Serial - Season 2

  • Guest, it's time once again for the massively important and exciting FoH Asshat Tournament!



    Go here and give us your nominations!
    Who's been the biggest Asshat in the last year? Give us your worst ones!

Erumaron

ResetEra Staff Member
261
389
I've been waiting for this for a while...

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.
Episode 01: DUSTWUN - Serial
 

Lasch

Trakanon Raider
1,528
739
I thought the first episode was pretty boring; the incident was too publicized and recent. But the "next time" snippet has me sold on listening to more.
 

HUH_sl

shitlord
318
0
First seasons podcast had no payoff, it stuttered out with an "uhhhh, I dunno." BUT it worked because it brought a small unknown case to the attention of a lot of people and Adnan will get an appeal sometime next year. I was hoping they would do something small and unknown again.

By picking a case that has already had so much coverage she better hope she can uncover some crazy truth or it's just going to end up like shes reading the wikipedia page with some interviews and personal thoughts thrown in. She basically has to pull a Frost/Nixon or it's going to be disappointing.
 

Erumaron

ResetEra Staff Member
261
389
I thought the first episode was pretty boring; the incident was too publicized and recent. But the "next time" snippet has me sold on listening to more.
Boring and every time Bowe talks... this:

WXC5NFQ.gif
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
I liked it. His story is just fucking... wat?

I've known some real dumbasses especially in the military, so it isn't like it's unbelievable, but geez. Pretty good start, and yeah that promo for next week.
 

khalid

Unelected Mod
14,071
6,775
His story is just so much absolute bullshit that it really just made me almost uninterested in finishing. The only thing holding me in was just to hear about the search and the crazy shit that I am sure went on in the frantic search for him. However, I might have to fast forward past his crap next time. It is just hard for me to listen to someone when my bullshit detector is going off so hard.
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
It's probably true, it's just perspective. Retarded rube joins the military and attributes things he doesn't like to leadership failures (a concept he really just became familiar with, like a kid with a new word) is a super common story. His solution is so ultra tardmode that it seems insane that anyone would even consider it.
 

khalid

Unelected Mod
14,071
6,775
No, it isn't "probably true" that he decided to leave the base in a plan to get leadership failures noticed. Come the fuck on bro.
 

khalid

Unelected Mod
14,071
6,775
Now is it probably true that he was unhappy and blamed the leadership for that? Sure.
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
That's what I'm saying. He's unhappy, and stupid, and he sees things he doesn't like and blames leadership for that. So he concocts this stupid scheme to get himself a voice and in effect, in his head, confront leadership failures.
 

khalid

Unelected Mod
14,071
6,775
That doesn't sound plausible, but even if he did it, that is still desertion.

Bergdahl to face court-martial on desertion charges.

The Army Forces Command spokesman said those statements on "Serial" played no role in General Abrams's announcement, or its timing.

But some critics doubted that. Joe Kasper, the chief of staff for Representative Duncan Hunter of California, a Republican helping lead congressional efforts to investigate the trade for Sergeant Bergdahl, said the sergeant's comments "forced the Army's hand."

"When that podcast hit, whatever sympathy there was for Bergdahl dried up," Mr. Kasper said. "He did himself absolutely no favors by talking."
Got to say, my opinion of the incident changed for the worst after that podcast.
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
Yeah any sympathy I may have had straight up gone after hearing just the first episode. Yikes, what an idiot.
 

Intrinsic

Person of Whiteness
<Gold Donor>
15,212
13,590
This guy is a fucking buffoon. I'm kind of naive and just gave him the benefit of the doubt when the reports first happened. Dude freaked out, deserted, got captured, sure whatever. Sucks for him but he made a dumb decision.

After listening to the first two episodes of this, holy shit what a moron. He wanted to be Jason Bourne? He wanted to talk to a General who would finally understand him and completely overlook what he did... Then he decides he's going to capture someone and bring him back for leverage?

It is hilarious that the Lord also reported a drunk American wandering around in the desert, because what other reason would some moron be out there wandering around alone? The second episode just really made me angry about what all the other soldiers went through in their search for him. And not being military or anything I arguably have no right to be.

Ugh this season is going to be maddening if there isn't another shoe to drop that flips this shit upside down.
 

Barab

Silver Knight of the Realm
446
35
I was a little surprised that he was the first USA soldier MIA for the whole campaign.
 

Erumaron

ResetEra Staff Member
261
389
I love that the Taliban called Bowe "Weak and brainless." -- Bet they had the same debate we're having about how fucking retarded he is.
 

Mist

REEEEeyore
<Gold Donor>
31,379
23,801
This is better than I expected from reading this thread. The whole thing is just so wtf.
 

chaos

Buzzfeed Editor
17,324
4,839
This just ended,for anyone who may have been interested. I think they were pretty fair to all sides involved. I really enjoyed it, it was interesting to learn more about not only what happened but what informed the perspectives of some people in the media or in his unit. It's a sad situation because there is no real "good" outcome from all of this.
 

Noodleface

A Mod Real Quick
38,319
16,200
This was interesting in a different way from S1. I definitely enjoy S1 more because I tend to find murder mysteries more interesting in general. However, I came into S2 not really giving a shit about this case, but now I have a different outlook on the whole thing
 

BrutulTM

Good, bad, I'm the guy with the gun.
<Silver Donator>
14,726
2,619
It was pretty good. I didn't know much about the case and now I do. I still wish that they would do a story with a more satisfying ending though. On both seasons so far the best conclusion you could really draw at the end was "well, I don't know".

S1 got my brother and his wife into the Sword and Scale podcast, which sounds like it's about dragon hunting but they're actually referring to the blind justice symbol. True Crime podcast that according to them is often pretty tough to listen to due to the horrific things people do to each other. Haven't listened personally but it sounds interesting.

Home | Sword and ScaleT