Serial review – a riveting 10-part investigation into a Baltimore homicide

Breaking Bad radio – and this is a new thing, stay with me – doesn’t really exist. The gripping, cliffhanger sort of storytelling that will make you blabber collective WTFs to fellow nerd-fans is a rare thing across any medium, so it’s no diss to suggest everything else in broadcasting looks unambitious compared to Serial. Sarah Koenig’s 10-part investigation into a Baltimore homicide, a longform spinoff from This American Life, is the smartest, most original bit of commissioning we’ll hear all year.

Let’s start with the facts: 17-year-old Hae Min Lee was killed on 13 January 1999. Her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted of first-degree murder and has been in prison for 15 years. He says he didn’t do it. The detectives who worked the case say there is still no question and no doubt he did. The prosecution rested on where this high schooler – an honour student and prom prince, a volunteer at his mosque, the whole package of what storytellers would qualify as “a good kid” – was for 21 minutes on the day Hae Min was strangled to death.

Koenig’s year-long investigation isn’t just impressive because of the investment in money and time. It’s because an idea so allegedly simple on a podcast can suck you in so hard; an idea done so brilliantly that dedicated fan forums are a given – Slate has created a weekly podcast just to talk about it.

We’re seven episodes in (please catch up: it’s a treat) and Koenig is analysing the case in chapters, showing us the working out as she goes along. She questions the accuracy of every bit of information she is given, which means sifting and scrutinising scores of police files, court reports, and character testimonies. She interviews people in the story about their sex lives, drug habits and teenage secrets. She has been to Leakin Park, where Lee’s body was found, and reconstructs the timeline of everyone involved: the routes, the phonecalls, the physical circumstances of the murder.

So. Is Syed a victim of a miscarriage of justice or a sociopathic murderer? We don’t know yet. Koenig says she doesn’t know yet. Each episode is being made week by week and almost irrespective of the conclusion, it’s an incredible vindication for expensive (and allegedly old-school) journalism. More please.