On the first season of Sarah Koenig's massively popular podcast Serial, audiences were told about the mysterious case of Adnan Syed. Now, the NPR podcast is back. The second season was released on Thursday (Dec. 10) and will now focus of the case of Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl who deserted his position in Afghanistan and was subsequently captured by the Taliban.
Sergaent Bergdahl was involved in a very controversial prisoner exchange, where many lambasted the United States for making sacrifices to a member of the armed forces that left his position.
The news of Serial's second season comes the same day that the House Armed Services Committee released a report saying President Barack Obama intentionally misled the public about the exchange of prisoners.
The upcoming season of Serial is likely to be filled with the same mystery and intrigue that attracted so many listeners last year. Was Sergeant Bergdahl a traitor? Was there a cover up by the President? What was life like under the rule of the Taliban?
If anyone has the drive to truly delve into all the nasty details of this case, it's Sarah Koenig.
The podcast will use clips of an interview Bergdahl gave to with the filmmaker Mark Boal. "As you can imagine, he's been the subject of a lot of sound-bite coverage," Boal told The New York Times. "He has a definite point of view about hit-and-run TV reporting, and so this was the opposite of that."
Season 2 of Serial follow's last year's installation about Adnan Syed. Syed was accused and convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, however, a plethora of evidence that would seemingly exonerate him has gone unnoticed or purposefully ignored by the courts. The podcast raised a series of bone chilling questions about the murder, and who was responsible, which enthralled the country for it's 12 episodes.
The series prompted think pieces, conspiracy theories, and backlash, making listeners wonder how on earth Koenig could top the triumph of her first season. But this seems like a good start.
