> I honestly felt like it did a terrible job of establishing much reasonable doubt and it just sort of... ends?
The goal of Serial wasn't to establish reasonable doubt. She was asked to look into the case, and she's reporting what she found. There was hope that there would be some conclusion, but it wasn't the expectation when she began the story.
As for the ending, what exactly would you want? I thought it was clear from the outset that it would be an open ended investigation, and the early episodes were released before she was done with all the interviews, etc. That it may end without a conclusion was kind of the default expectation. That a reporter would be able to dig deep and either exonerate or damn him is closer to the realm of fantasy. His case was not a slam dunk in either direction.
The goal of Serial wasn't to establish reasonable doubt. She was asked to look into the case, and she's reporting what she found. There was hope that there would be some conclusion, but it wasn't the expectation when she began the story.
As for the ending, what exactly would you want? I thought it was clear from the outset that it would be an open ended investigation, and the early episodes were released before she was done with all the interviews, etc. That it may end without a conclusion was kind of the default expectation. That a reporter would be able to dig deep and either exonerate or damn him is closer to the realm of fantasy. His case was not a slam dunk in either direction.