Second season of ‘Serial’ is released, tells Bowe Bergdahl’s story

The second season of “Serial” is here, and its first episode confirms it: the team will address the story of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl.

Bergdahl was charged with deserting the U.S. Army while deployed in Afghanistan in 2009. In the first episode, which came out at 6 a.m. Thursday, Bergdahl described the moments just after he walked off his Army outpost in Afghanistan in 2009.

“Suddenly, it really starts to sink in that I really did something bad,” Bergdahl said. “Or, not bad, but I really did something serious.”

Screenwriter Mark Boal, who is conducting research for a movie, recorded the interviews with Bergdahl and agreed to let “Serial” use them. “He has a definite point of view about hit-and-run TV reporting, and so this was the opposite of that,” Boal told The New York Times.

Bergdahl was captured by the Taliban and released in a prisoner exchange on May 31, 2014. He has said he intended to walk to the nearest base to report problems in his unit.

Bergdahl described to Boal some of his time in captivity under the Taliban. “I would wake up not even remembering what I was,” he said. “I couldn’t see my hands, I couldn’t do anything.”

READ MORE: Bowe Bergdahl describes his life in captivity at the hands of the Taliban

The army is currently holding preliminary hearings in the case to decide whether Bergdahl will receive a court-martial.

The first season of “Serial” focused on the case of Adnan Syed, who was convicted of killing his girlfriend Hae Min Lee in 2000. The reporting won a Peabody Award, reached 5 million downloads faster than any podcast in history, and was credited with sparking a “new era” of online radio by bringing more attention than ever to podcasts.