Serial review: Koenig scales up familiar tone for bigger picture

It’s one of the most anticipated digital releases of the year, an online phenomenon so eagerly awaited that servers were reportedly bogged down by the sheer number of users seeking access. None of which would be especially unusual, except that the release in question is not some new game, free album or Netflix series. Serial is instead a free documentary podcast hosted by a quiet-spoken American reporter who, over several episodes, dissects a single criminal case in meticulous detail.

The first series, which examined an obscure 1999 murder case, was an unexpected sensation. It got 100 million downloads, won awards and opened up long-form narrative possibilities for podcasts, much as The Sopranos changed the rules of television drama. So while few could have predicted Serial's initial success, it is unsurprising that so much expectation should surround the second series, which debuted on Thursday.

The new season's opening episode retains many of the elements that drew in listeners first time around. It focuses on a single life-changing incident which remains the subject of some doubt. It looks at the event from multiple perspectives. And it is once again hosted by Sarah Koenig, the deceptively cool but dogged reporter who forsakes the traditional authoritative journalistic voice for a more uncertain approach: even as she posted up each episode in the last series, she didn't know how the story was going to finish, another factor in the podcast's popularity.

Differences

But there are significant differences too. The first season introduced listeners to an unknown cast of protagonists, as it forensically examined the murder of high school student Hae Min Lee, a crime for which her ex-boyfriend Adnan Syed was convicted. As Koenig uncovered inconsistencies in the case, she painted a portrait of Syed's (and Lee's) world, all the time remaining unsure whether he was guilty or innocent.

The new series deals with a case that has received worldwide attention and which is still under active investigation. Bowe Bergdahl is a US Army soldier who was captured by the Taliban in 2010 and who, after being released as part of a prisoner exchange last year, has been the subject of much controversy. Far from being lauded a hero, he has been branded a deserter and even a traitor for abandoning his base in mysterious circumstances and wandering into the arms of his Afghan captors. (The title of the opening episode, Dustwun, refers to the signal alert for a missing US soldier.)

In dealing with this event, Koenig uses outside help, in the form of interviews with Bergdahl conducted by Zero Dark Thirty screenwriter Mark Boal. The subject matters seems like a self-conscious step up too. As before, Koenig looks at the minutiae of the disputed events, but also aims to shed light a bigger and more contentious topic. As she states, “To get the full picture, you have go very, very small, into one person’s life, and also very, very big, into the war in Afghanistan.”

Lofty ambition

It's a lofty ambition, one which introduces the potentially tricky element of geo-politics to a podcast that owed much of its early appeal to its smaller-scaled storytelling. Serial, after all, is a spin-off of This American Life, the long-running show of loose-limbed non-fiction essays and reports on National Public Radio (NPR), which pioneered the studiedly casual narration style recently dubbed "NPR voice" by The New York Times. It will be interesting to see how this approach, even from a reporter as thorough as Koenig, can deal with as knotty a subject as America's war in Afghanistan.

The omens are encouraging. The confusion around Bergdahl’s capture provides a familiar thematic canvas for Koenig to work with. Even in the first installment, ambivalence arises about the soldier’s motivations. And Koenig’s investigative instincts sees her following the most difficult leads: the episode ends with a flourish that leaves the listener wanting more. Assuming the servers don’t crash, it’s a safe bet millions will be tuning into Serial next Thursday.

Serial is available on iTunes and at serialpodcast.org