User:Beifong3/sandbox

Searial (Season 2) Reception
The much-anticipated second season of Serial was released in December 2015. The subject of Season 2 was met with widespread skepticism. Vastly different from the popular murder-mystery story that Season 1 investigated, Season 2's focus on the story behind the U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who disappeared from his post in Afghanistan in 2009 before being captured by the Taliban and subsequently released in 2014, was controversial due in part to the controversial views of the now-infamous soldier's departure from his post and the high-profile court martial proceeding for his alleged desertion.

The Guardian summarized the season by saying Koenig and her team managed to add to the conversation: "Not only did they let Bergdahl speak for himself, via a series of interviews with the film-maker Mark Boal, but they also asked and answered a question that no one – including the military or the US government – had seemingly bothered to investigate." Season 2 of Serial was less about solving a mystery and more about long-term investigative reporting and storytelling. Zach Baron of GQ Magazine reported that he liked the season overall and thought it gave an invaluable document of what it's like to serve in modern wars, but said it was also "something of a cultural disappointment, at least compared to last season."

Similar to Season 1's critical response, some felt that the lack of answers was "infuriating."

Switching to a bi-weekly schedule mid-season caused some to believe the series was losing momentum. Though in an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Sarah Koenig and Julie Snyder, executive producer, said the download numbers for Season 2 were 50 million, higher than the numbers were by the time Season 1 ended.