Bad News for 'Serial' Fans

By Dustin Rowles | Serial | January 12, 2016 |

By Dustin Rowles | Serial | January 12, 2016 |

If you are like me and have been mostly underwhelmed by season two of Sarah Koenig’s podcast, Serial, this news isn’t going to make you feel any better than last week’s episode, which mostly consisted of someone who wasn’t Bowe Bergdahl relaying his experiences as a Taliban hostage, experiences that weren’t even that similar to Bergdahl’s.

It was kind of a snoozer.

If you were hoping we could move past that episode and onto more compelling installments, you’ll have to wait an extra week. In fact, you’ll have to start waiting two weeks here on out, as Serial is moving to a biweekly format in order to accommodate additional reporting, as producer Julie Snyder told the NYTimes.

Since we started broadcasting the show, we have gotten more people willing to talk, and because of that, it has opened up more avenues of reporting … We have narrative developments. I hesitate on calling them news developments.”

Koenig echoed Snyder’s statement on the podcast website:

This story goes in so many directions, and as we’re reporting it we’re getting access to more of the key people close to Bergdahl’s case, and to more information than we initially thought we would. Which is great. And which means we’re going to be adding at least one extra episode to the series. To do that—or at least to do it right—will take some time. Hence the change.

In other words, not only will we have to wait longer for episodes we aren’t nearly as excited about as we were the first season, they’ll be adding at least one additional episode, meaning a new season three case is probably even further away now.

Hopefully, however, this additional reporting will help to make this season’s case more compelling because, so far, the Bergdahl case doesn’t have much of a hook or a decent mystery.

It does have Sarah Koenig’s voice, however, which is always reason enough to continue listening.

Source: NYTimes