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Trumps Baby Hands posted:A mentally unbalanced idealist worms his way into the army after already having had a mental breakdown in the Coast Gaurd due to beurocratic inefficiency. He is dropped into the middle of America's most bizarre and longest running "war", which, unlike its closest analogue (the Vietnam War), is rarely covered in the media or thought of much at all by a populace distracted by Presidential elections, recreations of he O.J. Simpson trial, and the Orwellian boogeyman ISIS. This man, Sgt. Bergdahl, predictably looses his mind and, rather than continue with this insane charade of a conflict, breaks the "arrangement" in the way that only the mentally ill can--he just wanders off into the desert, following his own bizarre and broken internal logic. Sgt. Bergdahl then experiences something that the majority of us never will: he steps out of the Manufactured and Controlled reality and into the Very Very Very Real. He goes from generation-kill "war as a video game humvee mission" to "prisoner of a Pakistani criminal network that views him as the personification of generations of persecution and death." Then, a strange miracle happens; the same broken brain that pushed him into this scenario also enables him to survive five years of absolute torment that would've "broken" any normal human being. Meanwhile, he becomes a pawn on the international scale, where an outgoing president concocts a plan to use him to help close the door on an unfulfilled campaign promise, but gets caught when being too overly celebratory of the "victory" Whoa!!!
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Apr 12, 2016 22:24
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I liked season 2 more too, but that wall of text is just a writing excercize and doesn't say anything to indicate why 2 is better. I could write up a long twisting timeline of s1 and then at the end be like "...or I could hear about some sperg in the desert  "
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Apr 12, 2016 22:46
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Subjective stuff is like that.
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Apr 13, 2016 03:00
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s2 had a lot more "big issues" in some ways but there was something EXCITING about Koenig and Chivvis trying to drive their lovely rental car to a best buy, and arguing about how unlucky adnan was
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Apr 13, 2016 03:53
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I felt like season 2 had no real focus. It started off being about Bowe's ordeal, his mental condition and what drove him to walk off the base. Then came stories people at home working to find and free him and then the story seemed to shift to a larger picture. The most surprising thing to me was that Bowe wasn't the only soldier to walk off a base in Afghanistan. How bad are things there, or how bad are our soldiers' mental conditions, that they would just walk off into the desert? Tell me that story! I had no idea. Or dig deeper into the military recruiters that ignore warning signs like Bowe's to bolster numbers.
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Apr 13, 2016 04:28
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Lutha Mahtin posted:s2 had a lot more "big issues" in some ways but there was something EXCITING about Koenig and Chivvis trying to drive their lovely rental car to a best buy, and arguing about how unlucky adnan was I think a lot of that is that s1 was more primary reporting. They actually went to the witnesses and interviewed them, and tested the stories for themselves. S2 had some original reporting, but a lot of it was just collecting and presenting previously known facts. Similarly, there were fewer unknowns. The details of Adnan's case contained questions that they were exploring for the first time, whereas most of the questions about Bowe had already been investigated at least somewhat. Basically, this season felt more like a collection of old reports than the direct investigation from S1.
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Apr 13, 2016 05:10
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Doobie Keebler posted:I felt like season 2 had no real focus. It started off being about Bowe's ordeal, his mental condition and what drove him to walk off the base. Then came stories people at home working to find and free him and then the story seemed to shift to a larger picture. The most surprising thing to me was that Bowe wasn't the only soldier to walk off a base in Afghanistan. How bad are things there, or how bad are our soldiers' mental conditions, that they would just walk off into the desert? Tell me that story! I had no idea. Or dig deeper into the military recruiters that ignore warning signs like Bowe's to bolster numbers. That was mentioned in the first five minutes of episode one though. At one level it's the story of Bowe - who he is, what he did, and why; but that story also raises much larger questions about the Afghanistan war, the COIN mission, army recruitment, competing three-letter agencies not working together properly, diplomatic realpolitik, and of course the willingness on both sides to turn literally any political issue into a complete stalemate. I found it interesting how just one stupid sperglord from Idaho going for a walk can raise so many issues, and I think it did a better job of connecting the case to wider issues. I guess the equivalent for season 1 would be if Adnan's case was just a backdrop for the treatment of minorities and poors in the legal system, shoddy work and bias in all areas of the justice system (like Making a Murderer), the experience of second-generation immigrants and so on. I know all of these things were raised at various points but not in the same way as season 2.
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Apr 13, 2016 05:12
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Jurgan posted:I think a lot of that is that s1 was more primary reporting. They actually went to the witnesses and interviewed them, and tested the stories for themselves. S2 had some original reporting, but a lot of it was just collecting and presenting previously known facts. Similarly, there were fewer unknowns. The details of Adnan's case contained questions that they were exploring for the first time, whereas most of the questions about Bowe had already been investigated at least somewhat. Basically, this season felt more like a collection of old reports than the direct investigation from S1. yeah this is pretty much my opinion, also. like, in the grand scheme of things, who cares about tracking down some guy in Baltimore who went to prom with some girl. but i liked those little anecdotes and personal interest aspects a lot more than hearing bowe over a phone line talking to mark boal for the fifth hour
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Apr 13, 2016 05:20
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I was also underwhelmed by this season. That said, I found Kenneth Wolfe absolutely fascinating and the prospect of hearing him kept me listening through the last few episodes.
