Prior to listening to Serial, I had never heard or necessarily wanted to hear a podcast. However, upon solely hearing the first episode, I was intrigued and immediately wanted to hear the second episode. I honestly had low expectations for the podcasts, as listening to them was a required school assignment, but Serial completely exceeded these expectations and drove me to listen to even more.
The first episode in particular did a fantastic job of enticing me to continue listening to the show. Its mere title, “The Alibi” was ominous and mysterious and thus a main reason I chose to listen to this specific podcast. However, the most intriguing aspect of this podcast to me was the tone by which it was told. One would expect a podcast to be read in a monotone and dull voice, similar to an audiobook. Contrastly, Serial’s narrator tells the criminal mystery in an exciting and moving manner, leaving the listener on cliffhanger after cliffhanger throughout the episode. In the first episode, cliffhangers such as Jay’s rehash of the murder and the eventual reveal of the Alibi always left me in wonderment. Additionally, the phone calls and interviews incorporated into the podcast allow for a variety of voices to be heard– each with unique diction and often times different accents. In the first episode up to ten different voices were heard, including: Jay, Adnan Syed, Asia, Rabia, Saad, Aisia, Yaser, etcetera. The alternation of these voices kept me alert as I did not become disinterested with one voice and lose focus. The narrator also does a fantastic job in that the emotions of each character can be easily determined solely by the tone of their voice. It is quite difficult without visual aid to display emotion, but Serial manages to do this with ease.
I definitely recommend listening!!
