL, Serial, Startup, et all turn that time from boring drudgery into something I _enjoy_. The quality of some of the content is amazing. I feel like I've sat down to watch a documentary, but instead I just cleaned the whole house or went for a run.