Yeah I was thinking that too. The blame seems to be a bit of a stretch.
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Serial Season 2 - Focused on Pfc. Bowe Bergdahl - CPM Podcast
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Yeah I was thinking that too. The blame seems to be a bit of a stretch.
PassiveObserver
Member
With Serial back, now I also get Serial Spoiler Specials to look forward to. Double whammy.
sparky2112
Member
I dunno, even with today's news, can this story be anything more than a mild curiosity? Does anyone even care? Serial Season 1 was a fluke. Or at least it will never be the cultural phenom it was for a blink.
It's more compelling to me than season 1 but you're not wrong either. There was nothing particularly unique about season 1 compared to the average cold case type show and I don't really understand how it was such a phenomenon.
pelicansurf
Needs a Holiday on Gallifrey
It's very curious. If people find it interesting, why not? I'm not sure what you're looking for out of your entertainment.
A lot of people are disappointed it's not another murder mystery. To me-it was fascinating from the start.
sparky2112
Member
I don't mean to imply that some people won't find it interesting. I do, however, think it's a misfire in terms of capitalizing off of the first season's broad audience. It's a controversial topic, for sure, but I'm not sure that many people really care about it.
sparky2112
Member
Because it had far more depth than any episode of 48 Hours ever could, and those shows, shallow and commercial-ridden as they are, are basically crack.
infiniteloop
Member
Made it half way through the first episode. Poor choice of subject matter, could give two shits why this guy did what he did. This is True Detective S2 all over again.
Nappuccino
Member
I care less why he did it and more what happened to him while he did.
SuperPac
Member
That's the part I'm interested in too.
Also how then do you get approached by a filmmaker and decide that's the guy you're going to tell your story to and not a journalist, etc. What's the aftermath of the whole thing like, too? Having a security detail on you because of possible backlash? The turn of the canceled homecoming. The impact on the family. Plenty to delve into I'm sure.
infiniteloop
Member
I guess anything is possible.
According to episode 2, Bowe Bergdahl was right about one thing: the leadership was severely lacking. It's amazing that there was no institutional knowledge of Afghanistan and they no clue how to recover a missing soldier. How do you invade another country without knowing how the society functions? How do you not have a contingency plan if someone goes missing? The military looked like downright incompetent in this episode.
internetwolf
Banned
Is episode 2 more interesting than the first?
It's more or less the same as every other episode of Serial. If the story perspective teased at the end of episode 1 wasn't enough to whet your appetite, I wouldn't listen.
Septimus Prime
Member
No. This season is super boring so far.
| Praxis |
Banned
I'm enjoying it a lot. Mainly because I have an interest in hostage situations and their experiences. It's not boring at all.
Yeah to me this season is less interesting for the morality of Bergdahl question and more interesting for the ancillary questions of how does the military operate and especially in Afghanistan. Bergdahl is a lens through which I get to look at a thing I don't usually look closely at.
I didn't get that impression at all. The military and the Taliban knew a lot about each other. It wasn't really that they had no clue how to recover a missing soldier, they lacked the tools to do so. They're a big lumbering machine that destroys stuff and they needed to find a needle in a haystack.
It's always interesting to hear everyone's perspective from all the different angles, to me.
I agree. I'm disappointed more people aren't talking about it because I want to know what everyone else thought.
My take: Their plan was to raid random houses in broad daylight (which is incredibly dangerous) and send people on three week long excursions without a chance to resupply. That's not a plan. As the people being interviewed said, because they were driving huge trucks around, the taliban was able to flee whenever the US got too close. There was almost no chance they would find a missing soldier using that approach. They had no clue where to look (because of the lack of institutional knowledge) and the method they chose was brute force, putting the lives of soldiers at risk with little chance to find who they were looking for.
I'm also shocked they were using this approach for a month. A month! As if he would turn up after all that time. Absolutely stunning. They're lucky that more people in the search parties didn't die. The leadership sent them into incredibly dangerous situations with almost no intel or plan. I understand why there were peeved at Bergdahl, but I would be even angrier at the people in charge.
Totally agree. I'm surprised more people aren't interested in this story. I'm completely riveted.
Wowfunhappy
Member
Coming from someone who knows very little about the military, hearing about all the resources that were poured into the search for Bowe kind of left me shaking my head.
I'm glad that the military values the lives of individual soldiersthat's an honorable and valuable thing. But geez, by trying to find/rescue Boweone lifethe military put a lot of other lives in danger. Who knows how many soldiers were killed in that search? Was it really worth all that?
I'm glad that the military values the lives of individual soldiersthat's an honorable and valuable thing. But geez, by trying to find/rescue Boweone lifethe military put a lot of other lives in danger. Who knows how many soldiers were killed in that search? Was it really worth all that?
bonesmccoy
Banned
Desertion is unpopular?
