Serial - Adnan released & sentence vacated. Now all charges dropped.

Memento Mori wrote:Wasn't season 2 supposed to start in autumn? Autumn's nearly over.

Yeah, I keep checking their site but always disappointed.

I listened to the whole of last year's again. I have to say, I think he did it, but I don't believe they had enough evidence to prove it, and I can't believe he was convicted.

No smoke without fire.

https://mobile.twitter.com/PeepShowQOTD ... 7161639936

Episode 1 of Season 2 is out now - https://serialpodcast.org/season-two/1/dustwun

EPISODE 01
DUSTWUN

In the middle of the night, Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl grabs a notebook, snacks, water, some cash. Then he quietly slips off a remote U.S. Army outpost in eastern Afghanistan and into the dark, open desert. About 20 minutes later, it occurs to him: he’s in over his head.

Welcome

By Sarah Koenig
12/10/2015, 6:15am

Hello, everyone. We’re back. Yes, at last! We’ve launched Season Two.

Our first season was about a murder case few people had heard about. Season Two is a story a gazillion people have heard about: the story of Bowe Bergdahl, the U.S. soldier who walked off his post in Afghanistan in 2009 and was captured and held by the Taliban for nearly five years. It’s been in the newspapers and on TV; it’s been the subject of congressional investigations (in fact, this very day, the House Armed Services Committee is releasing a report on the Bergdahl trade)—and it’s an active case in military court.

This story—it spins out in so many unexpected directions. Because, yes, it’s about Bowe Bergdahl and about one strange decision he made, to leave his post. (And Bergdahl, by the way, is such an interesting and unusual guy, not like anyone I’ve encountered before.) But it’s also about all of the people affected by that decision, and the choices they made. Unlike our story in Season One, this one extends far out into the world. It reaches into swaths of the military, the peace talks to end the war, attempts to rescue other hostages, our Guantanamo policy. What Bergdahl did made me wrestle with things I’d thought I more or less understood, but really didn’t: what it means to be loyal, to be resilient, to be used, to be punished.

Our tiny team—Julie Snyder, Dana Chivvis, Emily Condon, Ira Glass, and I—has expanded this season. As a result, one new thing: we’ll be talking with you on social media. Ask us a question on Tumblr, tweet at us, and watch for our updates on Facebook and Instagram. You can also sign up for our email newsletter. To find out where and how to listen, click here. Another new thing: 3D maps! We’ll have all sorts of graphics and videos and more to help explain what happened.

I am so happy that you’re back with us, listening. Now, on with the story.

https://serialpodcast.org/2015/12/season-two-welcome

So, so excited. Got it downloaded and ready to go tonight. Meant to be meeting friends for drinks - I'd rather be walking the dog and listening to Serial :lol:

Awesome!

Christmas drinks have been cancelled!

Serial me up. :wub:

Mail k..k..kimp?

"Yes, that's me. Talking to the Taliban."

Best. Hook. Ever.

Rudolphin wrote:"Yes, that's me. Talking to the Taliban."

Best. Hook. Ever.

So good

Episode 2 - THE GOLDEN CHICKEN (59 mins), 17th December

https://serialpodcast.org/season-two/2/ ... en-chicken

Episode 3 - ESCAPING (53 mins), 24th December

https://serialpodcast.org/season-two/3/escaping

Episode 4 - THE CAPTORS (45 mins), 7th January

https://serialpodcast.org/season-two/4/the-captors

Not feeling this, there isn't much of a hook. Its kind of an interesting story but without the direct contact with Bergdahl that we had with Adnan is S1 it is a complex story to get across. And without the mystery, it doesn't really challenge your opinion each week. So far in my, in my mind he went awol and got captured and there is no mystery behind it really. His reason for doing it doesn't seem particularly interesting and has been brushed aside so far.

I’m saving this until it’s nearer the end when I can binge listen, just like I did in S1.

So I burned through season 1 in the last few days as a recommendation trade off where I passed Making a Murderer someone else's way.

I enjoyed listening to it, though it did seem to really run out of steam towards the end. She was a good host though and seemed to remain unbiased throughout, despite the fact she clearly liked Adnan. My feeling with the story is rather underwhelming, perhaps that's coming off MaM when the case seems far more outlandish and has a lot more twists and turns. On this it seemed fairly clear from early on that Adnan did it, the real question is around Jay's involvement. Don't get me wrong, there's a whole host of problems with the prosecutions case and I don't believe how they say I happened is actually how it happened. On the main points though Adnan doesn't even seem to contest the prosecution and even though there's no hard evidence, seemingly everything else points to him and his response to it all seems to be rather non-challant like he knows he's getting what he deserves. I don't buy the theory that this makes him a psychopath but I'm pretty sure he killed her.

captain red dog wrote:Not feeling this, there isn't much of a hook. Its kind of an interesting story but without the direct contact with Bergdahl that we had with Adnan is S1 it is a complex story to get across. And without the mystery, it doesn't really challenge your opinion each week. So far in my, in my mind he went awol and got captured and there is no mystery behind it really. His reason for doing it doesn't seem particularly interesting and has been brushed aside so far.

I'm with you on this. By this point in season 1 I was hooked. With S2, I'm actually kind of bored with it.

I think they made a bad choice with the story. As red dog says, there's no mystery to it, there's no tension. We know he got captured, we know he got out. His experience is interesting, but not interesting enough to base an entire series around. An hour long show could have covered it. I mean, episode 4 starts with a completely seperate story only tangentially linked to Bowe, which screams "filler " to me.

Then you've got the lack of direct contact, and the fact all the audio of Bergdahl himself is grainy as strawberry float and often hard to understand. The questions being put to him are questions related to this movie their making of his story, not a journalistic investigation of his experience. It often feels they're trying and failing to make what he's saying more than detailed descriptions of his surroundings.

I dunno. There's obviously a way to go yet. Hopefully it'll pick up.

It's pretty gooseberry fool really, Sarah comes across really smug and the only one that's really gripped me has been the escape one, mainly because it's fascinating to hear how you'd go about that.

Whole thing is a bit too U.S. centric at the moment.

Season 3 is set for Easter this year apparently.

It's been suggested this is a 'filler' season to establish serial is not just about freeing people who were questionably convicted, and more of a story telling series. The collaboration between serial and the filmakers for Bergdahl's case I think highlights this. I think a lot less work was needed to produce this series than the first, and I hope the next season is better.

Having said that, it's still a podcast I look forward to as much, if not more than any others I listen to

Episode 5 is out. This has got more padding than the hobbit films now :dread:

Agree with everything above. I've not listened to 5 yet, but it's not gripping me at all.

I've actually listened to each episode twice, partly because I get through a lot of podcasts, and partly because my concentration keeps wandering and I keep missing stuff. This didn't happen once with S1.

Also agree that it's a poor choice of story (I have deliberately read nothing about BB since the podcast was announced, so it's all new-ish), but perhaps they were forced to go in a different direction. I mean, can you even imagine how many relatives of "innocent" convicted murderers will have contacted This American Life since it was confirmed Syed was getting his case looked at again?! :lol

On another note, I can recommend The Message as a mildly diverting podcast that's worth a listen. It's a short-run, fictional podcast about an alien message. Each episode is mega-short, only 10-15 mins a pop, and I thought it was pretty cool.

http://themessagepodcast.com/

I got through it all in two sessions.

Serial - Adnan released & sentence vacated. Now all charges dropped.

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