HBO Sets Premiere Date for Serial Docuseries ‘The Case Against Adnan Syed’

HBO gave the press an inside look at their upcoming docuseries The Case Against Adnan Syed at Winter 2019 TCA. Director Amy Berg, and the series’ subjects Rabia Chaudry, Asia McClain, and Susan Simpson all spoke about their involvement in the series, which goes further into the murder of Baltimore teen Hae Min Lee than the popular podcast Serial did back in 2014.

“I wanted this [documentary] series to reach all audiences; people who didn’t listen to the podcast and people who did,” Berg told the journalists assembled in the room. The series not only follows Rabia Chaudry’s efforts to earn her family friend Adnan a retrial, but looks closer at the life of Hae Min Lee.

Lee’s family did not want to be personally involved in the docuseries, but let a family friend speak on their behalf. So to capture Lee’s voice, Berg paired animated sequences along with passages of Hae Min’s personal diary.

But The Case Against Adnan Syed is also a story about the failures of the justice system. When Decider asked Berg what her feelings on the case were before she started the series versus after its completion, she said she was “frustrated” then and “even more frustrated” after living with the case. Her main issue was that the legal system didn’t do a good job looking into the case in 1999, which means true justice is harder, if not impossible, to attain.

“Systems protect themselves,” Chaudry said, explaining why she and alibi witness Asia McClain have been stymied in their efforts to help Syed’s case.

McClain said, “It was very eye-opening to see the kind of treatment a normal person can get for just trying to do the right thing.”

Serial is often credited for jump-starting a newfound fascination in true crime, but Susan Simpson explained that “what Serial did was turn the lens on the justice system itself.”  The podcast didn’t just look at the cases as murder mystery puzzles, but as an examination of the human mistakes that pervert justice everywhere. “There are so many stories out there that haven’t been told,” she added.

“Every wrongful conviction story is also an unsolved case,” Chaudry said.

The Case Against Adnan Syed will debut on March 10 at 9 PM on HBO.