He put all their lives at risk. Instead of doing whatever they were there for they were sent on a wild goose chase in a country the opposition held the upper hand in. I can completely understand that as the search and rescue mission dragged on, resentment would grow towards Berghdahl, and the longer they're out there searching for that needle in a haystack the longer they are at risk - all because Bergdahl did something incredibly foolish. It'd be one thing if he was captured during a mission.....but he was captured because he walked off base. It makes me angry just thinking about it and I have nothing to do with the military.
Once you know the damn Taliban have him you gotta figure he's being tortured or shit. Like. I'm not going to be his buddy after but I don't want his mom spending the rest of her life thinking he's tortured to death, you know? And I don't want him tortured to death, either.
I guess if you're just a grunt, how can you imagine any scenario in which Bergahl's life isn't a total disaster after this, right? He's either killed and or tortured by Taliban *or* he's dishonorable discharged, disgraced, court martialed by Army. Show some grit, dude's fucked but you should be glad the Army's putting in resources to make sure they're the ones that get to fuck him. Seems silly to be petty about orders in the context of this other dude violating orders.
I guess if you're just a grunt, how can you imagine any scenario in which Bergahl's life isn't a total disaster after this, right? He's either killed and or tortured by Taliban *or* he's dishonorable discharged, disgraced, court martialed by Army. Show some grit, dude's fucked but you should be glad the Army's putting in resources to make sure they're the ones that get to fuck him. Seems silly to be petty about orders in the context of this other dude violating orders.
I guess it's interesting me to because it's performed, right? Guy's making this statement way after Bergahl is released and has offered his not-satisfactory explanation up. So there's a sense in which "I wanted to shoot him" could be some post facto bravado but even then it's a weird sentiment to express. "I was so mad this guy violated his orders that I wanted to violate my orders"? It's both sympathetic and savagely not at the same time.
CopperPuppy
Member
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
This feels more like what Serial was originally shooting for: to basically take a TAL story and do a deep dive into it.
The problem is that now everyone expects some sort of ongoing murder mystery type of thing because that's what the first season was. But that's not what they were getting at when they started Serial.
So i can understand some people's disappointment with the chosen topic for season 2 but i'm somewhat relieved that they didn't feel the need to keep chasing that same theme for this season
The problem is that now everyone expects some sort of ongoing murder mystery type of thing because that's what the first season was. But that's not what they were getting at when they started Serial.
So i can understand some people's disappointment with the chosen topic for season 2 but i'm somewhat relieved that they didn't feel the need to keep chasing that same theme for this season
I'm glad this season isn't another murder mystery. I liked season one but it made me pretty uncomfortable knowing I was getting entertainment from a real tragic situation with real people. I kept thinking how might the victim's family feel about all this.
So it's nice to know it's not going to be a murder mystery podcast going forward.
So it's nice to know it's not going to be a murder mystery podcast going forward.
internetwolf
Banned
Episode 2 was far more interesting than the first. Now I'm excited to hear more.
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
They did not know he was a deserter at that point, as far as I can tell.
exmachina64
Banned
None and, in my opinion, no.
shortsFortallPeople
Banned
they didn't know for certain but everyone appears to have deduced as much given the circumstances
As they alluded to in the second episode: the concept of No Man Left Behind is essential to the modern military apparatus. Soldiers are willing to go on dangerous missions deep into enemy territory because they feel confident that, should they be captured, their military will go through he'll to get them back safely. If they didn't tear Afghanistan apart looking for Burgdal who knows how low moral would have sunk.
firehawk12
Subete no aware
So I know Slate does spoiler episodes... but what do they actually talk about that you don't get from just listening to the episode?
The Illiterati
Member
I can understand the disappointment some have with this season. On one hand, I have listened to literally every TAL episode to date, so I am still a huge fan of this deep dive into a complicated subject. However, coming from season one, this season has very little of the personal journey and quirky aspects that made it stand out to me last year. It also lacks any real level of engaging with the audience so far. While I don't miss the idea of armchair detectives ruining regular peoples lives over cold cases, I'm also not mentally gripped by this story after the hour it plays on my phone.
Wowfunhappy
Member
But what if the soldier walks off of his post of his own volition? Are you still "leaving a man behind" if that man decided to go off on his own against the will of the larger army?
I'm glad to hear that it sounds like no one was actually killed in the search for Bowe (must have missed that line in the actual podcast), but it still feels like an unnecessary risk.
Are soldiers supposed to be emphatic?
The military leaders were the ones who put their lives at risk. Unless you think kicking in people's doors in brood daylight for a month with no intelligence on the situation or knowledge of the region is a legitimate plan.
dead souls
Member
Damn, this is completely dull so far. I guess Serial was a one season
wonder.
more like one half season
dead souls
Member
It's not all bad, now I don't have to refill my Ambien prescription.
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