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Apr 15, 2016 22:45
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yeah Ken Wolfe was hands down the best part of the season
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Apr 16, 2016 04:47
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oatgan posted:yeah Ken Wolfe was hands down the best part of the season Which one was he, the military guy with the gravelly voice?
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Apr 16, 2016 18:17
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I agree on preferring the tone and feel and structure/organization of the first season though I was never really into that Adnan driving simulation episode, kinda boring hearing them quip and drive and then come to a vague conclusion Koenig should've done a repeat of that and simulated Berg's Magical Desert Adventure Route though It's true that a lot of the magic of the first season was the host having Adnan at her call, those audio tapes of Bowe were just eh and he doesn't seem like the most interesting dude to talk to anyway I didn't hate the season or anything though. It definitely didn't live up to my enormous "oh poo poo another season of serial?? What could it be about??" pre hype but I didn't like theatrically/smugly despise it like it feels some people did. It was okay. I listened to it to the end. That's something. It was a GREAT sleep aid 
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Apr 16, 2016 18:17
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Kelly posted:Which one was he, the military guy with the gravelly voice? The one who says "He's in fuckin Pakistan"
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Apr 16, 2016 18:47
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It was pretty amazing how as we heard from guys progressively higher up the chain of command, the more they sounded like a caricature of a cigar-chomping general from Dr Strangelove
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Apr 17, 2016 02:00
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Yeah the casting was pretty amazing
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Apr 17, 2016 07:32
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Trumps Baby Hands posted:A mentally unbalanced idealist worms his way into the army after already having had a mental breakdown in the Coast Gaurd due to beurocratic inefficiency. He is dropped into the middle of America's most bizarre and longest running "war", which, unlike its closest analogue (the Vietnam War), is rarely covered in the media or thought of much at all by a populace distracted by Presidential elections, recreations of he O.J. Simpson trial, and the Orwellian boogeyman ISIS. This man, Sgt. Bergdahl, predictably looses his mind and, rather than continue with this insane charade of a conflict, breaks the "arrangement" in the way that only the mentally ill can--he just wanders off into the desert, following his own bizarre and broken internal logic. Sgt. Bergdahl then experiences something that the majority of us never will: he steps out of the Manufactured and Controlled reality and into the Very Very Very Real. He goes from generation-kill "war as a video game humvee mission" to "prisoner of a Pakistani criminal network that views him as the personification of generations of persecution and death." Then, a strange miracle happens; the same broken brain that pushed him into this scenario also enables him to survive five years of absolute torment that would've "broken" any normal human being. Meanwhile, he becomes a pawn on the international scale, where an outgoing president concocts a plan to use him to help close the door on an unfulfilled campaign promise, but gets caught when being too overly celebratory of the "victory" dang this is a good post.
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Apr 18, 2016 00:55
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in real terms s2 was way more insane. they did a bad job of selling it though im curious about the exact circumstances surrounding the production of this season. we know it was a deal where they were kinda just offered the interview tapes, but it's not clear if they were just kind of padding out the episodes with a minimum of effort, or if they had to agree to a bunch of conditions to get the tapes, or what. this is like venturing into public radio conspiracy theory land though, so I'll stop
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Apr 18, 2016 08:12
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I probably enjoyed season 1 more, but I appreciated season 2 way more for the issues it covered. One was a tighter narrative, two raised issues that would have never seen the light of day had Serial not covered it. Plus there's the whole lack of obsessive spergs stalking anyone that makes season 2 better.
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May 4, 2016 16:34
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I felt both seasons were very good and very different. That's my hot take.
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Jun 22, 2016 21:58
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Reply All recently had a 4-part series called "On the Inside," which gets more done in under 4 hours than Serial has in more than two seasons.
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Jun 23, 2016 00:25
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doctorfrog posted:Reply All recently had a 4-part series called "On the Inside," which gets more done in under 4 hours than Serial has in more than two seasons.
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Jun 27, 2016 05:28
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 Adnan is getting a new trial.
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Jun 30, 2016 22:28
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SeANMcBAY posted:
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Jun 30, 2016 22:56
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Ooh, are we going to have another pissy slap fight about whether he was guilty?
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Jul 1, 2016 01:19
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Jurgan posted:Ooh, are we going to have another pissy slap fight about whether he was guilty? Are you implying that he didn't do it?
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Jul 1, 2016 01:53
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B B posted:Are you implying that he didn't do it? Do we have to do this again?
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Jul 1, 2016 02:15
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His trial was bullshit, and he shouldn't've been convicted he totally did it tho
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Jul 1, 2016 03:02
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Whether you think he's guilty or not, you can't really disagree that his trial was a joke.
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Jul 1, 2016 03:47
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Based solely on what was presented in Serial, I would have voted to acquit. That could mean he's innocent, that there wasn't enough evidence, that the trial was badly executed, or that the podcast was biased. But I really don't want to devote dozens of hours of my life to reading police reports, newspapers, and traveling to Baltimore to try to solve a seventeen year old murder. I just don't care enough. That means I cannot have a well-informed opinion, so I'm not going to argue whether he really did it.
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Jul 1, 2016 04:42
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If Adnan's found innocent and goes free, do you think he'll kill again?
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Jul 1, 2016 04:43
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boom boom boom posted:His trial was bullshit, and he shouldn't've been convicted Show your work
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Jul 1, 2016 04:58
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I can't wait for them to prove that, at long last, Adnan did it.
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Jul 1, 2016 07:50
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I can't wait to hear Jay's half-dozen new versions of events
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Jul 1, 2016 09:44
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