Sarah Koenig's Serial, currently in the middle of a second season focused on the complicated story of Bowe Bergdahl, is now revisiting the subject of its inaugural series in light of recent developments. Adnan Syed, who was convicted in the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, is currently back in court working diligently to overturn that conviction. Koenig is attending each day of the proceedings, Mashable reports, and then relaying her findings in new episodes.
"There’s a hearing in Baltimore—a court proceeding that’s been nearly sixteen years in the making," Koenig and producer Dana Chivvisexplain. "Syed’s attorney will introduce new evidence, and present a case for why his conviction should be overturned." According to Koenig, this case's "main focus" is the fact that Syed's former lawyer was financially and physically "declining" during the initial trial and thus failed to give appropriate attention to a potentially crucial witness.
"I don't think they're going to try to, like, discredit her," Koenig says of the first day's events, which included testimony from the aforementioned witness, Asia McLain. "But I think what they're going to say is 'You think of yourself as a person with a really precise memory, but here are some ways that we are going to show you that your memory isn't as precise as you think it is.'" This first mini-episode, which runs a little over 15 minutes in length, ends with Koenig promising a fuller update following the next proceeding.
As for this Serial revisit's impact on the currently-in-progress second season, Koenig confirmed that's very much not an issue. In fact, the latest episode was unveiled just hours after the Adnan mini-episode. As previously reported, the team behind The Lego Movie recently confirmed plans to bring Serial to the small screen for a behind-the-scenes look at the work both Koenig and Chivvis put into even a single episode of such a daunting project.
