According to the Narrator, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Styles of Narration-as-Advocation in True-Crime Documentary Series

Abstract

©2023 by the board of trustees of the university of illinois on oCtoBer 3, 2014, the worlD was introduced to the largely unknown story of Adnan Syed, a young man who had been convicted and jailed for over a decade for the murder of his ex-girlfriend. Through the podcast Serial (2014–present), Sarah Koenig, the journalist investigating the story, brought to light how the fourteen-year-old case might not have been as open-and-shut as it seemed. In Serial, Koenig, as the host/narrator, guided listeners through old and new evidence in the case of the no-longer-young Syed. Almost two years after the debut of Koenig’s groundbreaking podcast, on June 30, 2016, a judge granted Syed’s motion for post-conviction relief and ordered a new trial to be held. Serial, “the most popular podcast in the world,” put Syed’s case on the map and led to a new examination of the crime on the grounds of ineffectual counsel (Gamerman). The popularity of Serial led to numerous true-crime podcasts as well as original series for Netflix, HBO, and other networks/streamers being developed at a rapid rate, though true-crime series had proven popular with the public even before Serial.1 The twentieth century saw an industry of true-crime novels, films, and television series emerge (Murley). The first wave of true-crime documentaries began in 1988 with Errol Morris’s highly influential The Thin Blue Line, which reassessed the guilt of Randall Adams after he was accused by David Ray Harris of murdering Dallas police officer Robert W. Wood and sentenced to death. What Serial effectively did, however, was thrust the true-crime genre into mainstream consumption. In I’ll Be Gone in the Dark, author Michelle McNamara paints the picture of what true-crime lovers were prior to Serial: sitting in the dark, they frequented chat rooms, using pseudonyms so they could talk about victims and who their murderers could be with anonymity (32). With Serial, Syed’s case became water cooler talk, as people openly discussed their theories on his innocence or guilt and their interpretations of the newest evidence each week, and the popularity of true-crime media expanded in the wake of Serial’s success. The comedy series Only Murders in the Building (Hulu 2021–present) draws on familiar true-crime podcast tropes, specifically the podcasts’ hosts, investigative techniques, and even fans. Rather than being a niche series, Only Murders in the Building became “the most-watched comedy ever on Hulu, by a good margin,” illustrating the popularity and cultural touchstone status that truecrime series have attained (Adalian). This article explores a specific aspect of true-crime series: the narrator. In particular, I analyze how the narrators of prominent truecrime documentary series deploy different strategies to cultivate credibility and convey narrative truth. Since the premiere of Serial, According to the Narrator, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night: Styles of Narration-as-Advocation in True-Crime Documentary Series