So, Serial dropped a few hours ago, finally! The first thing I see is that it’s about Bowe Bergdahl and I just about drop my teacup. I’m immediately excited, I’ve been fascinated by this story since it broke back in the latter part of 2014 but there hasn’t been much news since it died down. That being said, I’m in England, and I haven’t been looking for info because I came to distrust what was out there anyway. When everything seems to conflict I find myself uninterested in sorting the fact from the fiction. To have the story examined by a source I find to be trustworthy saves me a lot of reading that I probably never would have gotten to. My brief obsession with O.J. Simpson was exhausting enough!
It seems the show is brought to us this year, by two entities, Sarah Koenig and the crew of Serial, who we know and love, and the crew of Page 1 and particularly film-maker Mark Boal who has been conducting phone conversations with Bergdahl even though many believed that Bergdahl refused to communicate with the press entirely. It seems Boal managed to get through.
They allude to the existence of around 25 hours of these conversations between the two, during which Koenig describes Bergdahl as “never monosyllabic or recalcitrant“, which leads me to feel confident that Serial intends to go deep into this story and examine as many angles, off-shoots, tangents and accounts as they can source. Pretty much as they did with Season One. Love it.
As a side note, I absolutely loved The Hurt Locker and Zero Dark 30 (for which Boal wrote the screenplays). I’m pretty outspoken where it comes to my total lack of interest in War or Mafia movies, much to the annoyance of my movie buff friends because apparently The Godfather is pretty good. But Zero Dark 30 hit me like a punch in the face, except I loved it, and I don’t love punches. I would go so far as to say it is a perfect movie. Not THE perfect movie, but certainly A one. So anyway, if the inference here is that Boal is hoping to screen-write Bergdahl’s story then maybe obviously Kathryn Bigalow would be the ideal candidate to direct… I’m salivating.
The show opens with a quick breakdown of events pretty much as I remember them, providing a factual jumping off point from which to build the story. If you want details, listen to the episode (why else would you read this?) but briefly; Bergdahl has grave concerns about the functional hierarchy of his company or platoon or whatever. He decides to abandon his post and sneak off to a nearby (relative to the bloody desert!) town which will trigger what is know as a DUSTWUN where everyone goes apeshit over a missing soldier. After prepping some stuff to take with him and send home he pisses off, gets to the furthest perimeters of his army area thingy and realises how much trouble he is going to be in. He decides to mitigate some of the trouble by returning with valuable intel so he changes course, sneaks off to a road where they think Taliban are planting I.U.D.s in the night and gets lost like a noob. Then the Taliban show up. And that’s basically it. He claims he knew he would probably do some jail for what he was doing but the issues within his regiment (I really don’t know what these things are called) are so important that he is compelled to create a big enough stink that they can’t ignore his pleas for support. He also does admit that the thought of proving to himself and others what a big, self-sufficient, sneaky hero he is was appealing.
Bergdahl freely admits a little vanity played a part of his decision making, which is just as well because the idea of pure altruism might be difficult to swallow once the larger story unfolds, depending on what they find to be factual and what they find to be spurious. The way he describes the moments when he changed his plan certainly speaks more of his ego than his mission and left me wondering what really was his primary objective? Was the mission actually a way to justify his audacious, vainglorious actions, or was it just an opportunity to prove himself?
That being said, his basic explanation of his motives isn’t THAT incredible. Yet. We’ve only really heard a summary so far. The environment as described by several sources does indeed sound like somewhere someone might unhinge. I mean, the Pit of Hell…? I can see why jail would be little deterrent for such a bold and insubordinate manipulation of the administration. And let’s be frank, the Army is not famous for treating it’s dissenters and whistle-blowers with compassion.
One brief snippet of a phone call sums up Bergdahl’s plan perfectly;
Boal: “Gutsy move, dude.”
Bergdahl: “Gutsy but stupid.”
Boal: “Well, yeah… [they’re] not mutually exclusive.”
I’m looking forward to hearing more of this audio. Despite how esoteric his experience, Bergdahl does do a beautiful job of articulating it. “How do I explain to someone that standing in a totally dark room… hurts?”
I must admit I’m having to actively keep an open mind on this story, where usually it comes pretty naturally to me. Here’s why; Fox News got so hard for this story, they revelled in the speculation and accusations over this far from forgone conclusion that my knee-jerk instinct is to believe the exact opposite of whatever they say. But if I do that then I am going into this podcast with as much bias as they went into their ‘reporting’, and I can’t be having that. No sir.
The episode ends with Koenig calling the Taliban. Naturally! The actual call features on Episode Two. The very last thing you hear is a thick Afghani accent (I presume) ask “How old are you?” To which Bergdahl replies “I’m 23” and it hits me what an epic story, what insane decisions, what fortune and misfortune both befalls this 23 year old man. I’m 31, I remember enough to know that I was a baby at 23. Unbelievable.
So, after 45 minutes of the hotly anticipated Season Two, where am I at? I’m excited. I know this is gonna be a slow burner, maybe a dozen episodes, around 9 hours total? I’m looking forward to the journey. I just like this show. It feels nicely familiar. Koenig’s lilt, the interspersing of different interviews building a picture and just as you feel you might be losing the thread, Koenig’s voice pops in to clarify something and pull you back on track. Even the plinky plonky music is familiar, not exactly the same, but close enough that if I heard it elsewhere I would think of Serial.
Yep, all the things I love are featured here and the story is one that I’ve not heard told in-depth yet (though fingers crossed for that movie) and I’m anticipating learning more. It’s a story that speaks to our culture, our prejudices, our misconceptions and the misinformation we’ve been sold, either by the media, the establishment or Bergdahl himself. Much like the Adnan Syed story but in a very different way. I don’t know where this is going to go but one thing I confidently expect from Serial is clarity, curiosity and captivation. I’m in!
The Podcasters' Pandect 