Crime, Media and Journalism

Standard Of Review: 'Serial' Returns With An Underwhelming Second Season

Culture critic Harry Graff identifies the shortcomings of the popular podcast's second season.

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Serial The PodcastOver the holidays, how many conversations regarding the second season of the popular podcast Serial did you participate in? I am guessing probably not very many. While the first season of Serial stormed into the national consciousness, inciting countless think pieces and parodies, the second season of Serial has mostly flown under the radar. While it is still admittedly the No. 1 podcast on iTunes, I have seen many fewer articles, tweets, and Facebook posts about it. I listened to the three episodes that have aired so far this season, and unfortunately, Serial’s lack of cultural relevance is justified, as the second season has significantly decreased in quality (this column will contain spoilers up to the December 24 episode – there was no episode last week, and the latest episode was released today).

The wildly successful first season of Serial – a podcast that tells a long-form nonfiction story – explored the 1999 murder of high school student Hae Min Lee and the subsequent conviction of her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed despite flimsy evidence. Part of the reason for Serial’s popularity was that it was truly a mystery; both the audience and Serial host Sarah Koenig were never sure whether Adnan was innocent or guilty. The second season explores a much more well-known event – the Taliban’s capture of United States Army soldier Bowe Bergdahl in 2009, Bergdahl’s ultimate release in 2014, and his court-martial by the Army.

Unlike the first season of Serial, Bergdahl’s story does not really have a central mystery. The first episode of Serial’s first season set up an exciting premise – despite the fact that Adnan was convicted of Hae Min’s murder, Koenig had uncovered a previously unknown piece of evidence that could be Adnan’s alibi. Moreover, there was a bevy of unexplained and unusual aspects of the case that cast reasonable doubt on Adnan’s guilt. The first three episodes of the second season are much more straightforward, telling the chronological story of Bergdahl as he leaves his base, is captured, and spends five years in captivity. The only “mystery” is whether Bergdahl was a Taliban sympathizer, but there has been nothing in the season so far to indicate that the answer to that question is yes.

Bergdahl’s reason for leaving his base is highly relevant to his court-martial, which itself is another problem with this season. In the first season, because Adnan was tried and convicted fifteen years ago, Koenig could mine the volumes of court records and recordings to depict how Adnan’s attorney provided him with a subpar defense. By contrast, the Army just announced on December 14, 2015 (after the second season of Serial had started) that Bergdahl will face a court-martial for desertion and misbehavior before the enemy. In theory, it might be interesting to have a season of Serial running concurrently with a trial as opposed to dissecting it fifteen years later. However, due to the fact that the season will likely be over before the trial occurs, I wish that Koenig had waited a few years and made Bergdahl a subject of a future season. For this reason, I doubt that attorneys and law students will enjoy this season of Serial as much as the first.

Moreover, one of Serial’s biggest strengths in its first season was Adnan himself. Adnan was an intelligent documentary subject who consistently gave intriguing and insightful answers to Koenig’s questions but that were never clear enough to make listeners unequivocally believe in his innocence.

Bergdahl is no Adnan. Bergdahl is just a run-of-the-mill interview subject; his answers are very straightforward and vanilla, and his go-to phrase is “good grief.” This problem is exacerbated by the fact that Koenig herself is not interviewing Bergdahl. Instead, Koenig partnered with screenwriter Mark Boal, who, among other things, wrote Zero Dark Thirty and The Hurt Locker. Boal recorded over twenty-five hours of interviews with Bergdahl for an upcoming film, and Koenig takes snippets of those interviews for Serial. The result is an awkward narrative in which Koenig narrates a long voiceover, and then the podcast will cut to Boal interviewing Bergdahl. In certain cases, Koenig even interviews Boal himself or will read from Bergdahl’s legal filings. Accordingly, the second season lacks the excitement of the back-and-forth conversations between Koenig and Adnan, which exposed some of the holes in Adnan’s story.

While Koenig does personally interview some of the army soldiers that either were in Bergdahl’s platoon or were part of the search for him, she obviously does not interview any of the members of another key part of the story – the Taliban. Instead, Boal hired an Afghanistan-based reporter to investigate on the Taliban side. The result is even more narration by Koenig.

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It is still early enough in the season for Serial to turn it around, particularly if the show focuses more on Bergdahl’s court-martial. However, unless something truly interesting happens, I probably will not write about it again this season. After all, I need to make as much time as possible in my true-crime schedule to watch Making a Murderer (more on that next week).

Harry Graff is a litigation associate at a firm, but he spends days wishing that he was writing about film, television, literature, and pop culture instead of writing briefs. If there is a law-related movie, television show, book, or any other form of media that you would like Harry Graff to discuss, he can be reached at harrygraff19@gmail.com. Be sure to follow Harry Graff on Twitter at @harrygraff19.

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