Serial: The Best Trial You’ll Ever Hear
When I studied film and television in college, there was an implicit understanding that the golden age of both media had passed. For television, it lasted until the 50’s, before it was widely commercialized and pigeonholed into weekly self-contained universes called episodes, each of which were designed to be skippable so that the audience didn’t feel remorse and stop tuning in if they had missed a few while retaining a familiar cast of characters. Film had a series of golden ages, each driven by technological shifts (like color and sound) or economic changes. The last one happened in the 70’s, with New Hollywood filmmakers who successfully broke the mold of classical storytelling and who were also able to generate box office hits. Film has not seen a golden age since, largely due to the fact that the globalization of the industry along with the predictability of sequels means less dialog (and subtitles), fewer original plots and more explosions and CGI. There are still good movies being made but a whole lot more bad and mediocre ones get funded.
Amazingly, television has made a strong comeback. It has ushered in a second golden age, in large part due to subscription TV services which operate on a different model than broadcast TV. And now, its successes have crossed over into another medium, radio, with a new show called Serial. Serial’s format is just that, serialized. It is not self-contained and it crosses over from episode to episode. It’s binge-worthy and you will feel left out if you haven’t caught the first few episodes. In fact, you’ll feel entirely lost. And although Serial is produced by WBEZ, a public radio station, it is not a public radio show. It’s a podcast. The format may sound like something new even to those of us who listen to NPR regularly, but it’s not. This is how radio used to work, before TV came along and stole a lot of its storytelling thunder (and sponsor dollars).
The interesting twist about Serial is that it is quite distinctly a product of its time. It introduces the concept of real-time storytelling and follows host and creator Sarah Koenig on her journey of investigating a 15-year old murder as she tries to figure out if the convicted murderer actually did it. She exposes the entire process of creation, and it’s akin to seeing a master watchmaker put together a watch, gear by gear, only for it to tell time at the very end.
Make no mistake; this isn’t just a murder mystery. It’s a trial. And just about everyone and everything is on trial. The justice system is on trial. Human memory is on trial. Religiosity is on trial. The very ethics and morality of Sarah herself are arguably on trial. If she finds out something that breaks the case wide open, will she wait until that episode airs to reveal it? It also introduces us to the role of being juror and criminal detective at the same time. Sarah is very transparent about her thesis, but it’s clear that she’s trying to stay as objective as possible when analyzing the evidence. The internet has also made this podcast its own. A Reddit board has popped up around the podcast with lots of discussions and timelines and maps being posted. People involved in the story are doing Q&A’s. And collectively, we ourselves are on trial in the end. Do we push for the potential exoneration of someone who actually committed murder? Or do we continue to reaffirm a false judgment of someone who was framed from the outset? Who are we to believe and why do we believe them? The one clear thing that I’ve learned so far from listening to the podcast is that vagueness introduces the opportunity for us to fall back on existing assumptions, with one key exception. I think a lot of us operate on the assumption that the justice system runs on a series of clear-cut, black and white scenarios, but what this podcast makes clear is that in actuality, most situations are trapped in a sea of grey. One thing is certain though, and that’s the fact that radio, or at least public radio, is continuing to up its game.
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Henry is a co-founder of Instinctive, a storytelling platform built for brands.