''The Case Against Adnan Syed'' is a 2019 true-crime docuseries about Adnan Syed's (later vacated, but subsequently reinstated) murder conviction for the killing of Hae Min Lee. It was directed by Amy J. Berg and produced by Working Title Television, among others. The first episode of the four-part series premiered March 10, 2019, on

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American pay television service, which is the flagship property of namesake parent-subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is based a ...

Background

After the success of '' Serial'' Season 1,

green-lit a documentary series to recap the case along with new information about Syed's appeal process. HBO Documentary Films is in production on a follow-up episode to the series, featuring exclusive access to Syed leading up to and following his release from prison. The documentary was released in four parts and reviewed the case leading up to Syed's then-current status as of 2018. It is revealed that Syed turned down a

plea bargain A plea bargain, also known as a plea agreement or plea deal, is a legal arrangement in criminal law where the defendant agrees to plead guilty or no contest to a charge in exchange for concessions from the prosecutor. These concessions can include a ...

in 2018 that would have required him to plead guilty in exchange for reducing his sentence. Subsequently, Syed's mother told him that she had

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia; pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and produce high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or '' ...

Reception

On the review aggregation website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review aggregator, review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee ...

, the series holds an approval rating of 82% with an average rating of 7 out of 10, based on 33 reviews. The website's critical consensus reads, "A worthy ''Serial'' supplement that isn't without flaws, ''The Case Against Adnan Syed'' fleshes out the life of Hae Min Lee and gives context to in the complicated boon of true crime entertainment."

Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...

, which uses a weighted average, assigned the series a score of 66 out of 100 based on 16 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews". Critics have argued that the docuseries has a "pro-Syed bias" and is "armed with an agenda", though its creators billed it as an objective view of the case. ''Serial'', the 2014 podcast which first popularized the case, released a follow-up episode detailing the reasons for Syed’s release.

Accolades

The series was nominated for a 2019 Primetime Emmy Award in Outstanding Writing for a Nonfiction Program for the episode "Forbidden Love". It was also a nominee for Outstanding Achievement in Nonfiction Series for Broadcast by Cinema Eye Honors.

References

External links

* * 2010s American documentary television series 2019 American television series debuts 2019 American television series endings True crime television series Television shows based on podcasts Television series by Home Box Office Television series by Universal Television Television series by Working Title Television {{US-documentary-tv-prog-stub