Going Downhill
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cmryan07 –
2017-07-07
You should know what you're getting into if you start listening to this podcast. The hosts have an agenda prior to recording, and go to great lengths to win you over with a seemingly exhaustive amount of detail. It can be maddening to listen to the double-standards, hypocracy, and blatant bias presented as if it were cold, hard fact. While I can handle it in the regular episode, the Addendum has become a venue for clearly biased hosts and guests to sit in a pool of confirmation biases. The podcast would regain some respectability if the Addendum were spun off into it's own thing.
Season 1 did a really good job of doing a deep dive into the Adnan Syed case where Serial couldn't - even if the hosts and some of the guests seemed to take swipes at Serial's reporting. It was a great (but clearly biased) look at details around the case.
Season 2 was actually my favorite. The case was almost unknown outside of Georgia and it seemed like the hosts - while proclaiming Joey Watkins' innocence - went to lengths to explain the evidence (or lack thereof) and legal procedures, and how they intertwined, ultimately culminating in a guilt verdict for Watkins.
Season 3 was completely maddening for me. I had to stop listening to the Addendum after it became clear that D Watkins was more interested in whining about Baltimore PD than any real conversation about the case. The final few episodes go headfirst into tin-foil hat conspiracy stuff - insinuating that BPD orchestrated a massive cover-up involving dozens of people, forged signatures, fake documents, etc. Maybe they're right - but they do little to prove it and offer only their theories, which they ask in vain for their readers to believe.
I'd continue listening if there were more seasons like season 2, but as it stands, season 3 probably will be my last.